CHAPTER FOURTEEN #2
“Tanner, Tanner, Tanner!” they shouted, and barreled into him with the strength of two NHL defenseman. “You’re here!”
Mia and Olivia were technically his half-sisters, since Jeff was their dad. But Tanner had never thought of them as anything but his baby sisters.
He’d been seventeen when the twins were born and although he’d been busy with hockey and gone a lot, being drafted by the Harriers had kept him closer to where he’d grown up than he’d ever dared to hope for.
He’d been able to see the girls a lot, especially in the summers, and he still often took them to the water park in the off-season.
Now, they talked a mile a minute, shoving their dark curly hair off their faces as they told him about school and the bus ride home and …
“Hey why are you home today?” Tanner asked, glancing up at his mom, confused. “It’s a weekday. Don’t you have work?”
She laughed. “That just occurred to you now?”
He shrugged.
“I had a dentist appointment at noon and asked my boss for the time off yesterday when you said you’d come by today.”
“Oh, cool.” He turned back to his sisters. “Guess who brought presents?”
His mom muttered something about him spoiling them, but it was drowned out by their excited shrieks that threatened to burst his eardrums.
Tanner grinned. Seriously, there was no way life could get better than this.
After dinner, Leif took one last look around his open-plan Manhattan condo and mentally checked off items on his evening to-do list.
The dishwasher already hummed quietly in the background and the counters were spotless. He’d cooked for himself tonight, but most of the time it was easier to be sure he stuck to his nutrition plan by eating the meals prepared by the team chef. Besides, he had fewer dishes to deal with that way.
A cleaning person came in once a week to do actual scrubbing, but he liked to keep his space neat and tidy, so he walked around his apartment now, making sure everything was in place and he was prepared for the following day.
The building was located right where Tribeca, SoHo, and Chinatown all came together and had incredible architecture. The two-bedroom condo itself had dramatic arched windows, nine-foot ceilings, and exposed brick.
The team’s practice facility was northeast of the city in Westchester County.
A lot of the players—especially the married ones with kids—lived out that way.
There were only a handful of guys who lived in the city itself.
But Leif had grown up in Manhattan and the idea of moving to the suburbs as a young, queer, single man had seemed crazy.
But, he admitted with a wry smile to himself as he caught a glimpse of the city lights through the windows, even on an NHL salary, Tribeca wasn’t exactly a cheap place to live. Guys on entry level contracts certainly couldn’t have afforded this place.
But Leif had never had to worry about that, had he? He’d bought the condo his rookie season and never looked back.
As Leif took a seat on the sectional in his living room, he wondered what Tanner’s place was like. Leif knew he lived in Boston, near the HCI training center. And he shared an apartment with Rafael Moon and Mickey Krause.
Leif pulled out his phone, checked a few emails, cleaned up a few notifications, then pulled up his text chat with Tanner.
He hesitated. Tanner had reacted to his last comment with a laughing emoji but he’d been quiet all day otherwise.
Quieter than usual. Not that they really had a routine yet.
It had only been a few days since they got back from the tournament. But they’d talked every day so far.
Mostly it was random nonsense from Tanner. Lots of stream-of-consciousness texts about his day or funny stories about what had happened in practice. Nothing too personal, really.
That was probably why it felt weird that he’d been quiet today.
Maybe he was waiting for Leif to say something?
But what? The last message had been about lunch at the practice facility.
They’d been trying to one-up each other with the best meals the respective team chefs had prepared. Hardly anything serious or important.
Tired of making a big deal out of nothing, Leif finally typed out, What was the best thing that happened to you today? Then hit Send.
Leif promptly regretted it. Half an hour later, when there was still no answer, he really regretted it.
Stupid. Why did he care?
He scrolled through some other texts, responding to a few messages from friends and various guys he’d been vaguely flirting with. Sérgio was trying to get something going again but Leif hadn’t responded to his poor attempts.
Was he really supposed to go back to protein-shake-bland Sérgio when there was steak-and-lobster-tail sex with Tanner Clayton?
And then Leif groaned because it was ridiculous. He hated the fact that Tanner was, hands down, the best hookup he’d ever had. That shouldn’t be true. He didn’t want that to be true.
But it was and he hadn’t replied to Leif’s message and Leif really, really hated that it bothered him.
He groaned again and tipped his head back. Was this his life now? Really?
No. They’d agreed they were going to keep seeing other people. And why not? He and Tanner would barely see each other for months on end. What were they going to do? Jerk off on camera for each other and be content with that? Ridiculous.
