Page 15 of Slew Foot (Scoring Chances #3)

Mickey’s skin was gritty from sweat as he stripped off his gear following the Pride game a few days later. The locker room was noisy with celebrating players, the music thumping through the speakers every gay anthem Mickey had ever heard, plus some he’d never heard.

It had been a good game. Shutouts always felt good but sometimes they almost felt too easy? Maybe that was just Mickey, but he liked when they really had to battle to get the win and this one—despite the lack of points from New Jersey—had felt like a real challenge.

The kind of game where the Harriers had been playing well and their opponents had put a lot of pressure on them. New Jersey had gotten plenty of shots on goal but in the end, Jesse was simply playing that well.

Not only had the Harriers won on Pride night against a division rival, Mickey was finally feeling like he and Rafe were playing well together. Like they were gelling.

It was slow and steady progress and Rafe’s game had been great tonight. His positioning was right where it needed to be, and he’d gotten two assists.

Mickey glanced over to see Rafe wearing nothing but a pair of snug compression shorts that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Oh fuck .

He stared, mouth dry, until Jesse yelled out “Love Wins!” The words were followed by a loud blast of sound that made Mickey turn away.

A burst of laughter rose up from the room and Mickey saw their general manager covered in rainbow confetti.

Gavin laughed too, waving his hand to knock the tiny bits of colorful tissue paper out of the air and off his face. Dakota—the team’s yoga and Pilates instructor, and Gavin’s boyfriend—stood a few steps behind him, looking amused.

A guilty look crossed Jesse’s face. “Sorry, Gavin. Didn’t realize anyone was coming in.”

“It’s fine,” he said with another laugh. “Just wanted to say congrats. That was a helluva game, boys!”

They all cheered, including Mickey, and Coach Hoyt stepped forward to give them a short congratulatory post-game speech and hand out some milestone pucks.

Jesse got one for his shutout and Graham got the other for hitting the twenty-goal mark for the season.

Tanner shouted. “Great game, guys! Congrats to the captain for his five-game goal streak!”

Everyone whooped and Connor lifted his hand in acknowledgment.

“But tonight, this has gotta go to Turtle!” Tanner shouted, holding out the wall hanging that was their post-game prize.

“Speech, speech, speech,” they all chanted.

Grinning, Rafe took the wall hanging and draped it around his neck. “Thanks, guys. Great job tonight. This really should go to Mouse though.”

He glanced down at Mickey, all big and sweaty and happy, and Mickey felt a little dizzy.

“Mouse is the one who made all the plays possible. He’s always making sure I’m in position and ordering me around.”

“I do not order you around!” he protested, annoyed by how squeaky his voice sounded. Sure, he got loud and hollered instructions on the ice, but he wasn’t telling Rafe what to do .

Jesse made a scoffing sound. “Yeah, right. I can hear you all the time! You’re always shouting at him and telling him what to do. I mean, hey, whatever works for you guys, huh? Just keep the kinky stuff out of the locker room, am I right?”

He winked in their direction and Rafe’s cheeks bloomed a dull red.

Mickey went warm under the collar, imagining Rafe’s big body stretched out naked in his bed, clenching the pillow under his head while Mickey licked and nipped and kissed every inch of his skin.

He could practically hear Rafe’s desperate panting, his mumbled begging for more, but the way he’d go still and quiet if Mickey told him to.

“Uhh, let’s keep it going out there, guys!” Rafe said, stumbling over his words a little. As the team cheered, he sat heavily beside Mickey.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “I?—”

“What have I told you about saying sorry?” Mickey rested his hand on Rafe’s thigh. Through the thin fabric, his skin was hot and a little sweaty.

Rafe ducked his head. “I—I don’t mean to?—”

“I know.” Mickey squeezed a little, the movement too much of a reflex to stop. “But you don’t have to apologize to me. I’m not mad at you.”

“No?” Rafe stole a glance at him.

Mickey shook his head. “The guys are just teasing.”

“I—I know.”

