Page 20 of Puck Shots (Love The Game #6)

Cosmo

I changed three times before settling on jeans and a blue shirt that has the words, “I’m not yelling, this is just my hockey voice” printed on the back.

Brent sent it to me last year for Christmas.

It’s probably the most accurate saying, too, given I’m not exactly quiet when I’m watching a game.

It’s not my fault, though, I just get so involved I forget sometimes that I’m not actually there and am screaming at the television instead of the actual ref or player on the ice.

I’ve never been the type of guy to be shy about anything either, so when I found myself mumbling over my words when I was trying to tell Eli that I like him, it was a totally new experience for me.

Eli is nothing like the guys I’ve gone out with in the past, and not because he’s smart.

I’ve hooked up with all kinds of guys, but the way Eli somehow makes it okay for me to just be me, makes me want more than just a hookup with him.

It’s why I took forever to actually kiss him.

Trust me, I wanted to. I thought about doing it a hundred times before last night.

But then his perfect pink lips were just inches from mine, and I kept wondering how they would taste, and before I knew it, we were having our first kiss.

It’s not how I would have planned it, if I had a chance to plan it.

Eli deserves to be shown just how amazing he is.

He deserves magic. A first kiss with me all sweaty after a game walking along a dimly lit path behind the Greek row was not the plan.

“Where are you going?” Luka asks as I pull on my shoes.

“The movie thing in the quad.”

“Cool, I was going to check it out, too. Mind if I join?”

“Ahh, sure, no worries,” I reply, then immediately regret it. Why didn’t I just tell him I am going with Eli?

“I’ll just get changed,” he says, grabbing pants from his drawer and heading into the shared bathroom. “I’ll meet you downstairs in a minute. This is going to be great. We haven’t hung out in ages,” he calls through the door.

“Yeah. It’ll be great,” I call back and jog down the stairs. Eli is waiting by the door, fidgeting with something between his fingers. It takes me a second to register it’s the label from a bottle that he’s folding.

“So, small hiccup,” I say, and he startles but smiles wide when he sees me.

“What’s that?”

“Luka is coming, too.”

His smile falls.

“Oh, ummm, okay.”

I rub the back of my neck with one hand, hoping it will ease the tension, but it does nothing.

“I told him where I was going, and he asked if he could come, and I sort of said yes before I realized what I was doing. It was a reflex. He’s my best friend, and it’s not like I plan to do anything without him, during the day anyway.

If this was a midnight screening, he probably wouldn’t have even asked and just assumed I was going on a date. ”

The small smile returns to his lips.

“So this is a date?”

My heart skips a beat.

“It was supposed to be.”

“Then it still can be.” He beams. “I like Luka, and like you said, he’s your best friend. I wouldn’t want to make him feel left out or anything.”

Luka bounds down the last three stairs in a single leap and lands beside me.

“We doing this?” he asks, and I nod.

“Yep, Eli is coming, too.”

“Nice, the more the merrier.”

We follow Luka out the door, and I manage to position myself between them on the path as we head toward the quad.

The paths on campus are super wide and snake around the grounds.

They reminded me of the whole Dorothy and the yellow brick road thing when I first arrived.

Not because they’re yellow, but most are patterned just like the road in the old movie.

They are as old as most of the buildings, and I always thought it was a shame they didn’t continue the pattern with the newer paths to keep the old-world charm.

I guess they didn’t see the need for it.

How many people really notice the paths, anyway?

My arm brushes against Eli’s, and when I hook my pinky through his, it’s like his whole body shivers beside me for a second before a warm rush radiates from where we touch.

It’s simple and a quiet kind of desire that’s so far from anything I’ve felt before.

Did I imagine ten different ways to bring him to his knees last night after I went to bed?

Absolutely. But I’d be just as happy walking along the forest at the back of the house with him, too.

Luka glances back, mouth open about to speak when he clocks our hands and his eyes widen.

“I think I see some of the guys over there. You don’t mind if I bounce, do you?” he asks, already walking backward off the path.

“No worries,” Eli replies. “Come find us though if you change your mind.”

“Yeah, totally,” I say, but I don’t mean it.

I’m actually really glad that he’s leaving us to do this date right.

