CHAPTER TWENTY
The following week passed in a weird blur for Graham.
After another home game, the team hit the road again. They started out in Washington D.C., had a game in Carolina, then played the two teams in Florida.
The Harriers celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving out on an open-air deck under swaying palm trees at a restaurant called Rich’s Table, which had weirded out Ontario guys like Jesse and Rafe, who much preferred eating turkey and stuffing with butter tarts on crisp fall days instead of seafood and key lime pie in muggy Florida heat.
Although, everyone agreed it was the best key lime pie they’d ever had.
But they’d won more games than they lost on the road trip, picking up some important points along the way, and by the time the team was back in Boston for a stretch of games, the end of October was rapidly approaching.
“So, what’s everyone doing for Halloween costumes this year?” Jesse asked in a cheerful tone as the sweaty, exhausted team trooped into the locker room after practice. Hoyt had pushed them hard today. “Graham? Any ideas?”
“Uhh,” Graham said because he hadn’t even thought about it.
Jesse let out a tsking noise as he waddled past in his gear. “Costumes are mandatory! By order of the fun committee.”
The team party was being held at O’Neill’s, of course.
Before Jesse’s arrival, Connor had been in charge of all events, and plans had mostly consisted of renting out the place for the night and his mother arranging for food to be catered to augment the basic bar food Liam offered.
The pub was great, and Catherine O’Shea had excellent taste in food, so no one had ever complained.
But this year, Jesse was going all-out.
Especially since Halloween fell on a Friday.
They had a game that evening—which really sucked for the guys with kids—but they didn’t have another until Sunday afternoon, which meant they were free to have a little bit more fun than usual.
In addition to the usual catered food, there would be a costume contest, games, and a live band playing.
Graham was looking forward to it all. But he had no idea what the hell he’d do for a costume.
If he and Thad hadn’t been dating, he might have jokingly asked Thad if he wanted to do a group costume with him. He’d have called it that instead of a couple’s costume, but either way it would have amounted to the same thing.
This year, he figured they probably shouldn’t risk it.
Also, he probably should have figured out how important Thad was to him before this, but … well, maybe he wasn’t as bright as he’d originally thought.
Things were going pretty well with Thad at the moment. Honestly, except for him leaving every night after Graham fell asleep, Graham had few complaints.
The sex was great, they had fun spending time together, and he felt like he was playing some excellent hockey.
What more did a guy need?
The only problem was, they had very little time together even when they were both awake.
It wasn’t for lack of trying, but with the constant travel and Thad picking up some slack in the social media department because one of his co-workers was out following an emergency appendectomy, there wasn’t much they could do about it.
They’d had a few careful hookups in hotel rooms on the road, but Graham was really looking forward to being home alone with Thad again.
They still hadn’t really talked about why Thad left. All he’d said was that he’d had insomnia for years and wasn’t used to sleeping next to someone.
Graham understood, at least on some level, but it was still frustrating.
He would have liked to have woken up with Thad’s arm draped around his waist. He wanted to know what it would feel like to wake up to Thad’s hand wrapped around his cock or wake Thad up with coffee and a blowjob. He wanted to smile at him across the kitchen table as they ate breakfast.
But Thad wasn’t in a place where he could do that and, well, Graham was trying to be understanding and supportive.
It just … kinda sucked. It always left Graham feeling like Thad viewed him as a hookup. And he knew it wasn’t true. Nothing Thad did or said otherwise backed that up.
But there was a stupid nagging voice in the back of Graham’s head that wondered. That doubted.
What if Thad wasn’t ready for something serious?
“You planning to shower someday or stew in your own filth?” Connor asked as he walked past, a towel wrapped around his waist and water darkening his auburn hair and beard.
“Uhh,” Graham said, realizing he was still mostly dressed in his gear while nearly everyone else was done showering or at least heading in there.
He caught a glimpse of Crawford’s bare ass disappearing into the showers and glanced back at his captain.
“Yeah, just a little out of it this morning, I guess.”
“Everything alright?” Connor narrowed his eyes.
“Yep, everything’s great,” Graham assured him.
Later that morning, as Graham walked into the dining area to grab lunch, guys were still talking about Halloween costume ideas. He still didn’t have a clue what he was going to do for his.
Graham’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out as he waited in line for his turn. He’d half-hoped it was a message from Thad, but it was from his sister instead, asking about what color boutonniere he wanted.
Confused, he texted back. I dunno. Whatever color goes with the bouquets?
Obviously. I mean which of those options do you like.
Which of what options? He asked.
Boutonnieres!
What am I supposed to be looking at??
