CHAPTER
FORTY
Mateo
Florian and I shower, then return to the couch. I curl against him, and he strokes my hair.
“I am so happy,” Florian announces.
“I’m happy too.”
The doorbell rings. Florian and I exchange glances.
“Maybe it’s someone from the apartment building.” I hop off Florian and answer the door.
It is not the landlord.
Two people peer at me. They’re tall with big smiles and bigger muscles.
“Welcome to Nashville, Florian!” a freckled man with red hair grins at me.
The brown-haired man beside him elbows him. “That’s not our new teammate.”
“Some defensemen are short.”
“Oh my God. Do you not know how to work the internet? He looks nothing like Florian Richter. He’s the boyfriend.”
I stare at the two men.
“Mateo?” Florian comes to join me. He places a hand on my back.
“Now that’s a defenseman,” the brown-haired man says approvingly.
“I’m getting that now,” the red-haired man says.
Then in the next moment, the redhead beams again. “Welcome to Nashville!”
“Hi,” Florian says. “Carter O’Neil? And Hugo Perron?”
The two men beam.
“You know how to work the internet,” Hugo says.
“They are my new colleagues,” Florian explains.
“New awesome colleagues,” Carter adds. “Nashville is great. You’ll love it.”
Florian smiles uncertainly.
“He is correct,” Hugo says, obviously reluctant to say that Carter is correct about anything.
“Come inside,” Florian says.
Carter and Hugo enter the apartment. They look around curiously.
“We’re still decorating it,” Florian says.
“It’s awesome,” Carter says. “Look at your view!”
