He makes a sound in his throat at that. I think he’s fighting a laugh. He scratches at his beard, his eyes sliding to mine.
“Don’t take my raw, honest moment and make fun of it,” he warns and flashes me a wounded puppy face before his devious smile touches his lips again. “Besides, she’s gonna be a doctor. She’s totally out of your league.”
I laugh and shove his shoulder. “Fuck off.”
He catches my hand and drops it to his lap. And there, in the darkness, he intertwines our fingers. The driver pulls off the turnpike, and the blur of pine trees turns into a succession of small mom-and-pop shops and humble houses as we take the road into Ocean Pines. “Can I see your place?”
He opens his mouth like he’s going to answer, and suddenly, I’m in this weird panic like my heart is free-falling from my chest. But then the Uber driver pulls over in front of my cottage, because that’s the address we gave him. Grady lets go of my hand. I thank the driver gruffly and get the hell out of the car. “My apartment’s this way.”
I watch him motion for me to join him as he walks down the street. I follow. It’s blistering cold out, and although we both have long wool dress coats over our suits, the winter wind is whipping our faces. There’s ice on the snowbanks and sidewalks. We get to the big yellow building, and Grady looks over his shoulder at me, the light browns and golds in his hazel eyes glinting in the moonlight. “The stairs can get icy. The landlord salts them first thing in the morning, but this late, it’s touch and go.”
I grip the railing as I climb behind him. I don’t have gloves, and the cold metal stings my hands. He has the top-floor apartment. I’ve looked at this building for decades. Watched it transition as a kid from a single-family mansion to an apartment building. Always liked how they kept the Victorian charm and character of the exterior through the renovation.
Grady opens the front door and flips on the small chandelier in the long hallway, and I know right away they kept the character and charm on the inside, too. The floors are a rich wood, and so is all the trim on the baseboards and door frames. There’s leaded glass in the French door that leads to the kitchen, and the living room has molding and sconces. Fucking sconces. “This place is sick.”
“Yeah. I really dig it. I’m hoping I can stay longer than nine months,” Grady tells me as he shrugs out of his coat and hangs it in the closet, handing me a hanger as well. “I took it as a sublet from some guy who had been transferred, so we’ll see.”
I hang my coat next to his, and once we both take off our shoes, he leads me down the hall. The place clearly isn’t exactly Grady’s style because he’s stuck with the wall paint and wallpaper of whoever was here before, and maybe even some of the furniture, but still. It feels like a good fit for him. My shoulders drop, and my brain feels like it’s sighing. Relaxing. Taking a break from the constant battles filled with unanswerable questions and self-doubt. In the living room, he turns on a small table lamp, and my eyes land on the chair in the corner by the massive window overlooking the sea.
“Is that your chair from L.A.?” I ask, but I already know it is. Grady had this incredible massage chair. Leather-like butter, reclines, heated, full-body massage chair.
He grins. “Go ahead.”
It takes me one second to plant my ass in the chair and turn it on. Full body Swedish with heat. I groan as it starts up. “So glad you didn’t sell this.”
“I moved basically everything, but most stuff is in storage until I get a permanent place,” he explains and walks over to sit in the other chair by the window.
I close my eyes and enjoy the massage. “I really need to get one of these.”
A minute later, Grady clears his throat, and I open my eyes. He’s standing to the side of my chair, looking down at me. “Can we talk about what happened tonight? At the rink?”
“When I let all that insane jealousy that’s been festering get the better of me and I dinged you with a slapshot?”
“Yeah. That.” He swallows. I watch his Adam’s apple bob under his beard. It’s shorter than normal, like he cleaned it up for Christmas. “And when you told me the thought of me being with Abbott makes you jealous.”
We stare at each other, and I turn off the chair. “Yeah, it bugs me. The idea that you… touched him. That he touched you.”
“It was almost a decade ago. Once. He’s with the love of his life.”
“And it doesn’t bother you? Knowing he’s got someone?”
“No. I knew going into it what we were doing was transactional.” Grady shrugs. “We were both horny, and in the closest, and it was convenient. But I’m happy for him now, because spoiler alert, he talked about Declan even back then.”
“Really?”
Grady nods. “And before you ask if there are other players I’ve been with, the answer is yes and no, I won’t tell you who because I don’t out people.”
“Fair,” I say, getting out of the magical chair. “But now I gotta try not to stare at our teammates and every guy we play and wonder if they’ve gotten to explore you… more than I did. And yeah, that’s not going to be fun.”
“If you want to explore me,” Grady steps closer to me, “you can. Anytime. Any place.”
Holy shit.
Chapter 23
Landon
“I like the idea of you exploring my body. And lord knows I’ve explored yours in my fantasies more times than I can count.”
