AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Davey nods again. “That’s actually slower than most. Sometimes we get them here the same day.”
“What position does he play… this Shaker?”
Davey looks at me and furrows his brow, but he is grinning. “Do you really care about this?”
I care about you, I think. I care about the fact that we are sitting here together talking. I like the fact that we seem to have the same taste in food. I love the fact that our hands have touched a few times, accidentally, but they did. “I like how happy you look when you talk about hockey and your job.”
He raises his eyebrows as though he hadn’t even considered that. “Ryan Shaker is a young winger. In Buffalo, he showed signs of being a great playmaker. But he’s also an enforcer, like TJ. That’s what we got him for, and his youth.”
“Ah, yes, the enforcer,” I say. “You never fought.” I pause and smile. “At least not on the ice, back in the day.” I look at our hands side-by-side, nearly touching. Our knuckles have healed from the punches we threw. His left pinky drifts over and grazes my fingers. My breath hitches. That was no accident.
“How do you know I never fought?”
“I’m not implying you don’t know how. Clearly you do.”
He laughs and shakes his head. “Uh, pretty sure you got the better of me.” With that, he let another finger reach for mine. His eyes remain on me, waiting for an answer.
“What? You know they have been televising hockey for a long time.”
“You watched me play?”
I sigh. “To be fair, I watched the B-man play. But you played against him some, you know?”
He nods and turns his attention back to his food. Was that a small wave of disappointment that I hadn’t watched just for him? I did. I wasn’t sure I should admit that, but I went for it.
“And…. I may have stopped changing the channel occasionally if I saw St. Louis or New York when you were playing there.”
Those eyes sparkle again in wonder. “But you hated me.”
“Davis, my feelings for you have always been… complicated.”
“Are they still?”
What is he fishing for? I thought about how hurt I’d been when he went AWOL after the kiss. About how I had waited for him to text or call. I made excuses for him. Excuses about his job and how busy he is. If I want this, if I want him, I need to put it out there. I need him to know where my head is. I take a deep breath.
“You didn’t… we haven’t spoken since the kiss… maybe it didn’t mean what I thought it did… but…”
Davey leans closer to me. The warmth of his body threatening to scorch me. “That kiss,” he whispers. “That kiss… that kiss meant everything,” Davey brushes his lips across mine. “Everything,” he breathes.
Oh. My. God. Okay. I sit stunned to silence as he stands and clears our trash. He pulls his coat on, takes one final swig of his water, and waits for me to get my act together and follow him. He stands close to me as we step out into the chilly afternoon air and head back into downtown.
He is so close to me our shoulders bump occasionally. I want that hand back. I want that skin. But just as the thought comes to me, his hand disappears into his pocket.
He hadn’t done that on purpose. It’s cold. He doesn’t have gloves on. I also know Davey doesn’t do affection. No public displays of it. His fingers grazing mine back at the market—that was huge. And that tiny brush of our lips together…that may have been a bigger gesture than the tongue-tangling kiss out in the field. Stop wanting more, Carter. He’s getting there.
“I suck at this,” he says out of the blue.
“What?”
“This,” he takes his hand out of his pocket and waves it between us. “I don’t just suck at this; I don’t do this.”
“Do what?”
“This, dating, liking someone…”
Holy hell. Are we dating? Is this a date? I want more of an admission than that. I stop, which forces him to stop too, and turn to face me. “You like someone?”
“Fuck you,” he says and smiles. “Yes, dammit, I actually like you, Carter. You’re a pretty decent guy.”