“What we do out on the ice, that’s working for us, right?” Mickey asked earnestly, studying Rafe’s face.

Rafe nodded. “Yeah.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No! We’re playing well. I don’t want to fuck that up.”

Mickey shrugged. “So, the guys can give us all the shit they want but it doesn’t matter.”

“I know. But they think—” Rafe stopped, biting his lip.

“Does it matter?” Mickey asked, looking him in the eye. “What they think?”

“But we’re not …” Rafe dropped his voice. “We’re not doing anything … kinky.”

We could be , Mickey thought, but that wasn’t fair. Rafe had made himself clear.

And maybe Mickey was reading him all wrong. Maybe in bed he liked to be the one in charge.

“We’re not,” Mickey agreed instead. “So it doesn’t matter, right?”

“Uhh, I guess not.”

Mickey squeezed his thigh. “Good.”

Rafe let out this funny little stuttering breath and Mickey forced himself to lift his hand away.

He wasn’t doing this. He wasn’t .

Not to himself, not to Rafe. It wasn’t fair to either of them.

So when the guys made plans to go out and celebrate at O’Neill’s Pub, he turned them down. “I think I’m going to, uh, do something on my own,” he said.

“Like what?” Rafe was all smiley and happy right now and Mickey couldn’t quite look him in the eye.

“Like, a hookup,” he admitted, swallowing hard.

Rafe blinked, his expression falling a little. “Oh, okay. I thought we were going to celebrate together.”

“Another time,” Mickey said, feeling guilty but knowing this was the right call.

He couldn’t handle happy, smiley Rafe all night, crowding into his space and smelling good. It would make him do something stupid. Something that could ruin their friendship.

And if he found a guy on the app who was big and dark-haired and put him on his hands and knees and fucked him while he imagined he was Rafe, well, no one else needed to know.

It didn’t make him feel any better. If anything, it made him feel worse.

But at least now he knew.

A few weeks later, Rafe followed Mickey and Tanner into their apartment after dinner and a concert with some of the guys. It had been a fun night out and Rafe was in a great mood, pumped up from the music and the energy from the show.

Whatever had been bugging Mickey lately seemed to have gone away and he was all smiles as he took a seat on the couch next to Tanner.

Rafe plopped down next to him.

“Hey, what are you doing for bye week?” Tanner asked, looking up from his phone.

“Me?” Rafe asked.

“Yeah, you.” Tanner grinned.

“Oh, going home to Ontario.”

Tanner made a face. “Boring.”

Rafe shrugged. He and Logan had made plans but now Logan was taking Kelsey on the trip to Puerto Vallarta he’d planned with Rafe and yeah. No.

“It’ll be good to see my family. Where are you guys planning to go?” he asked, reaching for his knitting. He had a project that kind of permanently lived at Tanner and Mickey’s place now. Mickey had even bought him a little basket for it, which was nice.

“Uhh,” Tanner said, glancing at Mickey.

“Playa del Carmen,” Mickey answered. “It’s pretty much where the Gulf of Mexico meets the Caribbean Sea.”

“We’ve got a good group. Like six of us are going. You wanna tag along?” Tanner asked. “I bet Mickey could get you in.”

Mickey shrugged and rolled his eyes, but he nodded. “Yes, if you want to come, let me know.”

Rafe smiled, not surprised Mickey was, apparently, the one in charge of organizing the trip.

“I think the place we’re renting sleeps like ten people,” Tanner said. “So there would be plenty of room for you.”

Mickey shook his head. “Only eight. But yes, there is room for you, Rafe. If you want to come.”

He seemed kinda tense though.

Rafe frowned. “Thanks, but no. I really do want to see my family. My sister, Lauren, had a baby.” He held up the green hat he was knitting. “I want to meet him.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Tanner said. “No worries. Even if you are nuts for going somewhere cold in February.”

Playful chirping followed until Tanner finally held up his Switch, asking, “Wanna play?”

They both agreed and Tanner got things set up.

