Page 147 of Breakaway Goals

“’Cause he’s thirty-one,” Reilly retorted.

“He’s not falling off,” Morgan argued. “He’s a freaking star. Astud. If you look at his numbers, he’s brought it every year. I’d actually argue that sure, he’s a hair slower than he used to be, but his vision is better, his IQ has never been stronger. I’d take him over any of those young guns out there right now.”

“I meant it too.”

Hayes looked up and flushed guiltily.

Morgan sauntered in. Mimicked Hayes’ lean against the counter. “You didn’t watch it?”

“I . . .” Hayes pressed pause as Reilly and Anderson started analyzing his last five years of stats. “I didn’t. I knew you’d say what you needed to.”

Morgan chuckled under his breath. “You really think I said all that because you needed me to?”

“Well . . .yeah?”

“Angel, I meant every fucking word.” Morgan tugged him into his arms. “I’d have said more, if I thought it would make a damn bit of difference. It’s so shitty what they’re doing to you. I hate it.”

“Because you’re crazy about me,” Hayes said. He’d almost said,because you love me,but that was a step further than he felt quite comfortable with. Morgan could say he loved him, but there was still a half a second of hesitation when Hayes thought about just casually assigning him those feelings.

Morgan pulled back a fraction, frowning. “Seriously?”

“Well, you wouldn’t lie on TV, I guess.”

Morgan laughed.

“Okay,” Hayes said, poking him in the side and unable to help the smile that blossomed across his face. “You’d totally lie on TV.”

“But I didn’t today. If anything, I downplayed how I felt about it.” Morgan sounded painfully earnest now.

Hayes decided this was a good time to change the subject. “Barty says they asked for another meeting. Them this time, not him.”

“A good sign,” Morgan said. “My phone’s been blowing up all day. They want me to do some more interviews about it. I didn’t commit to anything else yet—didn’t want to before I talked to you.”

“What does Barty think?”

Morgan made an exasperated noise. “Hayes, I don’t give a fuck whathethinks. I only care how you feel about it.”

“Oh.”

“I know too much praise makes you weird.”

Hayes wet his lips. “Not exactly.”

“Oh, angel, it absolutely does. You werehidingin the bathroom to watch the good stuff I said about you.”

Hayes was annoyed. He didn’t want to admit the truth and Morgan was going to make him do it anyway. Zach would probably have told him this was what love really was; knowing someone so well you wouldn’t let them get away with crap.

“Okay, fine, yes, I was hiding in the bathroom.”

Morgan ruffled his hair. “You showered at the rink. You always do.”

“Here I thought you were too distracted by Filip Forsberg to think about when I showered,” Hayes muttered.

“Are you kidding?” Morgan laughed. “Forsberg doesn’t have shit on you, angel. You gonna tell me about it?”

“It’s . . .it’s hard to watchyoupraise me,” Hayes admitted. “It was hard six years ago. And it’s still hard, now.”

“Not because you don’t believe me, right?” Morgan looked worried.