“It’s okay. Sometimes it’s like this.” Jamie heard his soft exhale. “Am I allowed to say that I miss you?”
“Yeah, baby. I miss you, too.”
“Tell me about the game.”
He told Tyler how it felt to be back in the locker room, how something in him settled as he slipped on his game jersey. He talked about how some of the guys lost their shit around the Dallas ice crew, who were almost exclusively beautiful women doused in perfume.
After Tyler yawned for the second time, Jamie cut himself off. “Go to bed,” he said softly.
“I like hearing you talk about hockey.”
Jamie snorted. “You say that now.”
“I mean it,” Tyler said, and then yawned again. “Okay. I’m fading. G’night, Jamie.”
“Goodnight.”
Long after Jamie hung up, he lay there with his phone in his hand, smiling at the lights of Chicago blurred by the rain on his hotel room window.
By the time they pulled out the close win against Chicago, Jamie was ready to be home. He was thrilled to be back with the team, relieved to return to the rhythm that guided his life, but now there was someone waiting for him in Madison.
They had a quick post-game meal at the arena before their flight back to Madison. It was a short flight from Chicago, and Jamie was still wired from the game as he boarded the plane, staring out the window at the bright lights of the city as they took off.
Mitchy settled into the same row, tossing the pillow with a black silk case he took on every road trip onto the empty seat between them. “Battleship?”
Jamie nodded.
They set up their mini Battleship boards with the practiced efficiency of two people who had spent the last six years playing the same game on the team plane together. Some guys played cards, some guys watched movies, and others slept.
Jamie and Mitch liked to play Battleship.
They shot the shit like they usually did, but Jamie was distracted. It would be a little after midnight when they landed, and he knew he should go home and get some sleep. He could already tell his body was going to be sore tomorrow.
That would be the responsible thing to do.
He knew Tyler was working at the club tonight, and he was scheduled to get off around one.
Maybe Jamie could go surprise him. Maybe after they could go home and crawl into bed together, find the kind of bone-deep rest that came from being wrapped around someone close, someone safe. Someone who felt a hell of a lot like home.
“Sully, your move.”
Jamie exhaled, and focused on his board.
He was going to go see his boyfriend when he got home.
It was crowded at The Blue Barn. Jamie paid the cover and slipped in the back, finding an empty table. His body was sore, protesting as he lowered himself onto the uncomfortable chair, but it was worth it if he got to see Tyler.
He pulled his baseball cap low. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed to be seen there. He just didn’t want to draw attention to himself, not when he was at Tyler’s place of work.
A dancer with the build of a wrestler was onstage, dressed in something skintight and sequined, with a matching cowboy hat. Jamie watched him for a moment with a detached appreciation. The man was attractive, sure, but Jamie didn’t have eyes for anyone but his boyfriend.
There was a large crowd, mostly sitting in groups around the low, round tables surrounding the stage. In the back corner of the room, an older man with harsh, angular features in an ill-fitting suit stared at something over Jamie’s shoulder.
He turned just in time to see Tyler walking out from behind the bar.
Mine, mine, mine.
Jamie recognized the uniform, the denim shorts and boots, the glitter brushed over his tattooed skin, giving the illusion of a burnished brass statue. His hair curled around his shoulders, his lips glistened, and Jamie wanted tolickhim and then nuzzle his head into the side of his neck.
