Chapter 17
chapter seventeen
When Sandro had said, You’ll spend Christmas with me, Bennett expected a quiet day by the fire, lounging on the couch in their sweatpants, munching on cheese and crackers, watching movies, and exchanging blow jobs.
But Eli arrived at noon with a green bean casserole.
Hughes and CC showed up together shortly after that with a giant cauldron of mashed potatoes and a smaller pot of gravy.
Prinnie, Deeley, DeShawn, and Matty Coates walked in within minutes of each other, toting their own contributions.
Gaff made a brief appearance with his girlfriend, and even Dabbs dropped by with his boyfriend, Ryland Zervudachi, who played for the Columbus Pilots.
They didn’t stay long before heading out to join Ryland’s family for Christmas in the nearby town of Maplewood.
Turned out that while Hughes hosted Thanksgiving for the single guys on the team, Sandro hosted Christmas for . . . well, anyone who felt like showing up. A core group of players stuck around all day, and others came and went, sometimes with their partners and kids.
It was very much not the quiet day Bennett had envisioned, but he couldn’t say he minded.
“What is this?” Prinnie asked when he arrived.
“My Christmas tree,” Sandro told him.
Prinnie made a face at it. “It’s two feet tall and sitting on your coffee table.”
“So? It’s still a Christmas tree. It has lights.”
“There aren’t any ornaments on it.”
“Still a Christmas tree.”
Nobody blinked twice at Bennett’s presence, which meant they thought Sandro had invited him out of pity or they all knew about their relationship but were too nice to say anything about it.
The former, definitely. Hockey players were rarely too nice about anything.
“Do they know about us?” Bennett asked Sandro during a rare moment the two of them were in the kitchen alone together.
Eli had jogged home earlier, returning with his chess set, and he’d set himself up on a side table and challenged anyone who walked by.
He was currently playing against Prinnie as some of the other guys played Super Smash Brothers on the Switch.
“No,” Sandro replied, forking mashed potato into his mouth. “But they might guess considering how close you’re standing to me.”
Bennett didn’t move.
“Eli knows, obviously,” Sandro said quietly. “Dabbs suspects. As for the rest of them, I wasn’t sure if I should say anything. Wasn’t sure if there’s a clause against it in your contract.”
“Nothing that expressly forbids me from dating anyone on the team. But I did have to sign your organization’s conflict-of-interest policy. I already disclosed our prior relationship. I’ll have to disclose this one too.”
Sandro set his plate down and leaned a hip against the counter, facing Bennett. “And risk getting fired.”
“Your policy states that conflicts of interest are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”
“I know what it says.”
“But failure to disclose will result in immediate termination,” Bennett finished. “I’d rather tell them and risk them kiboshing this project than not tell them, have them find out, and they definitely kibosh it.”
“We could—” Sandro broke off, flattening his lips into a line. He took a deep breath and said, “We could hit pause on this.” He gestured between the two of them. “Until the project is over.”
“We could,” Bennett agreed, his heart threatening to nosedive to his feet. “But I don’t want to. I don’t want to give you up again, Ro.”
Lashes fluttering, Sandro took his hand, hidden by the giant cauldron of mashed potatoes. “I don’t like being the thing that stands in the way of you getting what you want.”
“Now you know how I felt fifteen years ago.”
Sandro’s eyes flared. He let Bennett’s hand go and punched him in the arm. “Oh, fuck you. That’s different.”
“How?”
“We’ll never know for sure if you would’ve actually gotten in the way of anything.”
“No,” Bennett said calmly. “We won’t. Just like we don’t know for sure if what’s between us now will get in the way of anything. Besides, you also signed your organization’s conflict-of-interest policy, right? Don’t you also have to disclose our relationship?”
“Do I? Ugh.” Crossing his arms over his chest, Sandro leaned his butt against the counter. “Fine. I’ll fill out the paperwork in the next few days. For the record, I hate that either of us has to. It makes our relationship feel so transactional.”
Eli bounced into the kitchen, opened a drawer, and scowled into it. Scowled into a second one.
