Chapter 13 Jack
THIRTEEN
Jack
After a board game set in a haunted house where I was bisected with a chainsaw by Jimmy Keeney, a forward from Seattle, I wandered the hotel, trying to find somewhere nice to have a meet-up with Tian.
Leaving the hotel was doable, obviously, we weren’t in lockdown, but we were in training, which meant our coach, Phil Delaney from New York, preferred if we stuck to our routines.
Hockey players are creatures of habit so that was fine with me.
Also sneaking out to party? Nah. The youngsters could have that bullshit.
Give me a good skate, a hearty meal, and a nap before a night game.
Since there were no games for us, night or day, for a few more days, I’d happily swap out a game for a cuddle and a chat with Tian.
What was proving hard was finding privacy. I returned to my room in a sulk and Starry picked it up on the moment I entered.
“You look like you lost your dog,” he said, glancing up from his e-reader to me.
I liked Starry. He was about my age, maybe a few years younger, but settled.
He had a wife, a two-year-old boy, and another on the way.
His son had come down with strep the day before they were set to fly over, so his wife and boy were back home.
I dropped to the edge of my bed, a comfortable king on which I slept well. Finding his hazel gaze locked on me, I figured he was okay to talk to. I mean he had walked in on Tian and I going at each other like a couple of rabid vampires.
“Tian,” I opened with. He sat up a little straighter and closed his . “We have a history.”
“I sort of assumed that,” he replied with a slight smile tugging at one side of his mouth.
“Right, yeah, well, I’m bisexual.”
“Assumed that as well as you were married to a woman but sucked face with a guy.”
I felt my cheeks warming. Talking about my sexuality wasn’t something I was comfortable thrashing out with other people.
What happened in my bed, and with whom, was not fodder for the media.
It was private and between my partner and me.
But, sadly, the world loved the hot gossip.
And if it involved queer jocks all the better.
You’d think things would have improved since Tennant Rowe had shattered the stigma years ago but no, not yet.
Pity really that people clung to hatred so fucking tenaciously when they could just be kind.
“Right.” I rubbed a thumb over a scarred knuckle. Lots of fights on these old hands. “Well, we’re in this weird place. You got a few minutes?”
“I got nothing but time.” He placed his e-reader aside to give me his full attention.
So, I unloaded on him. Every detail of what had taken place with Tian and me from the first view of him getting on that plane to our time in the laundry nook.
He nodded here and there but overall, just sat with his long legs out in front of him and listened.
I bet he was a good dad. He had all kinds of patience for ramblings about surfboards, sun lotion, and twinky snowboarders who didn’t quite grasp personal space.
When I reached the end, I sighed and then stared at him as if he were a wise man atop a snowy mountain.
“Sounds like you two need to talk,” he said, to which I nodded.
He slung his legs from his bed, slid his feet into some sneakers, and stood.
“Rumor has it there’s a horror board game tourney taking place in one of community rooms. I love horror shit.
I think I just might go play a few rounds then eat in the hotel restaurant.
I’ll probably be gone for several hours.
Probably at least until quiet hour sets in. ”
“Starry, I never meant that you had to leave your own damn room. I was just venting.”
He patted my cheek. “Let it never be said that Pete Starinski stood in the path of true love. If you’re occupied, come ten p.m., just hang a jock on the doorknob.”
“Uhm, no. Thanks, man.” I rose to give him a solid bro hug.
He grabbed his jacket and wallet, gave me a wink, and then eased out of the room.
I was on my phone texting before the door closed properly.
Tian was busy with interviews but could join me in an hour.
Which was perfect. I texted him my room number, then put in an order for room service.
Since we were both athletes in training, I did my best to keep the dinners healthy.
I ordered two plates of spaghetti Bolognese plus extra side salad.
Spring water to drink, then for dessert, two of their Greek yogurt berry parfaits.
Once that was done, I showered and changed out of my workout gear into something comfortable yet attractive.
Then, because I had forty-five minutes to spare and was nervous, I hit up my sister.
“Hey, oh wow, you look nice. Did you trim your beard?” Fiona asked while moving through her apartment.
“Some lady did for pictures back in the States. Are you packing?”
