Page 49 of Slew Foot (Scoring Chances #3)
Okay, maybe he was a little jealous because he wanted Mickey to talk to him too, but maybe this was a good sign. Maybe it would help.
Rafe thought about offering Mickey a ride home, but he didn’t want him to think he was, like, stalking him or something. So he went out to his SUV instead.
He was halfway home before he remembered they were getting low on toothpaste and body wash, so he headed to the market. Mickey usually kept track of that stuff, and they often went shopping together after practice but he hadn’t been driving since the concussion.
As Rafe wandered the store, he realized they were low on a lot of things, because again, Mickey had taken care of it. Well, Rafe was going to have to take care of it until Mickey was feeling up to it again.
They were pretty okay on food, thankfully.
Between the meals from the team chef and the stuff Catherine O’Shea and her daughter-in-law had brought by, they were doing great. But maybe a few snacky things would be good. And some milk. They were always out of milk.
Mickey was back home by the time Rafe got there, lugging in a bunch of bags because he shouldn’t be left in charge of shopping. He’d made very bad decisions. There was a reason he didn’t usually do this.
He shopped like an unsupervised toddler.
“Hey,” Mickey said, meeting Rafe in the hallway after he’d lost a fight with the plastic bag that had wrapped itself around the doorhandle. “Need some help?”
“Please.” Rafe looked Mickey over. He’d learned to look for the signs of Mickey having a good day or a bad.
He usually did better after yoga, and right now he didn’t have the squinty look in his eyes he got when the ringing and dizziness were particularly bad, so that seemed good.
“Feeling okay-ish right now?” Rafe guessed.
“Yeah. Not terrible,” Mickey agreed as he finally got the bag unhooked and took a couple of them from Rafe. “What on earth did you buy?”
Rafe groaned. “Umm, too much. But we were low on shit, so …”
He hesitated, not sure if Mickey would be upset by the reminder he wasn’t able to do what he normally did, but he nodded. “Thanks. I’ve been meaning to place an online order but hadn’t gotten around to it.”
They carried the bags into the kitchen and worked together to put them away.
“I saw you talking to Tom at the rink,” Rafe blurted out after a few minutes. He was very bad at keeping secrets and he didn’t want to keep them from Mickey anyway.
Mickey squinted at him. “Okay?”
“I was having a meeting with Gavin,” he admitted.
Mickey leaned a hip against the counter. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. How’d your meeting with him and Hoyt go?”
Mickey shrugged. “It went. They know where I’m at and it’s anybody’s guess when I’ll be back. How did yours go?”
“Uhh.” Rafe rubbed the back of his neck. “So don’t be mad at me but I kinda told Gavin about our, uh, kinks.”
Mickey’s face squinched up for a moment before he gave Rafe a shrug. “Tom guessed about it too.”
“I guess it’s not exactly a secret then.”
“I guess not,” Mickey agreed. He didn’t look happy about it but he didn’t look mad about it either. “Why exactly did you tell Gavin though?”
“It kinda came up? Like in conversation.”
“Sure,” Mickey said doubtfully, eyeballing Rafe. “Conversations about our sex life regularly come up with the boss.”
Rafe sighed and put down the mouthwash he’d been holding. “Okay, but Gavin isn’t exactly the usual boss. Or like … GM.”
“He’s not,” Mickey agreed.
“Look,” Rafe admitted. “He’s worried about you. We all are.”
Mickey frowned. “Did he send Tom to talk to me?”
“He said he didn’t.”
“Okay.” The frown deepened. “So worrying about me led to you two talking about the fact I’m pissed I can’t tie you up right now?”
“Well,” Rafe said. “Sort of? I—I dunno. It made sense at the time, I swear . And he promised he’ll keep it private.”
Mickey turned and stuffed the empty bags into their bag of bags that lived under the sink.
“Are you mad at me?” Rafe asked, biting his lip.
“No,” Mickey said. But he didn’t look at him.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Mickey looked up. “I just don’t know how to be what you need.”
“Can we maybe try to figure that out together ?” Rafe asked. “Because that’s kinda what Gavin said when I told him I was worried about you. He said we need to talk more and be a team and fight this together rather than you pushing me away and stuff.”
Mickey’s face crumpled. “I have been doing that, haven’t I?”
“I mean, you haven’t broken up with me, so that’s something,” Rafe joked.
“But I have hurt you, haven’t I?”
“Not intentionally,” Rafe said. “But yeah, it kinda sucks to feel like you don’t even want me to help, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.” Mickey stepped forward, sliding his arms around Rafe’s waist. His voice was thick when he spoke again.
“I’m sorry. I love you and I want us to figure this out together.
I do. I suck at it but I want to try. I want to be better for you.
I promised you I wouldn’t do what Logan did and yet here we are. ”
“It’s okay.” Rafe wrapped his arms around Mickey’s waist. “I get it.”
So, maybe he had a thing for guys who weren’t great at talking about shit. At least Mickey was willing to work on it.
Mickey tipped his head forward, letting it rest on Rafe’s shoulder and for a few minutes they stood there, breathing in unison. It made the tight feeling that had appeared in Rafe’s chest this morning melt away.
“Wanna go take a nap?” Rafe asked after a while.
“Sure,” Mickey said, straightening, but he only pulled back far enough to look Rafe in the eye. “And maybe after, if I feel up to it, I can give you a handjob. You didn’t jerk off this morning, right?”
Rafe shook his head. “Nope.”
“And, if I don’t feel great, you could jerk off on me instead, maybe?”
Rafe shivered, loving that idea. “Yeah, definitely.”
Mickey smiled. “And maybe after we can look online for some ideas for stuff that’s a little less demanding than tying you up and edging you. I like that dynamic and I know we both miss it.”
“Sure,” Rafe said, relieved. “As long as we’re in this together.”
Mickey stepped back, but he slid his palm down Rafe’s arm and clasped his hand. “Lead the way.”