Page 68 of Bad Pucking Roommate

“A residual effect?” Xander arches a coy brow toward Tripp.

“I know.” Tripp rolls his eyes dramatically. “But Noah promised if I talked to someone to work through any unresolved feelings from my childhood, he’d tie me up and rail me at least once a week. You could say it’s broadened my vocabulary in a totally mundane and boring way. On the flip side, bondage!”

“Speaking of boring,” Niko says as he skates backward toward his position on defense. “We better get back to the wholeplaying hockey without having hearts in your eyesthing.”

Thirty minutes later, they’ve only called us out twice more.

***

“How have you never learned to tie a tie?” I knot the material at the base of Luca’s throat, only for him to promptly tug it a little loose and undo the top button, so it hangs off the slightly parted shirt like some sort of suave movie star.Of course, the look works on him.

“How come you do? I wouldn’t think there’s much need for them on the farm.” He stretches his neck like he’s trying to get free of the restrictive fabric.

“Grandpa.” I give up and work on knotting my own tie. “He made all the men wear one to church.”

“Your family’s pretty religious, then?”

“I guess so.” I secure the knot between the flaps of my collar, grateful that it’s not a bowtie since I don’t know how to work those.

“I thought you said they wouldn’t care about you being with a man?”

“They wouldn’t.”

“But they’re religious. Aren’t those two things opposing forces or something?”

“Maybe for some people.” I undo my tie and start again when I can’t get it to look right. “My family operates under a live and let live policy. They figure it’s not their place to judge. What about you?”

“You mean what would my parents think?”

I pull the long end of the tie through the knot and try to make it sit right. “Yeah.”

“If I bring a man home it’d probably shock the hell out of them, since we’ve all been operating under the assumption I’m straight, but I don’t think they’d be pissed about it or anything. It’s not like—what are you doing?” He puts his hands over mine to stop me from redoing the tieagain.

“I’m trying to make it look right.”

“It does. Tell me what you’re nervous about.” I narrow my eyes, but it doesn’t deter him. “I know your tells, babe. You fidget when you’re nervous. What’s up?”

After a few deep breaths to organize my thoughts, I still can’t find my words, so Luca says them for me. “You’re worried about this dinner since it’s not the same thing as practice.”

That’s exactly it. Despite the arguably disastrous faux practice where we couldn’t stop smiling at each other, we drew praise from Niko and Noah for carrying on like normal in front of the whole team. That was pretty easy actually, since we’ve always been on the same page about putting hockey first, which makes me think in front of the people who know about us we might be a little lax, but in front of the team as a whole we’re disciplined. Plus, we’ve got the game to focus on.

Off the ice, in a social situation, we’re untested. And we won’t have pucks or opponents or any of the other game-time chaos to keep us in check.

“You went to this last year, right?” Luca cups my cheek, forcing me to look at him.

“Yeah.”

“Then you know it’s the same thing. We eat some fancy food, have a few drinks, listen to some boring guy talk about stuff that shouldn’t be boring but somehow is coming from him, and that’s it. Nothing to freak out over.

“Last year we had to mingle with the guests.”

“So, we do a little mingling.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. Last year half a dozen ladies mingled with you, and I’m pretty sure you took one of them home. Maybe two.”

Luca strokes his thumb over my smooth cheek with a reassuring smile. “That was last year. This year things are different.”

“Weknow that, but no one else does. I’m just not sure I can handle seeing all these beautiful women hitting on you.”

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