Page 26 of The Poster Boy (Love The Game #3)

Marek

B oone’s family home looked like something out of a Hallmark movie. A fresh layer of snow blanketed everything, really selling the whole thing. Every house on the street they lived on was decorated top to bottom with Christmas lights.

When we pulled into the driveway, Boone’s mom opened the door and waited on the front steps in her house slippers.

She pulled her cardigan shut to ward off the chill and waved at Boone.

And if that wasn’t a kick in the chest. Even before I’d come out, my parents were hardly the affectionate type.

The fact that I couldn’t imagine a world in which I’d ever gotten a greeting like that from them made me heartsick.

Usually I did my best not to give them much thought, but they’d been on my mind lately.

The internet and the media had found out the real story behind my fractured relationship with them and was firmly on my side.

That was some small solace, but I still hated that everyone knew I’d been thrown away.

Even now the rejection sat thick in my stomach.

An ache I couldn’t get rid of no matter how I tried .

Boone cut the engine and was the first one out. I took my time, wanting to give Boone and his mom a chance to say hello first. But I couldn’t hide in the Jeep forever. Taking a deep breath, I climbed out and was met by Jay, who slung an arm around my shoulders and towed me toward the front door.

“They don’t bite. Boone’s the feral one of the bunch.”

“I heard that,” Boone said as he wriggled out of his mom’s embrace.

“You were meant to,” Jay shot back. “Diane, this is Marek. Marek, this is Boone’s mom.”

Jay kept his arm around my shoulders until I was in front of Diane and only then did he pull it away. Before I could even get a greeting out, she wrapped her arms around Jay and me.

“Merry Christmas, you two.” Diane squeezed the life out of me.

She smelled like Christmas cookies and coffee, and she hugged like she meant it.

Like she thought maybe she could fix anything if she squeezed someone hard enough.

It wasn’t until she let go that I realized how bad I needed a hug.

The past few days had been rough. Shit, it started long before that.

“Thanks for having me. It was kind of you to include me in your celebrations.” My gratitude sounded a lot less like a Hallmark Christmas card in my head. But Diane’s expression softened and she patted my forearm.

“It’s our pleasure, dear. The more, the merrier. You boys get your stuff and come on in. Dad’s got the guest room in the basement finished, but there’s three of you, so someone’s going to be on the couch down there.” Diane disappeared into the house.

“I’ll take the couch,” I said to Jay and Boone .

Boone had grabbed all our bags and held mine out to me.

“Now what kind of a host would I be if I let my guest sleep on the couch? Plus, Jay’s a bed hog.” He grinned at me, and I wondered if he knew. If Jay had told him about us. I mean, they were best friends, of course Jay probably told him.

“Come on,” Jay said to me as he followed Boone into the house.

The inside of the house was just as festive as the outside.

“You guys get your gear downstairs then come on up for lunch,” Diane called to us from the kitchen. It wasn’t a mystery where Boone got his personality from. He and his mom both had that thing about them where they were good in charge, where people wanted to follow them.

The basement wasn’t anything special, but it had that lived-in feeling.

It was clear that real people lived here.

Laughed here. The main part of the room was open concept.

A large sectional faced a wall-mounted television.

A cabinet full of board games sat under the television and several gaming consoles sat on top of the cabinet.

“You two are in the guest room.” Boone dropped his bag on one end of the couch, shot me a wink, then headed back upstairs.

I turned to Jay, and he shrugged. “Boone figured it out the minute I said I’d invited you to come.”

He said it like it was no big deal, and to him it probably wasn’t. It clearly hadn’t been if he hadn’t come out and told Boone himself. If Boone hadn’t figured it out on his own, would Jay have even told his best friend about us?

I’d told my sister. Kelsey knew that I’d started seeing someone on the team.

Casually. Intermittently. She knew it was Jay, and that we didn’t get along at first. I didn’t know how to feel about Jay keeping us from his best friend.

On one hand, it wasn’t Boone’s business, but on the other, it made me feel like a dirty little secret.

Like something Jay only admitted to because he’d been caught.

I followed him into the guest room. It was decorated with dark green walls and a lush white carpet that was impossibly thick. Jay dropped his stuff on the floor by the bed and then took my bag from me and did the same.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. It’s just…” I bit back the urge to ask him if he actually liked me or if he just liked having sex with me. Was he ashamed of us and that’s why he didn’t tell his best friend? “I feel like I’m in a Christmas movie.”

