Page 144 of Breaking the Ice

Gavin laughed, breathlessly. “Ditto. Wow.”

Zach finally found the energy to pull out and collapsed next to Gavin. Sliding an arm around Gavin’s back, tugging him closer. Gavin’s face was relaxed, and so happy. “Good?”

“I think that’s an understatement.”

Satisfaction curled through Zach. He’d done that. He’d made Gavin sound that way, happy and peaceful and totally fucked out.

“I should get up and clean us up. We’re probably uh . . .going to have to changethe sheets.”

“In a minute,” Gavin said, tilting his face closer to Zach’s. “First, I wanna do this.” He leaned in and kissed him, soft and earnest. And Zach wasn’t ever going to argue about that.

Chapter 19

“Youfeelinggoodaboutthis?” Gavin asked Zach as they walked into the rink.

Zach glanced over at him. “Yeah. Actually. Yeah. I thought I’d be . . .nervous, I guess? But I’m not. They’re all gonna be supportive. How could they not be? You were supportive of them, G.”

“That’s not why I was supportive,” Gavin grumbled. He wasn’t expecting to be paid back in loyalty, just because he’d been a decent person who believed people shouldn’t be defined by who they loved.

“I know that, and they know it, too,” Zach reassured him, nudging him with his shoulder. “I’m just saying, they’re probably going to be more excited than anything.”

Gavin groaned in the back of his throat. He didn’t think Zach was wrong, which was why they were doing this now, after clinching their conference title, assuring their spot in the Frozen Four. They had two regular season games left, but he and Zach had agreed that if they were going to tell the team, this was the time to do it.

“We’re just going to do it and then move right along,” Gavin reminded him. He didn’t think the team would be so disrespectful as to ask for details, but it wasn’t liketheyever shied away from sharing plenty of their own.

“Right,” Zach said, shooting him a grin. “Sure that’s gonna happen.”

They’d called the meeting before the last practice before their final back-to-back games. They didn’t need to win these, but Gavin wanted to win them anyway, because if they did, they’d set a Portland University record for the number of wins in a single season, and that meant that even if their Frozen Four dreams didn’t come true, they’d still be in the history books, memorializing this incredible season.

“It’s happening,” Gavin retorted.

“You’re still good with this, right?” Zach asked.

Not for the first time.

“I’m just saying,” Zach added, “I’m not coming out of the closet. Just telling everyone I coach how I just punched up, big-time.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, charmed despite the fact that heshouldknow better. “Oh, yeah? Somehow I don’t think that’s how they’re gonna take it.”

“That’s how they should take it,” Zach joked, nudging him again. His smile was wide and bright, zero hesitation.

“Honestly telling Sidney was more nerve-wracking than this,” Gavin admitted. “And that went fine enough.”

“Everyone’s just happy that you’re happy, including me,” Zach said. He hesitated, glancing around, and once he was convinced there was nobody in this corridor, he leaned and presseda quick kiss against Gavin’s cheek. “Mostlyme, to be perfectly honest.”

Gavin flushed. “Don’t start anything you can’t finish.”

“Oh, I’m gonna finish it, baby,” Zach teased.

It wasn’t easy to drag his mind back out of the gutter, but Gavin managed it, but it took the rest of their walk to the locker room.

Zach pushed the door open, and Gavin was pleased to see that pretty much the whole team was already there, getting changed for practice.

“Hey, guys,” Gavin said, and they all looked up, nodding their greetings. “Just wanted to get together real quick before these last two games and check in.”

“We’re ready, Coach,” Ramsey said. He looked properly respectful, but Zach had already told him that Ramsey had guessed what was going on between them. Had even encouraged Zach to go for it on New Years Eve. He probably knew exactly what this meeting was about.

Gavin wasn’t surprised; he’d known what he was getting when he’d asked Ramsey to be the captain of this team.