Page 19

It wasn’t a very long walk to Sullivan’s. They were probably close to halfway there, when Gavin said, “I’d rather be grabbing a drink with just you, you know. I . . .”

“Yeah,” Zach said uselessly, when Gavin didn’t quite finish that sentence. Not that he’d probably have finished it the way he wanted him to, but the thought was nice.

“Sidney is annoying,” Gavin said, chuckling under his breath. “And if this team keeps playing the way they did tonight?”

“He’s gonna be on your ass constantly.”

Gavin sighed. “Constantly.”

“Winning’s better than losing?” Zach offered, repeating what Hayes had just said.

“Always,” Gavin said, the corner of his mouth tilting into a smirk. “But if that’s true, you have to tell me what you were doing in your office, frowning at your phone.”

“I . . .uh . . .it’s Hayes.”

“He’ s okay?”

“Oh yeah. He’s good. Probably gonna have another fifty goal season, frankly. But . . .well, I think he’s lonely.”

“No boyfriend?”

Zach barked out a laugh. “No. No . He’s sorta hung up on someone, someone he can’t have, and it’s fucked him up, forever.”

Gavin shot him a knowing look, intense and a little hot around the edges. “It’s not you, is it?”

“For the hundredth time, Monty and I are just friends.”

“Well, it would be okay if you weren’t.”

Zach wanted to stop right in the middle of this sidewalk and shake Gavin until he got it. Or kiss him until he got it.

“We’re just friends,” Zach said dryly. “He just . . .he had a fling with a guy, a player , awhile back. Pretty much the stupidest thing he could’ve done. I told him it was a mistake, but he didn’t listen, and now he’s fucked up and in love forever.”

Funny how history repeats itself.

“That really sucks.”

“Yeah,” Zach agreed.

“Maybe you should give him Marcus’ number,” Gavin teased. “He could get anyone out of a slump.”

“Maybe Ramsey,” Zach joked and Gavin choked out a laugh.

“God, don’t,” Gavin said. “Can you imagine—”

“Yes, and I wouldn’t ever, because what a clusterfuck,” Zach finished for him.

“He’s such a beast on the ice,” Gavin mused, and by the time Zach pulled open the door to Sullivan’s, they were chatting easily about the game .

Not surprisingly, the moment they entered the lounge area, crowded with people in Evergreens gear, Sidney swooped in.

“Gavin, there you are. And you brought Zach.”

“He’s a very important component of what we’re doing here,” Gavin said stoutly.

“Well, of course, he’s the one who got you here,” Sidney said. “Now I’ve got a number of people who’re just dying to meet you.”

Gavin shot Zach a look that spoke volumes.

“I’ll just grab us some drinks,” Zach said, touching Gavin briefly on the arm. He tried to avoid touching him most of the time—or at least being the first one to touch—but he swore Gavin leaned into it and that pinched anxious look in his eyes faded.

“Great. Whatever beer you think I’d like,” Gavin said. “Thanks, Zach.”

There was a line a few patrons deep at the bar, but Zach didn’t mind waiting. No doubt if more people recognized him, or if he’d been Gavin, the line would’ve melted away like it had never existed in the first place, but he decided it was better this way.

Let Sidney get his claws into Gavin for a bit, usher him around, and then by the time Zach had their beers, he could steal him away.

Sure enough, by the time Zach had two bottles in his hands, Sidney had Gavin at the third group he’d ushered him towards and that pinched look was back in Gavin’s eyes.

“Hey, I’ve got to steal Gavin away for a second,” Zach said, as he walked up to the group .

There was a blond woman there, eyeing Gavin with the kind of hunger Zach felt but never let show. “Oh, that’s too bad,” she cooed. “But who are you ?”

“My assistant coach, Zach Wheeler. You were talking about how good the power play was tonight,” Gavin directed towards the other side of the group, tilting his body away from the woman. “That was all him. He got McCoy and Jones there.”

“I think it’s going to be the best power play in the conference, if what we saw tonight is any indication,” one of the men said.

Gavin tilted his head. “We’ll see,” he said. “It’s early still.”

He turned away, towards Zach, and Zach pressed the bottle into his hand.

“Here,” Zach said. “Let’s go find a quiet corner.”

“God, I forgot how proprietary these people can be,” Gavin said under his breath, shaking his head as Zach led him away to an empty high top table. They might not have a lot of privacy here, but it was a start, at least.

“It was a really good power play,” Gavin said after he took a long sip of beer.

“It wasn’t all me,” Zach argued, though he had done a lot of work with Elliott and Mal and the rest of the group.

“It was enough you. Power play can be tough. Too many people who don’t play together, too many players who run their own lines, not wanting to work together.