Jay shot me a dazzling smile. He was different here, I realized. Less a hockey player and more himself. More relaxed. Happier. It wasn’t lost on me that Jay wasn’t celebrating with anyone from his family either.

“They can be a lot, but they’re great people. Come on, before Diane sends a search party for us, and before Boone eats all the good stuff.”

Jay didn’t put his arm around me or take my hand or otherwise claim me the way I wanted him to. I followed him anyway. All the way upstairs and into the kitchen where Boone had already sat down and tucked into a plate of food.

“Dish yourselves up, boys. The other kids are out with friends and won’t be back until dinner.”

“I wondered where the brat pack was.” Boone tore a fresh-baked bun open and buttered the inside. “Dig in, guys.”

The table was laden with food. Macaroni and cheese. Fresh buns. Ribs. Two kinds of salads.

I took a seat next to Jay and started dishing myself up when a man who was the spitting image of Boone walked in. He was older and grayer, but it was like looking at Boone in twenty years.

“Howard, the boys are here.” Diane greeted him with a kiss to the cheek before she flitted away to do something else.

“Yes, I can see that.” Howard stopped and shook my hand. “You must be Marek.”

“Yes, sir. Thanks for having me.”

Howard grinned at me. “Thanks for coming. You see, no matter how many people we have, Diane cooks like we’re hosting the entire hockey team. You’re saving me a lot of leftovers.”

Howard turned his charm to Jay next. “Hey, son, how’s it going? Haven’t heard from you in a bit.”

“Can’t complain much. Still dealing with my roommate and his tendency to leave cereal bowls in the sink without rinsing them. But mostly he’s been housebroken now.”

“Hey.” Boone shoved Jay. “Asshole.”

Boone looked over at me. “You see what I put up with? I invite him to my family home for the holidays and all I get in return is betrayal.”

I had a feeling that versions of this scene had played out before, and that I was witnessing an inside joke playing out again. It was probably one of their traditions.

Jay seemed to fit with Boone’s family. Diane and Howard fussed over him like he was one of their own, and later when Boone’s siblings made an appearance, it was apparent just how much this family meant to Jay.

The youngest, an almost-out-of-high school kid named Bella, definitely had the hots for Jay, though.

If it didn’t make Jay so uncomfortable, I might have been jealous of the way she constantly flirted with him .

Jay never flirted back of course. And at some point, I started to wonder if she had a crush on him at all, or if she simply liked to watch him squirm. Everyone went out of their way to make me feel like I was part of the celebration.

Come time for bed, I was a bundle of nerves.

Spending the night in the same room as Jay felt like a huge step.

Boone had made himself a bed on the sectional.

He turned out to be one of those people who could lie down and immediately be asleep.

By the time I finished brushing my teeth, Boone was snoring his ass off.

“Holy shit, I’m glad he’s out there. How do you live with that?”

“Easy. His bedroom is on the other side of the apartment.” Jay slid past me, “I’m going to brush my teeth.”

Nerves fluttered in my stomach as I shucked my clothes, all except for my briefs, and climbed into bed.

I shifted positions a couple times and ended up on my back with my hands behind my head.

I was trying and failing to act naturally.

I knew this wasn’t some sort of romantic boyfriend getaway or anything, but a foolish part of me wanted it to be.

Ever since that first time Jay and I hooked up, I’d grown increasingly fond of him.

It meant something to me that Jay had cared enough to make sure I wasn’t alone for the holiday.

He didn’t have to make sure I had somewhere to go, or he could have passed me off to any other member of the team. But he brought me with him.

Jay came back from brushing his teeth and crawled into bed next to me with barely a glance in my direction.

“Holy shit, I’m tired. It was a long day.”

“Yeah. It was. It was good, though. Boone has a great family.” I thought of Diane and the kind of mom she was. Energetic. Kind. Clearly food was her love language. “So much food, though. Oh, God. And three kinds of dessert?”

“Yeah, she goes all out for the holidays. Or any other time Boone comes home. She’s always convinced he doesn’t eat enough.”

“I’m sure Clara would be happy to argue his diet with her.” Clara was the team nutritionist, and she’d been a great help to me when I set up meal deliveries after the transfer.

“No one argues with Diane.” The fondness in Jay’s voice made my chest ache when I wondered if he ever sounded like that when he talked about me. Jay yawned again and rolled over, facing away from me. “Goodnight, Marek.”

Jay turning his back to me was a bucket of water on an otherwise wonderful day. I didn’t really expect him to want to fuck me through the floor, we were in someone else’s house, after all, but it still hurt and I lay awake long after that trying not to let the sting of rejection get to me.