“He has a girlfriend.” Eli slumped his way inside, left his boots by the front door like a housetrained Canadian boy, trudged his way through the house like he owned it, and dropped face-first onto the couch. “Why is your couch so big?”
“Eli.” Sandro shook his shoulder. “Did you drive here?”
“I walked.”
“From the bar?”
“From my apartment. Nolan dropped me off.”
“Was he drunk?”
“No.” Eli sounded adorably petulant. “He only had one stupid beer that he nursed for, like, two hours.”
“And how many did you have?”
“Not enough to not notice Mr. Wiggles over there. Hi, Mr. Wiggles. Did you run away from CC?”
“Oh my fucking god.” Hanging his head back, Sandro didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Not going to find any answers up there,” Bennett murmured, coming up behind him in a pair of Sandro’s sweatpants.
Sandro snorted a laugh.
Eli levered himself up onto his elbows and squinted at Bennett. “What are you doing here?”
“Sleeping, up until two minutes ago.”
Gaze going from Bennett to Sandro, Eli made a pfft sound and face-planted back onto the couch. “At least someone’s love life is going well.”
Sandro pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m so not equipped for this.”
“What’s happening right now?” Bennett asked.
Sandro leaned into him. “Eli has a crush on Nolan.”
“Who’s Nolan?”
“I do not have a crush,” Eli picked his face up to say. “A crush implies I’m fifteen.”
“You practically are,” Sandro told him.
“I have feelings,” Eli went on, ignoring him. Or maybe not hearing him. “And lust. Lots and lots of lust. And feelings,” he finished, somewhat pathetically.
Taking pity on him, Bennett sat on the coffee table and patted Eli’s shoulder. “I’m guessing Nolan doesn’t have lust and feelings back.”
“He does, just not for me. He has a girlfriend. A stupid girlfriend who teaches stupid astrophysics at stupid Sanford. I’m smart. I could do astrophysics. I just choose not to because who actually wants to do astrophysics?”
Sandro had never tried so hard not to laugh in his life. “Do you mean Stanford?”
“I don’t know. Do I?”
Sandro nearly lost the battle then, and he had to look away from the amusement on Bennett’s face before he burst into inappropriate laughter Eli certainly wouldn’t appreciate.
“Look at it this way,” Bennett said. “Maybe your love life isn’t what you want it to be, but your hockey’s been amazing this season.”
Eli moaned into the couch. “Has it? Because it feels like I’m still trying to get a handle on everything. Appearances and more appearances and commercials for sponsors and emails from sponsors—why weren’t you wearing our dress shirt, Eli?—and more appearances and fans thinking they own you and . . .” Letting out a long sigh, he turned his head, resting his cheek against the couch, and blinked at Bennett. “I just wanna play hockey.”
“Yeah.” It was Bennett’s turn to sigh. “I hear you, kid. The pressure during rookie season is no joke.”
