Dawson had shot him a look, and it had been easy for Cam to raise his, too. What else would he be doing tonight? He’d only planned on dinner and then some TV on his couch. Maybe convincing Dawson to watch the nextFast and Furiousmovie.
But a hockey game sounded like a good time, and they’d all be in a suite, Clarissa said. Free food and drink.
Hard to turn that down.
Cam had not seen Nate raise his hand, unsurprisingly, but then he’d shown up with the rest of them at the suite, a frown on his face and reluctance in every line of his body.
He and Dawson had taken seats towards the front of the suite, getting ready for puck drop, blue lights flashing across the ice, but he was pretty sure Nate was trying to bury his bulk in the back of the suite, like he could hide from where he was.
There was a big enough group of them that maybe Natecouldhide, but not for long.
Aidan and Levi were chatting with him, Wes with them, while Jaden, Lane, and Trevor were seated in the row of seats across from where Dawson and Cam had settled in.
Cam couldn’t say he followed hockey much, but he knew the basics, and the game was fun—fast-paced and full of energy—and with Dawson a warm line beside him, he was having a great time. Everyone else was enjoying themselves, too, even Nate. At least that seemed to be the case, Nate talking and actually laughing, the handful of times when Cam ended up in the main suite area, to grab him and Dawson drinks or to fill their bowl of popcorn.
But in the first intermission, he and Dawson got up to stretch their legs, and that meant they were milling around the suite when the door opened and Ramsey walked in.
Next to him, Nate stiffened. Cam thought for a second he might duck away, but Dawson was on Nate’s other side and he nudged him back into their circle.
“Hey, guys, I heard you were around here tonight,” Ramsey said with a wide grin, making the rounds, shaking hands and giving bro hugs.
He was dressed in a suit, slate blue that matched his eyes, with a white shirt open at the collar, a diamond-studded chain peeking out, glinting against his skin. Even though Cam was currently kind of obsessed with Dawson, it was hard not to lookat Ramsey andkeeplooking, even if looking was all he was interested in doing. The guy was gorgeous, like a model or a painting in one of those big fancy museums.
Nate’s mouth was drawn in a grim, annoyed line when Ramsey finally made it around to him.
“Nathaniel,” he said, dipping his head. Nate was the one guy he didn’t try to greet with a touch. Just kept his distance.
“Your name isn’t even—” Levi said, wide-eyed, glancing from where Ramsey was standing, corner of his mouth quirked up in wry amusement, to Nate, who was practically quivering with tension.
“He knows that,” Nate said flatly.
Ramsey gave a little self-deprecating shrug. “It suits you.”
“It does not.” Nate looked the opposite of amused.
Aidan cleared his throat, clearly aware of how tightly wound the tension was and trying to unwind it. “It was good of you to stop by.”
“I was already at the game,” Ramsey said. He gestured towards the ice. “That’s my team.”
“The Leafs?” Cam asked, because he hadn’t thought so.
“No, the Sabres,” Ramsey said and there was something cold and detached in his voice then. “And I played college hockey with a couple of guys on the Leafs. McCoy and Jones. On the third line.”
“Oh, yeah, they scored,” Levi said. “That was a pretty sick pass.”
Aidan shot him a look.
“What?” Levi exclaimed. “It was! I’ve been watching hockey more. I know what a good pass looks like.”
“Itwasa pretty good pass,” Ramsey agreed. Cam had half-expected him to avoid Nate—talking or even looking at the guy—once he’d greeted him, but his gaze shifted right to the guy. “What did you think, Nathaniel?”
“No clue,” Nate ground out.
“Oh, that’s right,” Ramsey said smoothly. “Hockey’s too good for you. Or you’re too good for hockey? I can’t remember which it is.”
“You did say you’d get him here, to Scotia Bank,” Lane pointed out. Trevor nudged him with an elbow, not very subtly.
“I did. You wanna get out there after the game?” Ramsey asked innocently. Orhisversion of innocently, anyway, because Cam had a feeling that guy didn’t have an innocent bone in his body.