“I am,” she said. I’ll be in Milan tomorrow afternoon. I’m booked at the Gray Arms which is my favorite place to stay in Milan! Did I ever tell you about the layover that I had once in Milan fifteen years ago with an Italian boxer named Guiseppe?”
“No, and to be honest, I’m not up to hearing about your layovers. Or unders.”
She laughed.
“Actually, I need some advice. I ran into Tian here at the Olympic Village and—”
“Tian from the cay whom you refused to talk about after that one night you had too much wine at my place and confessed that you had never felt that way about anyone before? That Tian?”
I had to roll my eyes. “Yeah, that Tian. We sort of had a meetup and things are looking like they might be okay with us. Like…” I rubbed at my hairy cheek.
“Like we might be able to work things out but then I think about it and am stumped as to how we could possibly even entertain the idea of maybe being a couple since I’m so much older and—”
“Stop. Stop thinking. Just let it happen.”
“I’m scared.” Saying that dropped a weight off my back. Hockey players weren’t supposed to fear anything but giving my heart to another person who might stomp it into pumpkin pudding? Yeah, that shit was terrifying.
“Oh, honey, I know. Love is terrifying but not everyone is going to treat you as badly as your ex did. Just stop thinking about all the things that can go wrong and focus on what you can make go right.”
“Fiona—”
“Now go trim that beard a little more. Oh, and your eyebrows too. Then wine, dine, and sixty-nine him.”
“Fiona…”
“I’ll be there tomorrow. I expect to see hickeys.
Now go. Get moving.” She made a shooing motion with her hand then ended the call.
Pushy woman. Still, I rushed into the bathroom to tidy up my brows.
I was just about done trying to reshape my left brow as I’d gotten a bit wild with the razor when a knock on the door startled me.
I nearly whacked half my brow off. There were still twenty minutes until Tian was supposed to arrive.
Thinking it was Starry who had forgotten something and didn’t have his room key, I opened the door, but there stood Tian. My heart rate tripled just seeing him.
“You’re early,” I said, opening the door and then stepping to the side to let him in.
Starry and I were both pretty tidy, so the suite wasn’t a hog pen.
I shut it, then stood there just soaking up the scent of his aftershave in the air.
He smelled so good. Masculine to the nth. “Dinner will be here soon.”
“Cool. Sorry to show up early. They were done with me.” He smiled as he peeled his jacket off, then tossed it to a chair by the window.
“I want to kiss you so badly, but I promised myself I would be a gentleman.”
Tian’s eyes rounded slightly. “Oh—”
“But, I want you to know that I want more than just sex, so tonight, good food, conversation, and early to bed.”
“Not even one kiss?” The pout he hit me with nearly buckled my knees.
“Maybe a goodnight one.”
“Stingy,” he teased as he took off his shoes and then gestured at the bed. I pointed at mine, and he climbed in.
He opened his arms and I dove onto the bed, then curled around him like a vine, tucking his head to my shoulder as his strong legs tangled with mine.
Oh yeah, this was nice. Being naked would be nicer, but this was nice as well.
I inhaled the rich scent of his shampoo lingering on his satiny black hair.
“Do you remember our last night on the cay when we lay on the sand and watched the sun go down?” he asked, quietly.
“Of course.” I remember wondering how I’d ever give Tian up but knowing I had to, because that was what we’d agreed.
Tian sighed. “I tried to memorize every shade of orange in the sky because I knew we were coming to an end. I’ve carried that with me for six months. Every night I closed my eyes and saw that sunset, and you smiling down at me.”
“You did?”
He rolled over to face me, propping his chin on my chest. “I wish…”
“What?”
“That we hadn’t made that stupid deal to just have the time on the cay.”
“Agreed,” I whispered, and my heart swelled. “You feel so perfect in my arms, Tian.”
“I like being here. No…” He paused, and I waited because it seemed as if he wanted to say more. “I love being here.”
I carded my hand through his hair. “I love being here too.”
“How would you feel if we did more of this after we get home?”
I was quiet for a moment, and his eyes brightened with emotion. “Good. Yes. I want that.”
He smiled then and shifted a little so he could kiss my chin. “If we do a thing, it will be hard.”
“‘A thing’?” I dropped a kiss on his hair and sighed out six months’ worth of pining. “If we go on a date, that would be dating, right? Unless there’s a different term for it now?
“No, we still call it dating, Gramps.”