Chapter 6
Six
Hawk stood with a bunch of his hockey teammates, watching the fireworks go off at the end of the official opening ceremonies.
His chest felt too tight, and his jaw hurt from clenching it, because it had been an emotional rollercoaster from the grand entry to the dancing and singing and lights, and just being with the hockey crew, male and female, all day.
But now that the afterparty was about to start, exhaustion was kicking in, and all he wanted was to go find Caleb and get back to the room for one last night and—
His phone buzzed in his hand, startling him so much he almost dropped it. He glanced at it, and he had to grin at the text from Caleb.
Can we go home yet?
Please. I’ll meet you at transport
Leaving this early, they might have a chance of beating a lot of the crowd of athletes, although he knew they’d have a wait ahead of them.
It took for-fucking ever, and he never saw Caleb at the transport area, but after a lot of texts, they came together outside the dorm, ducking their fellow athletes and making their way to the room they’d been lucky enough to share for this idyllic almost week.
They laughed as they tumbled through the door, immediately kissing and groping and stumbling to the bathroom.
Hawk let himself strip Caleb down and shower with him before they moved right to the bed and went wild together, hands and mouths moving on damp skin. He fucked Caleb’s mouth and then fucked him into the mattress, and neither one of them let the words escape that Hawk wanted to, at least.
Not even a little.
In the quiet hour, just before dawn, Caleb sighed, turning to face him and kissing his shoulder.
“Jamie’s roommate will be in this afternoon.”
“Yeah. Prelims start for us in a few days, but hardcore training and practicing starts now.” Hawk stared at the ceiling, fingers skating over Caleb’s arm.
“And I’ll be moving to another set of rooms closer to the venue…”
They lay there silent for a while after that, until Hawk finally chuckled, even though it tore his throat out to do it. Jesus, what was wrong with him?
“So what we’re saying is this is it, huh?”
“Looks like it.” Calen rose up to look into his eyes, green gaze sad. “I really like you, Hawk. Like way more than I should in like, five days.”
“I get that. I feel the same way.”
“And if it was—”
“Hey.” He was the older one here, right? Supposedly more experienced, though he knew that was so not true. “I get it. We’re both at the start of our careers. Both chasing other stuff. Trying to keep this going would be a nightmare.”
“It would.” Caleb grinned, some of his natural good nature reasserting itself. “And we don’t want that.”
“Nope.” He cupped Caleb’s cheek and chin in one hand, then pulled him up for a kiss, letting Caleb feel everything he didn’t have the words for. “One more for the road?”
“Mmmm.” Caleb slid one hand down his belly to wrap around his cock, then bent forward to bite his nipple, making him yelp. “No time to waste.”
When Hawk had slipped out of the room, leaving Caleb asleep and carrying overnight bag, he felt like a coward.
He probably should have shaken Caleb awake to say goodbye or see you around or something, but he didn’t think he could look into those green eyes and leave.
So he’d gone back to his own room, dealing with the happy chirping from his roommate and settling in to play hockey.
Which they’d done.
Badly.
So badly, in fact, that he’d opted for an early flight home along with a good many of his team. The men’s halfpipe medals had been awarded days ago, but he hadn’t been able to see it, and Caleb had come in a distant fourth.
His team had gone out in the quarterfinals, and now he was back on home ice and trying to get his shit together and get his head in the game.
Hawk knew it was bad, in fact, because while Colorado had won their first game after the Olympic break, his coach had still called him out for a chat after the match, when everyone else was in the showers and he was still in his stall, staring at the skates he had yet to take off.
“Get your damn gear off and come talk to me,” Coach Hendricks told him.
“Yes, Coach.” Shit. Hawk struggled out of his pads and shrugged into sweats, a hoodie and some shower slides before stepping into the hall.
“Okay, so what’s with you, Montineau. Jet lag? Letdown? You’ve never been so sluggish.”
“A little bit of both, I think, Coach. Sorry.”
“You’re lucky Lindstrom was on fire tonight,” Coach said, meaning their goaltender, Danik.
“I know. I’ll be right as rain next game.”
“I’m not mad, son. Just worried. You’ve been fire since we drafted you, and this concerns me.” Coach clapped him on the shoulder. “Now, go get a shower and go home. No partying with the guys until you get over the whatever this is.”
“You got it, Coach.” He nodded. “Thanks.”
“You got this.”
“Sure.” He dragged his ass back to the locker room, thanking Danik, congratulating their captain, Joss Landau. He was glad to be mostly alone when he stepped into the showers to rinse off, then get dressed and head home, having refused the invite to go have a beer.
When he got home, he stuck a frozen dinner in the microwave, some organic thing his housekeeper had bought for him thinking it would help him when he resorted to buttered noodles, and then he threw it away.
He grabbed a beer and a packet of Nutter Butters before heading to the big sectional to flop down and grab the remote.
The TV barely came on before he hopped back up and headed to the shower. He needed a real one, with his rain bath shower head and his fancy body wash, dammit. Screw the cookies.
Honestly, Hawk knew what was wrong with him; the idea never strayed far from his thoughts. He was missing Caleb, which was fucking ridiculous. He’d known the guy a week, had talked with him about how it was just a hookup, and had left knowing they probably wouldn’t see each other again.
So what the actual fuck?
Half an hour later he was back on the couch with an action movie on, having traded his beer for decaf, and munching cookies.
Which was when his mom called, of course. She had radar for when he was down in the dumps, and she watched all of his damn games.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Allo, Hawk. ‘?a Va’?”
