Page 74 of True North
He had initially revised his mental plan for the evening when Misha told him about the phone call with his parents. He didn’t want to clobber Misha with too many things at once, and it was important to pick your moment when you had a big proposition to make and weren’t sure what the answer would be. But now that he had made up his mind, he didn’t want to wait even one more day. He was too anxious and impatient. He had to know what Misha would say.
Misha paused the TV after a while to go into the kitchen for a glass of water. When he came back, JT reached for him and said, “Don’t start the show again. I have something I want to ask you.”
“What,” Misha said, drawing his head backward slightly, wary.
“Nothing bad. At least I don’t think it’s bad.” When Misha wouldn’t come closer, JT said, “Please come lie down again. It’s nothing bad.”
Misha didn’t lie down, but he perched on the edge of the couch and draped his hand along JT’s hip, which was good enough. “Say to me, then, if it’s not bad.”
“I’m going back to Toronto in about a month. Training camp starts in mid-September, and I need to be there a little earlier than that to do press stuff. The season goes until at least April. I’m on the road a lot, so I won’t be there in Toronto all the time, but I only get back to the Sault for a few days at Christmas, and then another few days in January when we have our bye.”
“So I don’t see you much,” Misha said.
“No, I mean—that’s what I’m trying to ask you.” JT took a breath. Misha’s eyes were bright in the light from the screen, which displayed a frozen image of a woman in a bikini walking along the edge of a pool. “Do you want to come back to Toronto with me?”
Misha flinched almost imperceptibly. JT would have missed it if he weren’t looking so closely for a reaction. “JT, I think—probably I’m in jail.”
“Okay, forget about that. If youaren’tin jail. I have a really nice condo. There’s a pool in the building. And I would really—I’d love to have you there. I’d love to get home from a road trip and walk in the door and find you asleep in our bed.” He scrambled to think of any other selling points. “And Toronto’s a great town. I mean, you know that already. You lived there.”
Misha was smiling down at him. “You nervous.”
“Of course I’m fucking nervous, I’m asking you to move in with me,again, and you’re looking at me like the Cheshire Cat. I have absolutely no idea what you’re thinking.”
“I think yes,” Misha said. He leaned down to give JT a hug, awkward because of the positioning of their bodies, his face pressed to the side of JT’s head. When he sat up again, his cheeks were flushed pink. “Yes, JT. I’ll go with you. I’ve been worry some about when you leave. I try not to think about it much, but I know I miss you when you go.”
Relief and joy flooded JT’s body and made his heart pound. “You mean it? You’ll come with me?”
Misha was beaming at him now. “You so dumb. Don’t you know how I feel?”
“Tell me,” JT said.
“You’re like the sun to me,” Misha said, his eyes bright now with sudden unshed tears. JT pulled him down, and they didn’t say anything else for quite a while.
Twenty-Eight
He got a text from Adeola in the morning saying she wanted to meet with them that day, with no further details. JT had ice time with Alex and Curtis in a couple of hours, so he hustled Misha out of bed and into clothes and poured him a bowl of cereal while the coffee brewed. Misha did a lot of dramatic yawning and draped himself over JT’s back as JT messed around with the coffee maker, but he ate his breakfast and climbed into JT’s truck without complaint. Well, he wasn’t a fool, and he didn’t want to go to jail; even if Adeola needed him in her office before dawn, he would gladly get up in the dark.
Misha dozed in the passenger seat on the drive into town. JT had initially been amused and a little annoyed by how much Misha slept, but by now, he knew that Misha needed at least an hour more of sleep per night than JT did, and that was just the way it was. Now he felt protective of Misha’s sleep and was sorry to have to drag him out of bed before he was ready.
A light rain started as they drove east and grew heavier as they went. By the time JT parked on the street outside Adeola’s office, it was a veritable downpour.
“Ugh,” Misha said, newly awake, rubbing his eyes and scowling at the windshield.
JT grinned. “Better run for it.”
They ran, splashing through a huge puddle on the poorly drained sidewalk, Misha yelping as the cold droplets hit his skin. The front door wasn’t far, but by the time they were in the building’s empty lobby, Misha looked a little like a drowned rat, and JT was sure his own appearance wasn’t much better.
“Ugh,” Misha said again, wiping at his wet face with his wet hands and failing to do much but spread water around.
“Here,” JT said, laughing, and lifted the hem of his T-shirt, only moderately damp, to blot the water from Misha’s eyes. “You’re fine. Hair looks great.”
“Sexy,” Misha said, docilely accepting JT’s daubing. He raised his hands to touch JT’s soaked hair, rearranging the strands above JT’s forehead, his expression so serious and intent that JT barely resisted the urge to kiss him. Only the presence of the bored security guard at the main desk, reading a newspaper and paying them no attention whatsoever, held him back.
They went upstairs to Adeola’s firm. It was early enough that the receptionist hadn’t arrived yet, and Adeola met them at the front door herself. She looked cheerful enough, so JT hoped that nothing had gone horribly wrong with Misha’s case.
“The two of you look like you need towels and coffee,” she said, motioning them down the hall toward her office. “I can’t help with the towels, but I have plenty of coffee. Misha, how are you?”
“Tired. Someone want to meet too early,” Misha said, smiling at her. “No, I’m good. It’s a good day.” He transferred his smile to JT, who had to bite down hard on the inside of his lip to keep his infatuated delight from spilling out of every pore. Misha was going to move to Toronto with him; it was a great day, a great month, a great year.