Page 145 of Breakaway Goals

Hayes had to laugh then too. “You ever gonna request it the other way around?”

“Angel, I’ve got my jersey in my closet just over there, waiting for the right moment to pull it out and get me so hot I’m probably gonna die before I even get inside you.”

“Good.” Hayes leaned in and brushed a kiss across his lips. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

Chapter 23

Hayesdidn’twatchthesegment when it aired. Barty emailed him a YouTube link to it after it went live, adding in,Not that you won’t get a complete rundown from the source.

Technically, Morgan did text him when he was done recording.It’s done,was all he’d said. He hadn’t needed to go into more detail. Hayes could imagine what he’d said. Could still feel the phantom flush of beingknownandseen, from six years ago when Morgan had told the media at Four Nations how incredible he thought Hayes was.

It was too much to think he could duck it forever, because that day at practice, everyone was buzzing about it.

“Hear your man went to bat for you,” Lars said, patting him on the back. “He’s not wrong.”

“Thanks,” Hayes said, trying to ignore that squirmy feeling in the base of his stomach.

“Think he loves you a lot,” Lars added.

“Maybe he just thinks I’m a good hockey player,” Hayes claimed. Even though both of those things were true.

“Listen,” Lars said, ducking his head down. “I love you, man. I think you’re fucking brilliant. And he put me to shame.”

Okay, maybe he was going to have to watch it.

He didn’t have a moment, though, because practice was starting and he thankfully was too distracted for the next two hours to angst about just how effusive Morgan had gotten about him.

Then when practice ended, he had a meeting and then another, and it was nearly dinner time by the time he checked his phone. Surprised, but he supposed he shouldn’t be, by the sheer number of notifications he’d gotten while it had been sitting in his locker.

Barty had called three times and sent him half a dozen texts, most of them a variation ofcall me now.

Morgan had sent him another text.Glad it helped,was all he said.

Had it helped? What was happening? Hayes plugged in his phone and dialed Barty on his drive home.

“Oh my God, there you are,” Barty said when he answered on the second ring. “Finally.”

“I had practice and meetings,” Hayes said semi-defensively. “I take it things are going well?”

“Like your boyfriend is causing a sensation? Fuck yeah he is. I’ve got like five standing invites for all the big podcasts, and everyone wants to talk about it.”

“Ugh,” Hayes said.

“What is thisugh? You should be thrilled. This is majorly softening up the Sentinels’ brass. They already sent me an email, wanting to meet this week again. I’ve had to be the one to push for every single of our meetings in the last month, Monty.”

“They could just tell you to fuck off,” Hayes said, afraid to get his hopes up.

“Are you fucking kidding? They’re not going to do that. They’re not stupid.” Barty paused. “Well, they are pretty stupid, but notthatstupid.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Hayes said dryly.

“They’re gonna want me to come in with what you really want. So think about that, okay? And between now and then we’re gonna soften them the fuck up.”

“The podcasts?”

“Yeah,” Barty said excitedly. “And so much more, too. Couple other guys picked up the convo, too, after Reynolds started it.”

“Oh, that’s good.”