“‘?a Va bien, Maman.” He was lying. And she knew it, no doubt.
She switched to English. “You were very slow tonight. You look unhappy. Qu’est-ce qui ne va pas?”
“Oh, you know, the Games were amazing until they weren’t. And I’m still on Korea time.”
“Bullshit.”
“Mom.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
Hawk heaved a sigh. “I met a guy.”
“Ah. I see. It’s love.”
Hawk gagged, making it loud and obvious. “Non.”
“Then what is it?”
“Nothing.” He didn’t mean to sound so damn pitiful, but he did. This was his mom.
“Oh.” He could tell from her tone she understood. “Your father and I should come for a visit soon.”
“Mom…”
“What? I can’t want to see my son?”
“I’ll be fine. I know you hate to travel in winter. I’ll come for a few weeks this summer.” He always went to see them and then had them come to Colorado. It was a thing.
“I want to see you.”
“Then come out in March, and I’ll take you out to supper.” Why fight it? She was coming. Might as well make it a date now.
“I’ll look at your game schedule.”
“Okay. How’s Dad?” His dad wasn’t one to call. He texted. Or emailed. He was probably watching the game on repeat and making notes to send to Hawk later.
“A little sniffly, but okay. Just the weather.”
“Well, keep him wrapped up and the heater on.” Mom was in the teeth of menopause, so she fiddled with the heat.
“I will. I just run around in shorts and a sports bra.”
“My eyes,” he whined.
“Bah.” She chuckled. “I’ll let you go sulk. But if you need to talk…”
“I’ll call when I’m ready.”
“Oui. Love you.”
“Love you too.” He had to smile when he hung up, because his very busy mom made him.
He was sulking though, and while that was fine, he needed to get his game face on before the next match. His mom might make sympathetic noises, but his coach wouldn’t.
Hell, he would get over Caleb soon enough, and he knew it.
In the meantime, he needed to get his head out of his ass.
Caleb typed and deleted about a zillion texts to Hawk.
They had agreed it was an Olympics fling, right? They’d decided not to let it go beyond the opening ceremonies.
Okay, so he’d texted Hawk a
Sorry, dude, that sucks
when the hockey team fell out in the quarterfinals. Hawk had texted back a thanks, then texted again when he’d missed the podium in the halfpipe finals. Just a
Sorry, babe. You were amazing
But now that the Games were over, he wasn’t sure if Hawk would be okay hearing from him, or if he should drop it.
But he missed Hawk in ways he’d never anticipated. He missed Hawk’s smile, the way his silvery eyes lit up with it. He missed the no-small talk clause. And he missed that big, hot body.
So he turned on the Colorado ThunderSnow game against Boston, flopped on the couch, and held his phone with his thumbs over the keyboard. If he texted now, Hawk wouldn’t see it until he got out of the game in about an hour, at the earliest, so he wouldn’t sit and wait for three dots to appear…
He’d typed out
Hey, man, watching the game. You look great
when his phone rang.
Oh. Caleb rolled his eyes. It was his mom. Great. He loved her very much, but she was difficult at best, and she hadn't called since before the Olympics. Still, he knew if she had started calling she wouldn't stop until he answered so he went ahead and clicked the green button.
“Hey, Mom, what's going on?”
“Caleb, I see you're back in the country now finally.”
“Yeah. Korea was great, thanks for asking.”
Caleb could almost hear her pressing her lips together and blinking hard, like she did when he was sarcastic, and he felt bad for taking the low road so fast on the call, but something about her snappy tone put his back up. He just felt like he should start out like he could hold out.
“I'm sorry that you didn't win a medal.”
He blew out a gusty sigh. “So am I but it was a good experience, and I'm still young in terms of the snowboarding game. I've got another chance in Beijing.”
“I just wish they would have these Olympics someplace where it was easier to watch you.”
He sucked back both of his initial responses, which were, “You mean someplace not Asian,” and, “You haven’t come to see a competition I was in since I was twelve.”
What he went with was, “Uh-huh. So how are you and Dad?”
His dad hardly ever spoke to him on the phone, so they communicated by text, email, and on the rare occasion he saw his folks on holidays.
“Did you get your Christmas present?”
Ah. There it was. The transactional part of the phone call. “Yeah. Thanks. I texted Dad.”
“He didn’t tell me.” She sounded so annoyed, and he stared at the ceiling of the little main room of his new condo in Vail, trying to decide what he was going to do to decorate it. It was very bare. Mainly he had a bed, a couch, and two big TVs.
“I probably should have called.” No apologizing, he reminded himself. That’s what she wants.
“I wish you would. Well, I just wanted to check in and say your father said you looked really good in Korea.”
Of course she hadn’t watched. Of course not. “Tell him thanks. I gotta go, Mom. Meeting with my coach.” He lied like a rug. Ooh, he should get a rug. The condo had very cold wood floors…
“Very well. I’ll call you on your birthday.”
“Yep. Love you.” He said it by rote, hoping it was really true.
“Goodbye, son.”
She hung up, and he looked at his phone, hitting the end button before it started beeping to tell him the call was done. “Well, that was fun.”
He glanced at the TV, where Hawk’s team was up 2-1. He grinned, because Hawk was on the line, as he called it, right now, and he was so fast. Fucking A, he was poetry in motion.
Hawk made his mouth dry, made him proud that he even knew the guy.
Caleb called up the text he’d typed out to Hawk and sent it before he could second-guess himself.
He needed a friendly word today. He really did.