Page 46 of Slew Foot (Scoring Chances #3)

Mickey’d had a bad night.

Rafe could tell that even before he’d opened his eyes. Some of that was because they’d both spent all night tossing and turning in their sleep.

Usually, Mickey was the big spoon even though he was shorter than Rafe. But not this morning. This morning, Mickey was curled up in a little ball facing away from him. Or, as little of a ball as a guy Mickey’s size could manage.

Rafe had a raging hard-on and a desperate need to come. It had been so hot when Mickey ordered him not to last night. It was why he’d tossed and turned. He’d been so keyed up, so restless and filled with eager energy.

But the erection pressing against Mickey’s hip seemed less important than the groan Mickey let out when he rolled onto his back, clutching at his head before looking at Rafe.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Rafe asked, rubbing his eyes. He cursed himself because he fucking knew what was wrong.

Mickey grunted, throwing one arm over his eyes. “Nothing.”

“Yeah, okay,” Rafe scoffed, glad Mickey couldn’t see the face he was making.

But, of course, Mickey couldn’t hear him either.

Rafe rose on one elbow and gently tugged Mickey’s arm out of the way. When Mickey’s eyes fluttered open, he said, “Hey, don’t shut me out.”

“I …” Mickey’s face fell. “I didn’t mean to.”

“I know.” Rafe dropped his head, pressing a kiss to Mickey’s pec. He smelled warm and familiar, and Rafe loved him, but he had a feeling what he was about to say wasn’t going to go over well. “It seems like you’re not feeling so hot.”

“The vertigo is bad,” he rasped.

“Too bad to fool around, right?”

A bunch of expressions crossed Mickey’s face too fast for Rafe to read. “Yes. Sorry. I know this sucks for you.”

“Uhh,” Rafe said, because he wasn’t sure how to answer or what to say to make this better. “I mean, sure. You know I like it when you order me to do stuff. And ordering me to not come last night was totally hot. But I get it if you don’t feel up to doing anything this morning.” He shrugged.

“I want to.”

“Well, obviously,” Rafe said with a smile. “But if you’re not up for it, you’re not up for it.”

Mickey let out a frustrated groan and clutched his head as he muttered something in German before he switched to English. “But if you want, I can try.”

Rafe scowled. What he wanted was for Mickey to feel better. And for him to not keep trying to shut him the fuck out. He was the smartest guy Rafe knew in a lot of ways, but right now, well, he was being pretty fucking dumb about this.

Rafe said as much, though a little more nicely, when he told Mickey it wasn’t worth risking him feeling worse.

Mickey’s face crumpled. “I hate that I can’t be what you need.”

“ You’re what I need,” Rafe argued. He snuggled closer, rubbing his cheek against Mickey’s chest.

Mickey sighed. “You know what I mean.”

“I do, but honestly, it’s okay,” he assured Mickey. “I can wait. Or jerk off in the shower or whatever.”

Mickey gritted his teeth, clearly not reassured. “It’s not okay that I can’t give you this. Not with me .”

Rafe shrugged. Would he rather have Mickey get him off? Hell yeah. But it wasn’t like he didn’t know how to get himself off in the shower. He’d spent plenty of time doing that over the years. What was one more time?

By the time Rafe was dressed and ready to leave for practice, Mickey was eating breakfast on the couch and watching some German TV show for kids on his laptop. It looked old. Maybe something from his childhood or something. It made Rafe worry about him even more.

Nostalgia didn’t seem to be Mickey’s thing.

Rafe cleared his throat and Mickey looked up. He had … well, Tanner had called it resting bitch face once, but he had a very serious expression most of the time. His face was so warm when he smiled but like this, yeah, Rafe supposed it did look a little bitchy.

It made Rafe love him even more. He wanted to see that face every morning and every night for the rest of his life. But it sure seemed like Mickey was trying to pull away now.

Ugh, stupid man , Rafe thought as he bent down and brushed his lips across Mickey’s.

“Heading to practice?” Mickey asked thickly.

“Yeah.” Tanner had already left, which meant Rafe was running really late actually. “You’re going in a little later, right?”

“Yep. In about half an hour, a ride share’s coming for me. I have a meeting with Hoyt and Racine, then yoga with Dakota.”

Rafe frowned. He wished Mickey would ride with him and hang out in the players’ lounge, but he’d said it was too hard to handle the noise of so many people talking at once. Not to mention the TV that was usually on and the gaming guys sometimes did there. “What’s the meeting about?”

“Just checking how I’m doing, I guess.” Mickey made a face.

“Hey, they care. We all do.”

“I know.” Mickey tipped his head back. “I just hate this.”

