Page 25 of Tough Guy (Game Changers #3)

“My nails were wet.”

Ryan lit up. “Was that the reason?”

Fabian shrugged. “Yes. I mean, I can’t promise I would have been friendlier even if that hadn’t been the case, but I honestly was concerned about my nails.”

Ryan laughed. “I thought you hated me.”

“I did. I mean, I didn’t know you, but I assumed you’d be an asshole. The other ones were. And you were so tall and my parents were gazing at you like you were a god. Like you were the son they’d always wanted.”

Ryan’s heart clenched. “No, they—”

“It’s fine. They hardly made a secret of it. So I was prepared to hate you, but then you spoke and your voice was so soft. And you had that adorable shy smile. Yes, that one.”

Ryan flushed, but he couldn’t help but smile more. “I’d never seen anyone who looked like you before.”

“Lebanese?” Fabian teased.

“No. I mean all sophisticated and glamorous.”

Fabian barked out a laugh. “Glamorous? Oh my god, you really were sheltered.”

“You just...looked like someone from Panic! At The Disco or something.”

Ryan was worried Fabian was going to fall off his stool. “Stop! Holy fuck,” he gasped. “I was a fucking band nerd who was wearing cheap nail polish.”

“You had nice hair.”

“Well,” Fabian said when he’d stopped laughing, “you looked like Archie Andrews. But you didn’t look at me with disgust, and I couldn’t help but find that...intriguing.”

“I think the last thing I felt when I looked at you was disgust.”

“It’s a shame you never told me.”

Ryan took both of their plates to the sink. “I was still figuring myself out.”

“So you’d never kissed anyone before?”

“A girl. Back in Ross Harbour. We were at a party and it seemed like something I should do. I was the star hockey player, so I got a lot of attention from girls back then.”

“Were there boys you would have rather been kissing?”

“Not really. Not until—” Ryan stopped himself. Even after everything they’d admitted, this seemed like too much.

Fabian came to stand beside him at the sink. He rested a hand on Ryan’s arm. “Not until what?”

Ryan bit his lip, then said, “Not until you.”

When Fabian didn’t reply, Ryan chanced looking down at him. He was shocked to see tears in Fabian’s eyes.

“Oh god. Are you okay?”

Fabian nodded, his lips pressed tight together.

“I’m sorry if—”

“No. I cry easily,” Fabian said. “That was just really sweet. I didn’t know.

” He exhaled loudly. “I had never kissed anyone when I’d met you.

I told you that already, I guess. But I’d had crushes on friends who.

..couldn’t return them. And it made it hard to keep being friends with some of them.

But I never expected to have those kinds of feelings for a hockey player.

For the enemy.” He rolled his eyes. “I was such a judgmental prick.”

“I understand. Believe me. I’ve never really fit in with my teammates.”

“I’ll admit, even now, I’m surprised that I—” He sighed, then looked at the floor.

Ryan could guess the rest of that sentence. I’m surprised I’m attracted to someone like you. He wasn’t offended because he couldn’t believe it either.

“Your clothes must be ready to go in the dryer,” Ryan said. “Can they go in the dryer?”

Fabian laughed, then sniffled. “My clothes are extremely cheap. They can go in the dryer.”

After that was taken care of, Ryan suggested they have more coffee in the living room. Fabian curled up on one end of the sofa, his flannel-clad legs tucked under him. Ryan sat at the other end, but turned toward him.

“I’m sorry about your parents,” he said. It was something he had wanted to say when they’d been teenagers.

Fabian traced one of the Guardians logos on his pants with a fingertip. “About what? It’s not their fault they didn’t get the son they wanted.”

“It is their fault.” Ryan considered what he’d just said, then corrected himself. “I don’t mean—I’m just trying to say that they’re stupid for not appreciating you the way that you are.”

“Well, as I like to say, their loss. But it never feels good to be so disappointing that your parents take to adopting replacement sons. Better ones.” Fabian snorted.

“Year after year I was introduced to some version of their ideal son. My parents would just be bursting with pride whenever their big, jock-y wards would score a goal or be interviewed on TV. I couldn’t possibly expect to compete with that. ”

“I’m sorry,” Ryan said.

“What on earth for?”

“For being part of the problem.”

Fabian crawled across the sofa, then placed a hand on each side of Ryan’s face and forced him to hold his gaze. “It has nothing to do with you. You are wonderful.”

Ryan lost himself for a moment in Fabian’s dark, beautiful eyes. He resurfaced when Fabian released him with a laugh. “God, listen to me. I’m thirty-one. Why am I still whining about my parents? I’m doing great, they seem to be happy, everything worked out fine.”

Ryan wanted to argue, but decided instead to pull Fabian into his lap and kiss him.

“How long until the dryer is done?” Fabian said breathlessly when Ryan finally broke their kiss.

“Thirty minutes, maybe?”

“I have an idea for how to pass the time.”

“Oh?”

“Mm. And the good news is it involves you stripping me out of all this fleece.”