Bar Down (Grand Marquee Manticores #2)

Chapter 5

FIVE

Present Day

Eli

I slept like a rock. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I immediately fell asleep. Thankfully, my watch alarm woke me up. Making a bad impression by being late is the last thing I want to kick off training camp.

For us AHL players, this is our chance to show the higher ups in the league that we can hold our own—that we have what it takes to be in the NHL—so that when the team gets plagued by injuries in the middle of the season, we are the ones called up.

Last season, I was called up once when one of the two NHL goalies had a personal problem come up. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the starting goalie that night, and I spent the entire time geared up on the bench. But it was nice to practice with the “big guys” at least.

The other goaltender, Juuse, was also from Finland and it was nice to have someone to speak with in my native language. He was also very helpful during practice and gave me lots of pointers. Though he’s only a few years older than me, I appreciated him taking me under his wing, even if it was short lived. We haven’t really kept in touch since, but he texted me yesterday, asking if I wanted to grab a coffee one of these days since we’re both in town for the camp.

I haven’t responded yet, but I think I would like that. Outside of our main group of friends, I’m usually shy and reserved. It’s not that I don’t like people, I just find it hard to connect to anyone outside of hockey.

They always say goalies are a different breed , that we must be a little crazy to willingly put ourselves in front of a puck moving more than 80 mph. To that I say, bring on the craziness. There’s nothing more exhilarating than being in front of the net and making that perfect save, especially if it’s the game winning one.

I check my phone and see it still has 6% battery. I send Juuse a text, telling him we can grab coffee tomorrow, and while I’m bleary eyed and tired as hell, I decide to make my way to the shower and let the cold water wake me.

I rub the sleep away from my eyes with my knuckles and don’t realize something is wrong until I reach the bathroom door, which is ajar. There is steam coming out of the bathroom and all I can do is stand there, puzzled.

Is someone else here?

Before I can turn around and head back to the bedroom to find yesterday’s clothes, the bathroom door swings open the rest of the way and a very wet, very naked Ash is standing in front of me.

Fuck. Me.

I was wondering how our reunion would go, but this scenario never crossed my mind.

Ash

I blink a few times to make sure I’m not imagining things. While I may have pictured Eli in the shower earlier, I didn’t think I had magical conjuring powers.

He’s here, and somehow, he’s naked too. I stare at him and blink some more before reaching out and pinching his cheek.

“Ow. What was that for?” he says, with a hint of a smile on his face.

“Making sure you’re real,” I say, still in a daze.

“That’s not how it works. You’re supposed to pinch yourself,” Eli says, reaching out and pinching me back. At first, I don’t even feel it, I’m too focused on the sight of him naked in front of me. But then I lift my hand and rub at my stinging cheek.

“You’re really here,” I say, heart pounding.

Eli’s light blue eyes soften on me and I stand as still as I can, not even breathing. We just stare at one another, eyes roaming over each other’s faces. After what feels like forever but was probably only a minute, Eli says, “You got a haircut.”

I nod and notice that his hair has gotten longer, falling into his eyes and curling around his ears. There’s stubble on his face which seems unusual for him. The shadows around his eyes make him look older.

“You didn’t,” I say and give him a small smirk. I’m not trying to be flirty, but seeing him with his hair longer reminds me of a conversation we had a few months ago, when I told him I needed him to grow it out so I could have something to grip on to.

His eyes widen and he looks away, but I see him blushing from his cheeks all the way to his collarbone. I guess he remembers too.

Eli clears his throat and reluctantly brings his eyes back to me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to accost you in the bathroom. I actually didn’t know you would be here.” He opens his mouth again but doesn’t say anything else.

I nod, trying very hard not to look below his chest area, knowing very well what I would find. Strong, muscular thighs, long legs with fine, pale blond hair on them. Looking at his abs and chest is not any easier either, since he’s built like a goddamn viking. So I focus on his face instead. He looks very tired.

“Robbie said I could stay here for the week. I’m surprised he didn’t tell you.” I frown, wondering if Robbie offered this place to both of us as a ploy to get us to reconnect and talk.

“I haven’t spoken to Robbie since—” He pauses and looks away grimacing. “In a while, I guess.”

“But he’s your best friend.”

Eli turns his head toward me again and brings his hand up to rub across his jaw. When he puts it down, I notice the way he flexes his fingers. “No, he’s a close second,” he says softly.

Our eyes lock again and I give him a genuine grin. At least he still considers me his best friend. Eli slowly grins back and ruins the moment by saying, “Jordan is my best friend, of course.”

I roll my eyes and groan. Yeah, right. “I missed you, Eli.”

Eli softly chuckles and says, “I missed you too.” He bites his lip and shyly asks, “Can I hug you?”

I raise my eyebrows, knowing damn well this man is not the hugging type. How can I deny him a hug? Especially when I want him near me. But the one brain cell that is still intact takes over and I say, “Maybe we should put some clothes on first.”

Eli blushes again and looks down. Right at my crotch. My smile threatens to take over, but I bite slightly on the inside of my cheeks. Eli whips his head back towards the ceiling so fast I think he might be seeing stars. He shakes his head a couple times then says, “Funny thing, really, I don’t have any clothes.”