“What’s wrong with you?” Sandro asked. “Did you lose to Prinnie and now you’re looking for something to bludgeon him with?”
“What?” Eli turned that scowl on Sandro. “No, I never lose at chess. I want to make gingerbread cookies. Do you have allspice and molasses?”
“I don’t know what that first thing is, and definitely no on the second.”
“I might have them at home. I’ll go check, and if not, I’ll make thumbprint cookies. Or maybe chocolate chip. Everyone likes chocolate chip.”
“Can I give you your Christmas present first?”
Eli looked around the kitchen like Sandro could’ve been talking to anybody else. But considering Sandro was looking right at him . . .
Eli pressed a thumb into his own chest. “Me?”
“It’s certainly not Bennett,” Sandro said with a grin. “I gave him his present this morning.”
“Nope.”
“It was just a little—”
“Nope. Nuh-uh.” Eli backed away. “I don’t want to know what my elders were doing in the bedroom.”
Sandro’s grin quickly flipped into a frown. “Elders?”
“You are ancient.”
“Oh, for the love of . . . You know what? Fuck it. No Christmas present for you.”
“Aw.” Twining his fingers together under his chin, Eli batted his eyelashes. “Pretty please.”
Sandro huffed a laugh. “Get your coat on.”
“Why? Is my present outside?”
“Yup.”
“What is it? A Christmas decoration?”
“Just get outside.”
Bennett followed them out into the cold for no other reason than he wanted to see Eli’s reaction when Sandro gave him his gift. He stayed on the porch, giving the teammates their space, and zipped up his coat to preserve heat.
“This is my new car,” Sandro said, pointing at the white mid-size luxury SUV in his driveway.
“Okay,” Eli said uncertainly.
“And this,” Sandro continued, stopping at his old SUV, which was parked at the curb with its brand-new engine, “is your new car.”
“I . . .” Brow scrunched, Eli looked from Sandro to the car and back. “What?”
“We need to sort out paperwork and whatnot. I’m not actually sure how to transfer car ownership into someone else’s name, but I’ll figure it out.
” Sandro kicked one of the tires lightly.
“She’s fully functional except for the heated seats—those haven’t worked in a few years—and she’s got her winter tires on already.
She’s got a shit-ton of mileage, but I just had the engine replaced, and my mechanic says she should run for another five to ten—oof. ”
Eli had launched himself at him. “Oh my god. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. I can retire the pee-mobile?”
Bennett hid a laugh in his fist.
“Please retire the pee-mobile,” Sandro said.
The way Eli readily accepted the gift made something clench in Bennett’s chest. Eli didn’t protest, didn’t try to say he couldn’t accept it or that it was too much. He accepted it with grace and excitement in a way that Bennett never could.
He tried to imagine himself as he’d been in his rookie season, struggling under the pressure coming from every direction—including his own.
If someone had offered him a car, he never would’ve accepted it.
Hell, if someone had offered him any sort of resource to help make his life easier, he would’ve rejected it without a second thought.
He’d been fine.
He was always fine.
Until he wasn’t.
But he hadn’t known how to ask for help. Not back then. Still didn’t, if he was being honest with himself. But the way Sandro offered it to Eli so willingly and the way Eli accepted it so beautifully . . .
It made a lump form in his throat, though he couldn’t explain why.
“This is way above and beyond your role as my mentor,” Eli was saying now, bouncing in place.
“I’m not giving this to you as your mentor,” Sandro corrected gently. “I’m giving it to you as your friend. Because you need it.” He held the keys out. “Want to take her for a spin?”
Eli snatched the keys out of his hand.
Once he’d peeled away from the curb, a grin stretched across his boyish face and a jaunty wave thrown out the open window, Sandro joined Bennett on the porch.
“How do you feel?” Bennett asked, pulling Sandro close. “I know you were reluctant to part with her.”
“You know, I’m surprisingly okay. She’s going to a good home. Besides, my new car has an app.”
Laughing, Bennett kissed him, then led him inside.