“You know, I was thinking about what you said a while ago,” Rafe said to Mickey while they waited. “I think I know why you live here even though Tanner is fucking useless,” he said. “I mean, this apartment is pretty sweet.”

Mickey laughed. He didn’t laugh a lot but when he did it was nice, warm and easy, like the smile he shot Rafe.

Tanner flipped him the bird, then grinned, clearly not mad about it. “I know, right? How’s your apartment hunt going?”

Rafe shrugged. “Okay.”

He hadn’t had much time to look, to be honest. There were people in the head office who, like, helped and stuff. And they’d sent him some listings. But every time he looked at the apartments, he felt kinda blah about them.

They’d been on the road a lot too and were heading back out to Dallas tomorrow, so he kept putting it off. Living in a hotel totally sucked but the apartments he’d looked at were all kinda cold and gray looking. This place was warmer.

Rafe wanted some place more like this …

“Hey, do you think there are any apartments available in this building?” he asked when it occurred to him that he didn’t need to find one just like this if this was actually an option. Why hadn’t he thought about that sooner?

“I dunno,” Tanner said. “Why?”

“I was thinking maybe I could find a place here. It would be super convenient to the rink and hanging out with you guys.”

“Dope!” Tanner said, glancing up from his phone. “Yeah, that would be totally sick.”

“Not to discourage you, Rafe,” Mickey said. “You should ask about availability, but I know Ben asked about it after he got called up and he didn’t have any luck.”

“Ben?” Tanner asked blankly.

“Estrada?” Mickey said. “The guy they brought up from Concord to fill in Tucker’s place after the trade.”

“Oh! Strads, yeah,” Tanner said, his attention back on his screen.

Mickey rolled his eyes and Rafe felt like he was in on another little joke with him.

“Well, it was a thought,” Rafe said, shrugging.

Tanner looked up again. “You could move in with us?”

“What?” Rafe and Mickey said in unison.

Tanner looked between them. “I mean, why not? We’ve got a third bedroom.”

“Isn’t it like … for guests?” Rafe asked doubtfully.

“Yeah, I thought you were going to have your family stay there when they visited,” Mickey said.

“Uhh yeah, well, when I said that to my mom, she fuckin’ laughed in my face and said she was only stepping into my apartment with a hazmat suit on.”

“Harsh,” Rafe said.

“I know, right? I mean, just because my last place was pretty bad. I mean, I have matured ,” Tanner said.

Mickey burst out laughing. “Matured. Right. You’d still be living in a pig barn if it wasn’t for me.”

“I know how to do the laundry now!” Tanner protested.

Mickey sighed. “Something even a ten-year-old can do. Yes, very impressive, Clay.”

They started squabbling and Rafe tuned them out for a moment as he thought about the offer.

It would be nice. The room was kinda small, but the bed was plenty big enough for him, which was all that mattered. He didn’t own a ton of shit, and he was gone on road trips a lot anyway.

Honestly, it would be kinda perfect . Close to the rink and way better than living alone. Staying at the hotel totally sucked.

He could ride with the guys to practice, and they hung out all the time anyway …

“What do you think, Mouse?” he asked, interrupting their argument. “Are you okay with it?”

Mickey turned and looked at him, mouth opening and closing without ever saying a word. He cleared his throat and shot Rafe a look he couldn’t read before he said, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I dunno.” Rafe shrugged. “It’s your place too. I just wanted to be sure you were cool with it.”

“I can’t think of a reason to tell you I wouldn’t be.”

Rafe frowned because that sounded sort of … weird, but maybe it was some language thing or something.

Still … it didn’t exactly seem like Mickey was excited about the idea.

“You know,” Rafe said slowly. “Maybe I’ll look around before I decide. I can check out a few more places when we get back from Dallas.”

“That sounds smart,” Mickey said.

And maybe Rafe was imagining it, but he seemed almost relieved. Or like, happy about it or something.

Which left Rafe feeling a little deflated.

“Sure, whatever. No rush,” Tanner said. He waved his Switch again. “Are we gonna play this shit now or what?”