She walks back a couple of feet to stand in front of us again and holds up the phone. “Everyone loves how well you two play together. So let’s see how well you know each other off the ice.”
Well, I’ve made him come while fucking my girlfriend, so we know each other pretty damn well, Kendra, I think to myself, and try to ignore the fact that it feels like Grady is staring at me and thinking the exact same thing.
Kendra explains we’re going to play a version of the Newlywed Game where she asks us questions about each other, and we have to write down what we think the answer is, and then the person gives it. She asks Grady what my dad’s position was when he played. Easy. Then she asks me what town the Garrison family is from. Piece of cake.
The questions get progressively more obscure, but no matter what it is, we both get every answer right. Everything from what’s my favorite color (Grady correctly guesses green) to my favorite off-season hobby (making sandwiches) to his middle name (Talbot, after his mom’s maiden name) to what Grady’s hobby is (collecting vintage sunglasses, duh). By the tenth and final question, Kendra is grinning in appreciation. “I can’t believe you two didn’t miss one! You guys are actually best friends, aren’t you?”
“He’s definitely the person I’m closest to in the league,” I say without hesitation. “He’s the best.”
Kendra looks at Grady. He looks a little dumbfounded as he stares at me, but then he blinks and grins and jokes, “I’m just hanging around so he makes me one of his gourmet sandwiches.”
Kendra and Landon laugh, and so do I, as I reach out and shove him playfully. It’s nice to have this moment where what we did forty-eight hours ago doesn’t matter. Now, how do we hold onto that forever?
Kendra stops recording. “See, guys? Painless. Thanks for that. Have a good game tomorrow night.”
She dismisses us with a wave of her hand and starts taking everything down. I follow Grady out of the room. We make our way to the elevators and up a floor to the banquet room, where the hotel has set up lunch.
I tell myself I need to sit next to Grady, to prove to him and myself that I can make this right again. But Conner pulls Grady aside outside the room, and they stay huddled over Conner’s phone, smiling and talking in a low whisper for almost ten minutes. Family stuff, I guess. I’ve heard of the Garrison Family Group Chat and how crazy it gets from Tate. So because I’m hell bent on trying to continue being normal around him, I window shop the plethora of soups, salads, pasta dishes, grilled chicken, and a few premade sandwiches. I grab a plate.
“Sandwich time?” I hear from behind me.
“You know me so well,” I smirk. I love me a good sandwich. It’s a bad obsession during the season because of the heavy calories most breads have, but I allow myself one a week. And my only hobby is trying new sandwich recipes from the internet or tinkering in the kitchen, concocting my own.
As I look over their sandwich options, Grady fills a plate with two different salads, a chicken breast, and a side of pesto pasta. I pick a crispy prosciutto sandwich with tomato, arugula, provolone cheese, and pesto mayo. I also grab a bit of the Greek salad and two Gatorades, one for each of us. I find Grady standing by the door instead of at a table. “I’m gonna eat in my room. Got some apartments to look at.”
“Yeah, I should go to mine and call Angie,” I say, then follow him out of the room.
We get into the elevator again, but I don’t punch the button for my floor after he punches his. “Want me to hit your floor?”
“Oh. What?” I blink and feel heat crawling up my neck. “I thought… that we could eat together in your room. And talk. I thought the apartment thing was a lie.”
Grady’s eyes narrow, and then he lets out a breath. “No. I mean… of course you can eat with me. I just didn’t think you’d want to be alone with me.”
“Dude.” I sigh. So much for holding onto the normalcy. “I don’t have anything against you. You did nothing wrong.”
“Neither did you,” Grady says as I step into the hall beside him.
We walk toward his room in silence, and as I stare and the burgundy and gold design on the lush carpet I’m standing on, it hits me that he’s absolutely right. I didn’t do anything wrong. I had a sexual encounter with two willing people. The end. So what if one of them was my favorite teammate? There’s no need for shame or awkwardness, so why does my brain insist on lobbing those emotions at me like grenades?
He taps the lock with his keycard and turns the handle. His room looks exactly like mine. Same small couch, same mahogany coffee table, same muted green bed covering. I take a seat on the couch, and Grady pulls over the chair from the small desk and sits across from me. I try not to read into it.
“So you’re really looking for an apartment?” I ask as I lift one half of my sandwich.
He nods, chewing on some salad. “Yeah. I mean, this thing at the cottage was just a temporary thing. It’s always been the plan.”
I nod slowly and watch him open his mouth and put a forkful of chicken in his mouth. A mouth I’ve touched with my own. A tingle of electricity ripples up my spine, which I promptly ignore. “So the other night has nothing to do with it?”
He swallows and reaches for his Gatorade. “The other night? No. Your reaction after the fact? Yeah.”
Guilt swirls inside me. I look down. “I’ve been an ass.”
He doesn’t say anything. Just sips his drink. I put down my sandwich.
“Look, I don’t regret it. I enjoyed it a fuck ton, which is why I think I freaked out.”
“Angie said you two had had threesomes before.”
I rub my forehead. “Yeah. With one of the ice girls.” His eyes flare at that. The ice girls are kinda like cheerleaders for hockey teams. It’s more of an American team tradition than a Canadian one, but they dress in skimpy outfits and entertain the crowd, on and off the ice, between periods. They give away prizes and stuff. Because they’re employed by the team, it’s completely off-limits to be involved with them. “She used to flirt with me, and then I caught her flirting with Angie. We joked about it one night, and then we kind of, well, talked about what if we… and we both liked the idea. Anyway, it happened off-season, after the ice girl quit, of course, because of policy.”
