“It’s okay,” I laugh, “did you have a good weekend in Tynerston?”
“Boy did we!” Nathan says, carrying one of Stephen’s bags through the door. “We went to go and see the Tiger’s, just an exhibition game as it’s the off season, but it was incredible. Never been to a hockey game before.”
“That sounds great,” I say, not hiding the huge smile that crosses my face, his parents are so happy and it’s contagious.
“They say they’re doing this to help me out,” Stephen says, “but really I just think they both enjoy being tourists in Tynerston and having a getaway every other weekend.”
“Hey,” Nathan says, “your mom and I have worked all our lives, we’re due a bit of fun, you can’t begrudge us that.”
“I know, I know, and of course I’m grateful,” Stephen says, pulling them both into a hug. “But I’ve told you it’s okay to drop me off downstairs, you don’t need to come all the way up to my room every time.”
He rolls his eyes at me playfully.
“Ah, I see what’s going on here,” Nathan says, “you’re embarrassed of your folks, don’t want us ruining your rep in front of your friends.”
I can’t help but laugh, knowing how much Stephen loves his parents and that he actually adores how much they care about him.
“I don’t have a rep,” Stephen mutters.
“Alright, we can take a hint,” Vanessa says. “Let’s go, Nathan.” She pulls his hand so they both step out of the hug with Stephen. “It was lovely to see you again, Donovan.”
“You too, Vanessa,” I say, “and you, Nathan.”
“See you in a couple of weeks.” Nathan nods at both of us as they head out the door.
As soon as it closes behind them Stephen lets out a sigh. “I would say they won’t be that intense every time, but they will.”
“It’s okay,” I say, “I like them.”
We make eye contact for a moment, and he smiles. Beth would call it a panty-melting smile… boxer-melting smile doesn’t quite have the same ring to it… but his smile definitely does stuff to me.
“How was training today?” I ask, wanting to seem as normal as possible, and not like I’ve spent the day staring at a shirtless photo of him.
“It was good.” He sits in his desk chair and stretches his legs in front of him and his arms overhead, looking incredibly sexy taking up so much space. “Going to the coach’s house for dinner actually helped which I wasn’t expecting.”
“How do you mean?”
“I dunno, I guess after spending time with them all socially, I just felt more comfortable around them, we worked better together.”
“That makes sense,” I say, “that’s why businesses send their employees on those team building days isn’t it, get them doing something different together.”
“True,” he smiles. There it is again… the panty-melting smile. “So how was your weekend, and the ‘art gallery event’?” He uses air quotes to mock me.
“Look, I sent you all the proof you could ever need,” I laugh, “I was at an art gallery.”
I throw a pillow at him but with his quick reflexes he catches it and throws it straight back, the force knocking me back on my bed so I’m laying down. I don’t bother to get back up and stay there, hugging the pillow.
As I look over at him, his eyes darken where he’s watching me from his chair.
“It was fun,” I say, “I’m ninety-nine percent sure there’s something going on with Beth and my brother, but they obviously want to keep it a secret.”
“You okay with that?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I say, letting a grin cross my face, “weirdly I think they’ll be good for each other, as long as my brother doesn’t fuck it up.”
“And them keeping it a secret,that doesn’t bother you?”
“No, I know better than anyone that sometimes you need to keep things a secret, they obviously have their reasons. And I can’t exactly be mad; I’m keeping a pretty big secret from my brother. Besides, it might be me that needs to be in a secret relationship one day.”