“I know,” Rafe echoed as he gently grasped the back of Mickey’s neck. “But I love you.”

“I love you too,” Mickey whispered. But he sounded so … lost Rafe felt an ache in the center of his chest.

So despite the fact that he should have left ten minutes ago, he took his time kissing Mickey because he hated how disconnected he felt from him lately.

And Mickey probably felt even worse.

He wasn’t only feeling cut off from Rafe, he was disconnected from the team, from hockey …

Rafe thought about how to fix it as he left the apartment and drove to HCI.

He was still thinking about it while he did his workout. He really needed to talk to someone who had been in a situation like this, but he wasn’t sure who.

Connor was the obvious choice, since he was captain and dating a teammate, but he was not exactly a guy who talked about his feelings a lot. He just sort of grunted about stuff.

Jesse, maybe? He was a lot more comfortable with feelings , but he was also kind of … intimidating . He was too nice to make fun of Rafe for something serious like this, but he also seemed like he was confident and had it all together and well Rafe definitely did not at the moment …

So Jesse was out.

Other than Mickey, Tanner was probably his best friend, and he’d totally be willing to listen but he had never taken anything seriously in his whole damn life so there was no way he’d actually be helpful.

Rafe glanced around the gym.

Who else was there? The problem was, most of the guys were straight and/or not dating teammates.

His gaze landed on Crawford, doing deadlifts—his face red from exertion, every muscle bulging as sweat dripped down his face—and Rafe shuddered. Yeah no . That wasn’t fucking happening.

Graham, who was doing box jumps, was a better candidate. He was a good guy, thoughtful and easygoing, but again, he was straight and had never dated someone with the organization. Rafe assumed so, anyway.

Plus, he’d just broken up with the woman he’d been dating and seemed to be in kind of a funk about it.

Rafe didn’t want to bother him with his own relationship issues right now.

Kady was great, but he was dating Mandy and his grasp of English was still questionable. Tom was great but he wasn’t around at the moment.

Ugh . The rest of the guys were a rotating cast of call-ups or guys Rafe didn’t know very well, so he was running out of options.

“Keep an eye on your form, Moon!” Leah Frye called out. She was the strength and conditioning coach, so Rafe snapped to attention.

“Yes, Coach,” he called back. He put all thoughts of his troubles out of his mind. If he wasn’t careful, he’d end up in injured reserve too and that was the last thing this team needed right now.

Several hours later, Rafe left the locker room following practice, video review, and a shower, and went in search of food.

He got stopped by his general manager halfway there. “Do you have a minute?” Gavin asked.

“Uhh, sure,” Rafe said, wondering what the hell this was about. He was starving but this was his GM, so …

“I thought we could grab lunch and take it upstairs to my office.”

Rafe gulped. Oh fuck . He was definitely in trouble. He was supposed to be the solution to the team’s defensive problems and well, with Mickey out of the lineup they weren’t exactly doing great. “Sure thing.”

It didn’t take them long to fill takeout containers with food from the buffet and carry them up to Gavin’s office.

Rafe had never been up here before, so he took a moment to look around as Gavin grabbed bottles of water and he caught a glimpse of a framed photo on Gavin’s desk.

It looked like it was maybe from Christmas—there was an evergreen tree with lights on it in the background, anyway—and Gavin had his arm around Dakota. They were laughing at something, totally in love, and it made Rafe smile.

Okay, so, he’d been kinda freaked out about the idea of people within the organization dating when he got here but clearly that had been stupid.

Gavin and Dakota were great together. And so were Jesse and Connor.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been earning my contract,” Rafe blurted out when Gavin took a seat across the table from him.

Gavin blinked. “Uhh, you don’t need to apologize. That’s not why I asked you to have lunch with me.”

“Really?” Rafe asked. He dug into his grilled pineapple chicken and brown rice with a sigh of relief.

“ Really ,” Gavin said, smiling a little as he forked up some salmon. “Things have been a little chaotic since you joined the team.”

“You can say that again,” Rafe agreed, noticing he’d spilled some rice on the table. He debated if he should clean it up now or wait until later. Probably later. There would be more.

“You’ve hardly had a chance to show me what you and Mickey can do on the ice,” Gavin pointed out.

“True.” Rafe hesitated. “And we kind of made a mess of things in Minneapolis, I guess.”

Gavin nodded. “It’s certainly not what any of us wanted to see but it’s not unusual for off-ice situations to impact how guys are playing.

New boyfriends feuding with guys’ exes isn’t something we’ve seen before, as far as I’m aware, but the league is changing so I have no doubt we’ll see something like it again. ”