Page 76 of Home Ice

But I go along with it before I help him wash up, then slip through the cramped house to the front door.

It takes the walk from the house to my car for all of my doubts to crash back into me. He’s struggling, I miss him, what if I lose him for a second time?

And the worst doubt of all: what if we never do that again?

Chapter Twenty-Four

TAI

All day, Hawke’s been acting bigger and louder than usual. He shows off to the kids we’re coaching, never stops smiling, and keeps throwing jabs my way that make me smile too.

“You’ve gotten slow in your old age,” he says, skating backward past me.

I shoot a glance to where the kids are funneling off the ice and joining their parents. Elise is handling the goodbyes while I set up for the next session.

“I like to conserve my stamina for when it counts.”

“Hmm … I’m gonna need some examples.”

“Oh, really?” I move closer, feeling lighter than I have in days. “Well, I need stamina for …” I drop my voice seductively. “Running. Working long days. Dealing with annoying, stubborn best friends.”

He laughs and pushes me away, leaving me to drift slowly over the ice. “I guess when you come so quickly, you don’t really need stamina for sex.”

Oh, he’s going there, is he? I wasn’t sure if he would. “We both know that’s a lie.”

“Do we? My memories are kind of hazy.”

“It’s not your fault. That’s the result of a good orgasm.”

“You know, you’re supposed to let other people tell you that it’s good.”

I know he’s trying to insult me, but my gut is swimming in happy nerves. “Don’t need to. Not when you moan the way you do.” I skate further back from him, and he skates after me. Beat for beat, he follows. Like we’re pulled together by a universal force. Hawke’s ears have reddened at the tops, and he has no idea what a dead giveaway that is.

“And how do I moan?” he asks.

“Like you’ve been dying for my touch all your life.”

He palms his face, like he’s trying to hide his thoughts from me, but his happiness hasn’t dimmed once. “Technically, we didn’t meet until peewees.” That wasn’t the part I thought he was going to focus on.

“So … just two-thirds of your life, then.” I’m pushing it, but I might be onto something here. Sure, he was attracted to me in high school, but at that point, it took nothing—literally nothing—to get my dick hard.

He closes some of the gap between us. “And I wouldn’t say I was dying.”

“But you wanted me?”

His ears get redder. “Don’t make me remind you of the nipple incident.”

“Trust me, that’s not something I’ll ever forget.” I close some of the distance too. “I thought that was just a horny teenage moment?”

“It was,” he insists, then tilts his head side to side. “That happened almost every day.”

“Me? Or guys in general?”

“Most guys, if I’m honest.”

Damn. I almost wish he weren’t honest.

“But if I’m even more honest, while I found them hot, you were the one I kept thinking of.”