Page 117 of Breakaway Goals

This was his one shot.

Before, with hockey, he’d had the skills and the capability to make that happen. But now, he was just stumbling around blind in the dark. He’d gotten Finn’s advice on his outfit, refusing totell his son what it was for, and hecould’vetold Danny and then asked for his advice, but it wasDanny.

Danny had never wooed someone before. Danny had probably never even considered the possibility, and if Morgan had asked him, he could only imagine the bullshit suggestions he’d get in return.

Obviously, he couldn’t ask Danny. And Jacob had been equally off-limits, only because he didn’t trust the guy to not be his normal wily and too-observant self and finally guess once and for all who Morgan was hung up on.

So he’d white-knuckled his way through these plans all on his own.

Freaking out when he’d texted Hayes, rewriting it at least ten times, when Hayes had asked what they were doing. It shouldn’t have been so hard saying,we’re going to dinner,but he’d practically needed to workshop it.

All on his fucking own.

Freaking out over the place. Freaking out over his outfit. Freaking out when he’d needed to text Hayes and say he’d be happy to pick him up.

Hayes had only sent back a thumbs-up.

What did that evenmean?

There was a distinct lack of emotion attached to emojis. The last time he’d tried to make that argument—and for once Jacob had actually been onhisside—Finn had told him he was old, decrepit and nobody would ever want to date him if he couldn’t figure out the emotional resonance of emojis.

Great. He was on his own, on his way to Hayes’ front door. They couldn’t have sex—theonething he felt confident he could ace—and according to Finn, he didn’t even speak the right fucking language.

Morgan rang the doorbell and hoped he hadn’t sweated through his shirt too badly.

God, he was so fucking nervous. Hewasgoing to puke, right on these too-expensive and too-tight shoes.

Hayes opened the door a second later. He looked cool and equally as expensive. White linen emphasizing his tan and a green shirt making his eyes so bright Morgan felt words dry in his throat. Stared and didn’t even try to hide it.

“Hey,” Hayes said, smirking a little. He knew exactly what he looked like, the effect he hoped to have, and he’d succeeded. Morgan couldn’t blame him for doing a victory lap about it.

“Hey,” Morgan said and leaned in, reminding himself that he could deal with only a single kiss now and a nice long goodbye kiss after dinner. That he’dpromised. Not just to Hayes, even though that was important, buthimselftoo. “You uh, look really nice.”

“So do you,” Hayes said.

Morgan cleared his throat. Hayes smelled so good, looked so good, it was actually nearly painful to pull himself back. Remember that they weren’t doing this.

You did it before, a whole bunch of times.But that had been before Hayes had said in that tight, almost sad voice,He dumped me because I was still in love with you.

“Should we . . .uh . . .go?”

“So wearegoing out to dinner?” Hayes’ voice was teasing, but there was no mistaking the interested glint in his eyes as they made their way to the car.

“Yes,” Morgan said. He debated opening Hayes’ door for him, but would that be romantic or just make him look old-fashioned and stuffy?

But before he could make up his mind, Hayes had opened his own door, so Morgan detoured around to the driver’s side.

Morgan had spent an hour last night brainstorming conversational topics. As he pulled out onto the street, he wishedhe could remember what any of them were. He should’ve written out flashcards and memorized them.

Luckily for both of them, Hayes seemed to have no issues talking. “Caught your segment yesterday,” he said.

“Oh yeah?”

The earlier smirk was back, in spades. Morgan concentrated on his driving so he wouldn’t drive right off the road. Crash the car and not even give a shit, because then if they weren’t going to the restaurant, he could get his hands on Hayesnow.

Except that no, he couldn’t.

“It was good, except when you picked the Stars to win the Eastern conference,” Hayes said.