The hotel provided thick white terrycloth robes, and when we were done, I wrapped Logan in his, then draped mine over my shoulders.
“Doesn’t fit, huh?”Logan grinned up at me.
“Not quite.”I might’ve been able to wrestle it on, but I wanted to go back to bed and be naked with my… “Hey, boyfriend?”
“Yeah?”Logan raised an eyebrow, then said, “Oh.Is thissoon?”
“I don’t want to hold back.”I glanced away, met his eyes in the mirror, and turned to him.“I spent a whole year keeping a distance between us and feeling miserable.We fucked up, we admitted it.I want you back.Whatever that looks like.If you’re in the closet, we can work around that.I want you.No terms and conditions.”
He set a warm palm over my heart, his calluses rough against my skin.“Me too.I have from the moment I sent those stupid, fucking cowardly texts.”
“Enough.”I raised his chin and kissed him.“Less beating ourselves up over it, more planning.Can you spend the night?”
“Here?”
“Yes.I’m going to find somewhere for Avery to live—“
“I’m okay if you tell her about us.About me,” Logan offered.
“Thank you.”
“Rachel knows, and she’s with Rachel, so it only makes sense.”
“Yes.”Rachel had kept Logan’s identity secret a long time, even with her grudge against him.She’d restricted her badmouthing to “Miles’s ex” around Avery.Fuck, I was going to have damage control to do when I told Rachel we were back together.
One thing at a time.Rachel was thousands of miles away and she could wait.“We can tell Avery, and that’ll help, but tonight, I just want to be with you.No explanations, no backstory, no one else around.”
“Sounds good to me.”Logan led the way back to the main room.“I have morning practice, though, and I should go home, change, and get my car first.”
“I have to work anyhow.High school starts at an ungodly hour.Fuck.”I was a morning person and usually didn’t mind the hours, but tonight I resented cutting my time with Logan short.
He dropped his robe, sat on the bed, and reached for me.“We’ll have other mornings.Let’s enjoy tonight.I want to sleep next to you.It’s been too damned long.”
“Right.”I hauled the covers back up the end of the bed and pulled them over us as I climbed in beside Logan.“C’mere.”
He snuggled in where he belonged, his back to my chest, my arms around him.His round hockey ass rested against my dick, and the warmth made me twitch, but I’d already come so hard I had nothing left.This was perfect, simply like this.Too soon forI love you, after all the hurts, but the words wanted to rise to my lips anyway.I kissed his hair, reached behind me to turn out the lamp, and pulled him closer.
Logan fell asleep almost at once.He’d always slept better than I did.I lay there breathing softly, cataloging all the familiar and the unfamiliar.He was thinned down to muscle and sinew, more than usual for just halfway through the season.By April, he’d always been fighting hard to keep weight on, but I didn’t like how little extra he was carrying in January.I was used to the random bruises on his fair skin, same as I’d worn when I played, but there was a swollen dark one on his left shoulder that looked deep, probably from getting slammed into the boards.His hair under my lips was longer and less tidy than he usually wore it.
Despite those, he fit in my arms like he’d never been gone.An empty, aching spot in my chest was filled, holding him against me.His skin, clean from the shower, smelled the same as ever.The slight rasps of his breath as he sank deeper into sleep were my favorite lullaby.I brushed his temple with my lips, so softly he didn’t stir, eased my underneath arm into a less-circulation-cutting position, and tried to drop off.
A while later, as my fumbled thoughts refused to let me go, it occurred to me that I hadn’t set an alarm.I didn’t trust myself to wake in the dark in an unfamiliar room.
Logan didn’t rouse as I disentangled myself from him, inch by inch, and eased off the bed.My phone had been in the pocket of my discarded jeans.I unearthed them from my pile on the chair and dug out the phone.One waiting message flashed at me as I powered up.
Avery:~ Hey, Miles, just wondering are you…
I retreated to the warmth of the bathroom to read the rest, closing the door so I wouldn’t wake Logan.
…going to be home for dinner?I could cook something, if you like.As a thank you.With your own groceries, though.
Before I could text back, my phone rang with a voice call.Rachel.
I answered to silence the ringtone, before realizing that might not be smart.“Hey, what’s up?”
“I talked to Avery.”Rachel sounded pissed, and I winced.“She saida guy named Loganhelped you move her out of her dad’s place.What the fuck, Miles?You said you wereoverhim.”
“Hey, he saved our butts,” I protested.“I was waiting for the movers for her studio, and Avery texted me that her dad was being a bigger asshole than usual, and she urgently needed me for backup at the party.Who else could I call at short notice that we could trust?”