Thankfully, after the president of the frat hooked up with a pledge during rush a few years back, they loosened up the rules about active brothers and pledges dating.

Not that I would actually expect it would stop me from dating Eli, but I would have to be stealthier about where we dated.

The quad is full of students; most sit on the ground in groups chatting as they wait for the first film to start.

There is a giant screen set up on the far side in front of Foxworth Library, between two trees that are as old as the school.

Most of the trees in the quad are just as old, and they’re positioned mostly around the border, meaning there is no obstruction to watching the films being put on today.

The air is scented with buttered popcorn, and my gaze follows my nose to the stand set up on the left side of the space, and my stomach growls.

Maybe I should grab us some popcorn while the line is still short.

“This looks good,” he says when we’re about lined up perfectly with the center of the screen, but far enough back that we’re not sitting elbow to elbow with other students.

“Looks good to me, too,” I reply, and his finger unloops from mine, and he sits cross-legged on the grass.

I sit beside him and stretch my legs out in front, resting back on my elbows and the delicious popcorn scent wafts past my nose again having the same effect as last time only louder.

Eli glances down at my stomach with a smirk.

“Are you hungry?”

“Always, but now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t grab us drinks or something to eat, a blanket to sit on, anything really.”

“I’m good with sitting on the grass. But you’re hungry, so let me get you popcorn,” he says, climbing to his feet before I can say no.

I watch as he jogs through the crowd, long thin legs weaving between groups of students like he’s a chess piece moving across the board.

I never thought I could play a game like chess.

It involves using more of my brain cells than I ever thought I even had, but now, after a few weeks playing with Eli, I find I’m able to see a couple of moves ahead, and while I haven’t beat him yet, and likely never will, it’s become a really fun way to spend down time away from the ice and the pressure of trying to prove I’m good enough for the NHL.

“Yo, Flash,” Riley says, plonking down behind me., I sit up and we’re joined by Gareth, Rover, and Micky. Sam stays standing, arms crossed over his chest, surveying the crowd like he’s searching for someone.

“Hey, guys, I didn’t know you’d be here,” I say, glancing back at where Eli is lined up for popcorn.

“Yeah, Sam’s girlfriend, Cherry, and a bunch of her sisters are here. You should come join,” Gareth says, and I shrug.

“I’m good,” I reply, and Sam chuckles.

“Yeah, the sisters aren’t really his thing.”

“True. But it’s the company they keep that I’m really not a fan of.”

“Funny,” Sam replies with a smile that almost looks real.

“The pledge did great helping you land that slap shot, you think he’s got more tricks in that laptop of his?” Sam asks, and I can’t help but wonder, is that who he’s looking for?

“They’re not tricks, but yeah, he’s got footage of a few of the guys now to work with.”

“I’ve been hearing he’s getting on with a lot of the brothers, pitching in around the house, not causing any dramas.”

“If you’re trying to ask me if I think he should be voted in, my answer is yes. He’s a legacy, and he’s a decent guy.”

“I wasn’t asking, but do you think he’d be open to testing that program of his on a sport other than hockey?”

There it is. The real reason he’s here and asking about Eli.

“Why? You still sore over your loss to the Pythons last week?” I ask with a smirk, leaning back again on my elbows again.

“It was brutal. We couldn’t seem to get a shot in. They dominated possession the whole fucking game,” Riley says, and I laugh.

“So why come to me? Just ask him yourself. Or if you really want to play rank, he’s a pledge, you can always order him to help you.”

I’d never order Eli to do anything, and even suggesting it makes my stomach turn.

Sam shifts to face me.

“Do you think he would help or not?”

“Ask him yourself,” I say, glancing back to where Eli was waiting in line, only he’s already headed back now, large popcorn in his hands and two bottles of water shoved under his arm. I stand up and jog over to grab the waters.

“I think Sam wants to ask for your help with the lacrosse team. You can say yes, if you want to, even if it is for lacrosse,” I whisper.

“Ohh, can I tell Sam you called it lacrosse, instead of butterfly catching?”

“No,” I reply with a wink as we make our way back.

“Hi, guys,” Eli says when we reach them.

“Hi,” they reply, Riley and Gareth scooting out to make room for him to sit. He places the popcorn down instead and remains standing.