There were millions of hot men in the area. Surely one of them could offer him more than Tanner.
Though, Tanner did have the advantage of actually understanding his schedule and commitments. The models Leif usually dated were always jetting off to shows in London or Paris or Rome. Hardly around more than Tanner would be.
So what was Leif going to do? Chat up the barista at the coffee shop in the Westchester practice facility? Hardly. The guy was cute but what on earth would they have in common?
Leif tossed his phone onto the cushion with an annoyed huff. He was being ridiculous.
He’d just reached for the television remote when his phone buzzed. He picked it up to see a reply from Tanner. Hung out with the fam! Gotta drive bk to Boston now tho. BORING. Text ltr.
Leif dithered over it for a moment before he reached for his earbuds. Why not? What else did he have to do tonight? Go all the way to Bushwick to hook up with Sérgio? No thank you.
“Uh, hi?” Tanner said when their call connected. “What’s up?”
“Is this okay?” Leif asked, suddenly wondering if he’d made a mistake. “I thought you might like to talk while you drove back to Boston but if it’ll be a distraction, I can—”
“No! This is … this is fine.”
Leif frowned. Something still seemed off. “So you hung out with your family today?”
“Yeah. After practice I drove to Belmont and saw my mom and sisters. Jeff had a travel game.”
“Oh, he’s still coaching?”
That was the strange thing. Leif already knew Tanner’s family. He knew his mom was named Stephanie and she was dark-haired and pretty in a normal mom way. He knew Tanner’s sisters were Mia and Olivia and they were twins.
Tanner rambled on about family stuff for a minute before he said, “What did you do?”
“After practice I had a meeting with a brand I’m considering partnering with. Ran a few errands.”
“Cool. Uh, sounds fun.”
Leif’s frown deepened. “Why do you sound weird, Clayton?”
“Are we back to Clayton now?” Tanner asked.
“I don’t know,” Leif said slowly. “Are we?”
“I dunno.” Leif could practically see Tanner shrug, despite the fact that there was no video connection. “So, um, my mom thinks I’m going to break your heart or something.”
Leif released a strangled laugh. “I’m sorry. What?”
“I know, dumb, right?” Tanner laughed, sounding like himself for the first time tonight.
“Uhh, well I’m not going to insult your mom but—”
Tanner hooted. “Says the guy who accused her of sleeping with the coach to get her baby a spot on the team.”
“Yes, okay, and I’m sorry about that. Besides, that was before.”
“Before what?”
Before I found out you talk in your sleep and you make these cute little snuffling noises into your pillow when you’re woken up before you want to be, Leif thought, though he certainly wasn’t going to say any of that aloud.
Because it was going to sound like he was falling for Tanner or something. Fucking ridiculous.
“Before … ugh, never mind,” Leif said.
“No. What were you going to say, dude? I wanna— Motherfucker learn to use your turn signal!” Tanner shouted, laying on his horn.
Leif flinched at the volume. So much for his hearing.
“Sorry,” Tanner said a moment later, back to being cheerful. “Fucking Masshole drivers.”
“You’re a Masshole driver,” Leif pointed out. Tanner had been born in Massachusetts, for fuck’s sake. Weirdly, he didn’t have an accent at all.
“At least I know how to fucking use my turn signal,” Tanner pointed out. “Unlike some people.”
“Remind me to never get in a car with you behind the wheel.”
Tanner made a sputtering noise.
“Anyway, the point of what I was saying earlier is that I am not going to insult your mom by saying she’s dumb but she’s totally off base about me having feelings for you.”
“Oh. Cool. That’s what I thought.”
“There’s this guy, Sérgio,” Leif said, attempting to sound casual. “He’s a model I know. We hook up when he’s in town.”
“Oh sweet. I bet he’s hot.”
“Yeah, totally,” Leif agreed, because he was. Pure perfection from head to toe. Thick lashes, gleaming white smile, cleft chin, chiseled abs, nice cock, soft skin, long legs …
And then Leif thought of Tanner with his stupid messy curls and his bright smile and the calluses on his hands and the bruises always littering his skin and sighed because damn it, he knew which one he wanted right now.
Not that Stephanie Forester was right about Leif falling in love with him or anything. That would be utterly ridiculous.
“So why does your mom think you’ll break my heart?” he asked.
“Hell if I know.” Tanner snorted. “I dunno, I guess she thinks I kinda do that to people?”
“Do what?”
“Get bored with people and move on.”