They eventually figured out the pictures she’d sent hadn’t gone through properly and by the time Graham had his food, the re-sent photos had arrived.
He browsed through them while he ate and at one point, Tanner leaned over, peering at Graham’s screen. “Ooh, who are you chatting with? Is she hot?”
Graham scowled and pressed a finger to Tanner’s forehead, moving him out of the way. “Dude, you have no respect for privacy.”
Tanner shrugged. “It’s overrated.”
“No, it isn’t,” Rafe and Mickey said in unison.
Tanner rolled his eyes at them. “Seriously though, who’s the girl? And why is she sending you flower pics?”
“She’s my sister,” Graham told him. “And she’s sending me flower pics because I’m in her wedding later this year, you dipshit.”
“Oh.” Tanner slumped back in his chair. “That’s boring. I thought maybe you were dating someone new.”
“I told you I was taking a break from trying to meet women,” Graham reminded him.
A few seats down, Jesse glanced over, his forehead wrinkling. Shit, had he picked up on the careful way Graham had worded that? Fucking goalies and their stupid observational skills.
But when Graham snuck a look around, he spotted Connor deep in conversation with his brother, Finn, about something. Hmm. Maybe that was all Jesse had been curious about.
Hopefully, anyway.
“Yeah, yeah,” Tanner said. “It’s your new celibacy thing or whatever.”
Graham almost sputtered out that he definitely wasn’t celibate, when he spotted Thad across the room, talking to Tyson Short, the PR director.
“Anyway,” Graham said, clearing his throat and forcing himself to look away. “I’m supposed to be telling my sister which boutonniere I like. Only, they all pretty much look the same to me.”
“Let me see,” Jesse said.
Confused, Graham handed over his phone. Jesse looked through them, frowning at the screen for a moment before he passed it back.
“The third one,” he said. “It’ll look nice with the midnight blue dresses and ice blue pocket squares.”
“How did you …” Bewildered, Graham glanced down at his screen, trying to figure out how Jesse even knew what the bridesmaids’ dresses or pocket squares looked like, before he realized, oh, his sister had also sent a little collage thingy with other pics from her inspiration boards or whatever she called them.
Graham glanced through the options. “Yeah, okay, I think you’re right, Ducky,” he admitted. “That would look nice.”
“Obviously. I have great taste.” Jesse shot a smug smile at Connor.
Several people at the table made gagging noises.
“Let me see,” Tanner said, once again invading Graham’s space.
“Dude,” Graham countered, flicking him in the forehead this time. Probably harder than necessary. “Seriously. Nosy, much?”
Tanner shrugged and filched his phone. “Yeah.”
Graham’s phone got passed around the table despite his protests.
In the end, Graham gave up and focused on eating while hockey players with absolutely no sense of taste gave him opinions and came up with their own ideas of what he should suggest to his sister.
“Remind me to never let you plan my wedding someday,” Graham said with a laugh as he finally got his phone back. “Those are terrible ideas.”
Across the room, Thad frowned in his direction. Graham felt a funny little lurch in the pit of his stomach in answer.
Was marriage something Thad would ever want? They hadn’t talked about anything like that yet.
Tanner swiped his phone again and started browsing through his other texts. “So you’re really not hooking up with anyone right now? I find that hard to believe.”
Graham felt a sudden wave of terror as he tried to remember what the recent messages he and Thad had sent each other had been about.
They’d agreed that anything too racy was a bad idea to send via text, but had one of them said something about spending the night or what if Thad had called him baby? If Tanner scrolled back too far, he’d definitely find something incriminating.
“How many times do I have to tell you?” Graham protested, wrestling the device away from Tanner. “I’m not hooking up with anyone.”
And he wasn’t. It was a lot more than hooking up with Thad.
“At least three more, because you definitely got a text from Mad-i-son,” Tanner said in a singsong tone.
“Yeah, we’ve been talking again,” Graham admitted.
“Oooh,” Tanner said.
Across the room, Thad’s eyes narrowed.
“Not like that,” Graham hastily added. “Just as friends. There’s a guy she’s seeing, and she wanted my opinion on something he said.”
“Or she’s trying to make you jealous,” Anker said from farther down the table. “To get you back.”
Jesus, everyone was involved in this fucking conversation.
“She’s not trying to make me jealous,” Graham argued. “Or get me back. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I mean …” Tanner eyed him up and down. “You’re pretty hot. I’d do you if you were into that. I wouldn’t blame her for trying to get all up in that again.”
“Thanks for the compliment,” Graham said drily as he stood and picked up his lunch dishes. “But I have a meeting with Hoyt in a few. See you losers later.”
He got a chorus of insults and raised middle fingers in answer.