“Do you have a pledge task for me?” Eli asks Sam.

“No, nothing like that.”

“Oh, so are you here to watch the films with us? I only got one popcorn, but I can go and grab more.”

Sam shakes his head. “We’re good, we’re sitting with Cherry and her sisters, but we… I wanted to stop over and ask about your program.”

“Oh, okay. I didn’t know anyone knew about that.”

“A few of the hockey guys were talking in the kitchen last night. They said your program is the reason they won, and the reason they think they’ll take it all the way this year. Is that true?”

“I don’t think it’s the reason they won. The players out there are the reason for that, not some computer program.”

“But it helped them, like it helped Flash make his super-speed slap shot, right?”

I fold my arms over my chest.

“You saw that, did you?”

“Cherry wanted to go to the game.”

“Careful, she’ll be looking to upgrade her boyfriend next to a hockey god.”

He scoffs. “Only you would assume all hockey players are gods.”

“Nope, pretty sure everyone assumes that fact,” I say, noticing Eli fidgeting with his fingers.

I pass him one of the water bottles, and immediately, he starts picking at the label, but it has the desired effect as his shoulders relax a little.

“Your program did help me figure it out though, so go on, tell him how it works.”

Eli blushes a light pink as he continues to pick gently at the label’s edges, and it’s totally adorable.

“Well, I had it perform a biomechanical analysis of footage of Cos, extracting kinematic and dynamic data to model his movement patterns. It then determines selected parameters within the movement profile and conducts forward simulations under varied conditions to estimate the probabilistic impact of those modifications on performance outcomes. This facilitates data-driven identification of actionable adjustments to optimize outcome likelihood within task-specific constraints.”

Sam’s eyebrows are pinched in the middle, a fucking hilarious confused look on his face.

“Dumb it down a little, Eli. These guys run around with butterfly nets, remember.” I laugh and sit down and grab the bucket of popcorn, shoveling a handful into my mouth as I watch the exchange. This is the best film ever.

“Okay. Ummm. The program watches how Cos moves, then it makes slight changes to those movements and then tests the changes to see if they help make the moves better or worse. That way we can find the right moves that end up with the best outcome.”

“So your program tells him how to be better?” Sam asks, and Eli shrugs.

“It doesn’t make the moves for him. He deserves all the credit for the shot. It’s basically a computer movement coach.”

“Do you think it would work for other sports?”

“Don’t see why not.”

I grab another handful of popcorn.

“Sam’s trying to figure out how to ask you to help him not suck balls on the lacrosse pitch this year.”

“We don’t suck balls. That’s your thing, remember,” Sam retorts, and I can’t help but laugh.

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” I say, and Eli’s cheeks blush brighter.

“I’d have to change the parameters, and I’d need footage of the things that are going wrong, and examples of what right looks like, but theoretically, yeah, I could see if it might help you out.”

“That would be awesome,” Riley says, pushing up from the grass and brushing off the back of his pants. “Wouldn’t it, Sam?”

“Yeah, that would be good. Thanks, Eli.”

“No problem.”

The speakers crackle as the music for the first film’s opening starts to play.

“We should get going before the girls come looking for us,” Sam says, and the other guys stand, too. “Let us know when you’re free to come to a training session, Eli.”

“Sure,” he replies, sitting beside me, the label of the bottle completely removed. “I’ll check my schedule and get back to you.”

“Are you really cool with me helping them?” Eli asks, and I place my hand over his, loving the rush of energy that seems to vibrate through me when we touch.

“I’ll never keep you from doing anything you want to do,” I say, and his gaze moves to my mouth, and he licks his lips.

“Really?”

“Really,” I reply, leaning a little closer. It’s like there is a string tied between us, curling and twisting, pulling us in.

“What if I wanted to do something…exciting?”

“I can do something exciting. I once hid in a closet for an hour waiting for my brother to come home so I could jump out and scare him. He wasn’t excited, but I had fun.”

“I was thinking of something more out of the closet,” he replies with a smirk, and his cheeks grow warmer. My heart is racing as I lick my lips, the salt and butter from the popcorn coating my tongue.

“I’ve been out of the closet my whole life,” I say, and then he leans in and kisses me.