Page 146 of Breaking the Ice

“Oh God,” Zach said. “That’s none of your business.”

“It sure is,” Ramsey argued. “We need to know who won the pot!”

“It’s not a small amount of money,” Ivan said, nodding.

“No shit,” Finn said.

“Dude, shut up, your dad is a multi-millionaire and you’re datinganothermulti-millionaire,” Elliott said.

“And most of the room gets some kind of NIL money,” Ramsey inserted. “Nobody’s hurting.”

“Uh, we’re not comfortable discussing the details,” Gavin said, hoping that maybe he could head this off at the pass. “Maybe we could donate the pot to charity? Maybe Jacob’s charity?”

Ramsey looked unimpressed by this plan. “It’s not about the money. It’s about bragging rights.”

God. Their relationship details were now part of thebragging rightsof the team. If he’d thought answering Jon’s questions about their sex life was uncomfortable, this was worse.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Brody said, and Finn chimed in his agreement.

“Shut up,” Ivan told Finn. “You’re only saying that because you think you won.”

“Hedidwin. He’s fucking Jacob Braun,” Elliott said.

“Hey,” Mal said. “Andyou’refucking me.”

Elliott shot him a look filled with love and affection, batting his eyelashes. “And oh, baby, I love it. Every single moment of it.”

Gavin scrubbed a hand across his face. “What would settle this?”

Next to him, Zach was chuckling under his breath. At Gavin? At Gavin’s clearly delusional idea that he’d be able to tell the team the basic fact that they were together now and they’d leave it alone?Probably.

God, Gavin loved him anyway. Even the annoying bits.Especiallythe annoying bits.

“Obviously we need to know when you really got together,” Ramsey said.

“Not the nitty-gritty,” Ivan said hurriedly. “Just the timeline.”

“I don’t know, I could stand to hear a few details,” Elliott muttered.

“Shut up, you horny monster,” Brody retorted. “It’s amazing Mal manages to satisfy you.”

“Not so much of a surprise,” Elliott announced.

Ivan groaned. “Don’t fucking get him started, okay? Because hewilltell you exactly how Mal does, in explicit detail.”

“A timeline. Okay.” Gavin looked over at Zach, who was still grinning. “You okay with that?”

“Hey, it’s your show, G,” Zach said, raising his hands like he wasn’t half of this.

Gavin sighed.

“That’s what we need, Coach,” Finn said. “What date was it?”

“January 2,” Gavin finally admitted.

The room burst into noise again, Ramsey trying to argue that January 2 was basically the same as January 1, which was the New Year and Finn making the point that the fact it wasafterJanuary 1, plus that Gavin and Zach were telling them two games before the end of the regular season meant he should win.

“I guess believing this would be no big deal was wishful thinking,” Gavin said under his breath.