Page 26 of Blindsided

EASTON

I looked around the mostly empty house I now owned. “What the fuck will I do with this much space?”

Brax patted me on the back. “Once you get your stuff from your condo in Columbus, it won’t look this… barren.”

Trevor came back from his exploration of the house and stood next to Brax, slipping his hand into his boyfriend’s. “If you don’t find something to do with the room that I think is intended to be an office or library, let me know.” He grinned when I gave him a confused look. “It would be the best playroom! It gets the best light this time of day. The sun coming through the window made me want to curl up and take a nap like a cat.”

Brax shook his head. “You’re too much.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I gave Trevor a smile, unwilling to tell him I already had a very different sort of playroom in mind. It was upstairs in the back of the house and received very little natural light. The room Trevor was talking about was already earmarked as a home office since I was doing a lot of work at home now that I wasn’t playing.

It was still strange to be off skates more than on.

“Ready to go?” Brax asked.

I had to admit I was thankful he and Trevor had forgiven me for not telling him I’d accepted the assistant coaching position immediately after the contract meeting took place. I hadn’t intentionally not told him. Life had been insane for both of us that week. Between me running back to Columbus and Brax officiating at his dads’ wedding, we hadn’t ended up talking between the meeting and the wedding.

Of course, having Tom mention it at the reception had been a far from ideal way for Brax to find out. While he might have only been jokingly upset with me, it hadn’t stopped him from giving me a thorough chewing out about keeping the news from him. I’d then received a solid scolding from Trevor shortly afterward.

I now knew littles could be scary when they felt their Daddies had been wronged. Trevor’s phone call had amounted to “be nice to my Daddy or I will hurt you.” It had also been more unnerving than the conversation with Brax. It was sometimes easy to see Trevor as my best friend's boy while forgetting he was not only a professional hockey player but also the team captain. I’d learned Trevor had a convincing don’t-fuck-with-me tone that made me question just how sweet and innocent my best friend’s boy was.

“Yeah. Let me grab my keys and I’ll follow you. Shit. I forgot to re-bake my skate! Do you think your dads will mind if I use one of their ovens?” Tom’s husband had had one requirement for their new house—it had to have plenty of space to entertain. That meant there was a full outdoor kitchen complete with ovens, a professional-grade kitchen on the main level, and a smaller kitchen downstairs.

Four ovens were three more than I’d know what to do with. Hell, one oven was more than I knew what to do with most times. The last time I’d used my oven, it had been to mold my skates after I’d sprained my ankle late in the previous season. Custom skates made to fit a foot perfectly did not account for when a foot changed shape for whatever reason. The only way to adjust the fit was to heat the skate up to remold the materials. When I’d sprained my ankle, the swelling had been enough that my skate hadn’t fit properly and had started hurting me more than the initial injury, at least until I’d tossed them into the oven.

The sprain had since healed and my ankle was back to normal. With the changes in my life the past few months, I hadn’t gotten around to remolding my skate. It hadn’t been an issue when I wasn’t skating, but now that camp was in session, I was on ice every day. Putting my skates on earlier in the week had been a painful reminder of what I hadn’t taken the time to do. The ill-fitting skate had caused blisters and my ankle constantly felt wobbly and unsupported while on ice.

If I kept skating on it, it would eventually mold back to my foot, but I could speed the process up by tossing it in the oven for a few minutes. It was something I hadn’t done yet because I couldn’t skate on it until it had plenty of time to cool and set, and I’d planned on doing that on our one-day camp break. Of course, I’d forgotten to do it this morning, and if I waited until after the party, it would be too late in the day for it to cure before the next ice session. The blisters on my foot and ankle were begging for me to fix the issue.

“I don’t see why that would be a problem. The oven should be free. Can you believe Dad convinced Leo to get most of the food catered? Well, aside from the meat. Leo insisted he be in charge of grilling that.”

I whistled low. “Better him than me. That’s a lot of people to cook for!” Tom and Leo had given an open invitation to everyone in attendance at the summer training camp as well as their families. Between the Grizzlies and Parliament, there were a lot of potential mouths to feed.

Trevor began pushing the two of us toward the door of my house. “Come on. We’re going to be late. Leo said he had a special lunch treat for me, and dammit, I want it before someone else gets to it!”

“Language,” Brax said automatically, though he was already grabbing his keys.

I stopped for a second at my SUV to grab my skates, then hurried to jump into Brax and Trevor’s vehicle to head the few miles to Tom and Leo’s place, not wholly convinced Trevor would wait for me.

“Have you and Lincoln talked since camp started?” Brax asked as we rounded the corner in his dads’ neighborhood.

“The man has become a ghost. I swear, people say he’s around, but I haven’t seen him all week. Haven’t spoken to him since I signed the contract.”

“That’s so weird. Think he’ll show today?” I’d thought Trevor was paying more attention to driving than our conversation but apparently not.

I lifted a shoulder. “Not a clue. Your dad said he invited him. It’s not like he’s got family here. At least I don’t think. Hell, maybe he does.”

Brax shook his head at my response. “You two are acting like children. You’ve got to talk this out.”

“We tried.”

“And you fucked instead. Do I need to worry about the two of you having angry sex if you see one another?” Brax shot me a pointed look.

“Jesus, no.” Not that I would turn down a repeat. We might have been angry and frustrated, but the sex that night had been unlike anything I’d had in years. Unfortunately, I just knew falling into bed, or over a desk, couldn’t happen again. I worked for him. He held my future in his hands. Given the disappearing act Lincoln had been doing all week, though, future encounters of the sexy variety were not something anyone needed to worry about.

We hit a pothole in the road and Trevor let out a pained moan. “Daddy go too hard on your spanking?” I teased lightly.

“If only.” Trevor sighed.

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