But you made it work.” Gavin paused, one of those smiles that he didn’t seem to give anyone else but Zach blossoming across his face.

“More than made it work, honestly. It was absolutely fucking amazing. ”

“Thanks,” Zach murmured, ducking his head, hoping that Gavin wouldn’t see how flushed he suddenly was at the praise.

“You’re great at this,” Gavin said. “Gonna eclipse me, at some point.”

That seemed both improbable and impossible.

“No way,” Zach said. “I don’t wanna be anywhere else—”

“Someday. Not anytime soon,” Gavin soothed, putting a hand on Zach’s shoulder this time and to Zach’s delight, his touch lingered. Like he didn’t want to let go.

“Good, ’cause I don’t want to go anywhere.” He didn’t. And if he was going somewhere, it was closer to Gavin.

He wanted to get closer now , and normally Zach might have fought against that compulsion, but he didn’t want to any longer. Not tonight, anyway. He slid a few inches closer. Felt the heat of Gavin’s arm pressing against his.

Gavin didn’t move away, just smiled at Zach. Like he understood.

Like he wanted it too.

And every single goddamn time Zach thought this was too hard, that he didn’t know if he had any more patience to give, this was why he kept going. Putting one foot in front of the other.

Because nothing else felt this good.

Someday, it might be even better. But until that day . . .Zach was going to wring every ounce of enjoyment out of every moment.

There was a sudden commotion in the front, near the door, and only Gavin looking away from him forced Zach to do the same .

“Well, this isn’t that surprising,” Gavin murmured when Sidney exclaimed loudly.

Zach realized that the man he was staring at, that everyone was staring at, was Morgan Reynolds.

“Well positively, you’re no longer the most important person at this party,” Zach said. Might make it easier to sneak out with me.

“Yeah, except it’s Reynolds. Did you know he was coming into town?”

Zach shook his head. If Finn had known, he hadn’t mentioned it.

“He didn’t tell me either.” Gavin sounded exasperated.

“At least he didn’t tell Finn ahead of time, so he couldn’t angst about it,” Zach pointed out.

“Or Finn didn’t tell us,” Gavin said heavily.

“I don’t think he would’ve been able to keep that under wraps,” Zach said. “But let me check in with Ramsey. Maybe he told him instead.” He pulled out his phone and sent Ramsey a quick text. Hey did Finn say anything about his dad being here for the game?

Ramsey’s reply was nearly instantaneous. No. He surprised him after the game. Asshole. It’s okay. He’s with me, now.

Zach tried not to smile. Ramsey was as good of a protector as he and Gavin had hoped he would be.

“He didn’t know,” Zach confirmed. “And Ramsey’s with him. He’s got this.”

“Good, good.” Gavin was still looking over at where Sidney had an arm around Morgan. Sidney looked like he’d just won the lottery, and Morgan was laughing, amused by something .

Maybe how half the party was practically genuflecting at his appearance.

It was so weird, being in the same room as him—this man Hayes loved even though he didn’t want to.

“I guess I should go over there. Say something to him.” Gavin didn’t seem like he actually wanted to do it.

“Or we could just leave.” Zach didn’t want to talk to him. What would he even say? Hey, by the way, Monty is my best friend. Do you even know how much you fucked him over? How much you fucked him up?

Hayes would kill him.

Gavin looked shocked. “Just . . .leave?”

“Why not? You did your rounds. You made nice with Sidney. Even dissected the power play.”

“But Reynolds—”

“He’s distracting everyone.”

Gavin’s mouth quirked up in a smile. “Yeah, he really is.” He paused for a long second. Then immediately poured the rest of his beer down his throat. “Come on. There’s a back door here, somewhere, if I remember right.”

Less than thirty seconds later, they were pushing the door open, falling into the courtyard behind the restaurant, empty now, except for a small knot of smokers at the corner.

Next to him, Gavin tensed, like he was worried they’d recognize him too, but they didn’t even glance over as they passed by them, and then they were free.

“I can’t believe I just did that,” Gavin murmured as they passed by the front of the restaurant. If Zach squinted, he thought he might see Morgan in there, signing everything anyone shoved in front of him.

No, it was so much better this way.

Not just because it was just the two of them.

“Oh, you weren’t going to stay that long, anyway,” Zach teased, nudging him.

“This is what you hated about the NHL,” Gavin said, changing the subject which said it all.

“Didn’t you?”

Gavin shrugged. “I didn’t love it. But I was used to it, I guess.”

“I just wanted to play hockey. Now I just want to coach hockey.” Zach didn’t need Gavin to tell him that there was no way to do that. That once you were good enough—at playing or coaching; didn’t matter which—the noise came with the territory. You couldn’t turn it off.

“Missed a lot of things about this. Didn’t miss any of that,” Gavin agreed.