“I don’t know about that,” Ricki said. “We shouldn’t be talking about this.”
Jacob could see that Ricki really didn’t want to get into any deeper waters about the Cardini family. And with the pair of them having such a fun time in the pool, Jacob could understand that too.
“Come on, lets” swim our duck families back home for their bedtime stories and snuggles,” Jacob laughed. “Last one home gets a spanking!”
Ricki burst out into laughter and the pair of them splashed, dodged, and dived their way back through the giant dolphin kingdom and back to the valley of the multi-colored ducks.
Once the pair of them were safely back on the other side of the pool, Jacob decided that it was time to share with Ricki what had gone down between him and Tane Rivers.
“Wow, that sounds…hot,” Ricki said, treading water in the deep end of the pool. “It’s sounds painful, butdefinitelyhot.”
“It really was both,” Jacob replied, blushing at the memory of Tane eyeing him up as he stood with his briefs down around his ankles waiting for the spanking.
“Do you think he might be boyfriend material for you?” Ricki said. “I know that relationships between teammates aren’t exactly encouraged, but…”
Jacob wasn’t sure how to respond to Ricki’s question. Ever since the spanking, Jacob’s mind had been full of thoughts about whether him and Tane could be a thing.
On the one hand, it was very easy to imagine how it might work. The pair of them clearly felt an attraction to one another, and the spanking did feel right – and afterward Jacob genuinely felt glad to have received it too.
But like Ricki said, the prospect of being in a relationship with a teammate was full of potential problems…
“I don’t know,” Jacob said. “I still don’t know whether Tane was spanking me for being too much trouble for the team, orwhether he was seeing it as a potential couple situation. Or both?”
“It could be both, you’re right about that,” Ricki said, ducking his head underwater briefly before popping back up. “But you should try and speak to him about it, you really don’t want any mixed signals.”
“True,” Jacob said, his mind already wondering exactly how he would handle the situation next time he saw Tane. “Either way though, I might just need to keep my sass going just enough to get another ass warming from him!”
With that, the two friends burst out into excited laughter once more.
This had been a great idea. Jacob was feeling better than he had in quite some time. First the spanking, and now a super-fun hangout with his friend. Things were looking up for Jacob across the board, and that could only mean his performance on the ice would benefit too…
* * *
“Good hustle, Jacob,” Coach Tremaine barked, visibly impressed as Jacob worked hard in one of the final drills of the day’s training session. “Keep working. I want to see you take it all the way home.”
Jacob felt a sense of pride that the coach had picked up on his increased work rate during training. Jacob had never especially enjoyed the training drills, fitness tests, and more banal aspects of being a hockey player.
For Jacob, the thing that got himhotwas playing the game – but with Tane’s words about improving his attitude still ringing in his ears, Jacob was determined to give it his best shot.
And to Jacob’s delight, Tane noticed his increased effort too…
“I like it, Jacob,” Tane said, skating over and stopping just in front of Jacob as he sucked down an electrolyte drink between drills. “Keep this up and even Connor might warm to you.”
“I heard that!” Connor barked. “But, yeah, good work today kid. Just make sure you keep it up.”
“See?” Tane laughed, patting Jacob on the shoulder and skating back to his small group who were on shooting practice.
But just as he was about halfway toward his teammates, Tane stopped and turned to face Jacob again.
“Coffee after practice?” Tane said, a warm smile on his face. “I can run over some thoughts ahead of the next game. How about it?”
Jacob felt his heart skip a beat.
Is Tane asking me out on a date?
Or does he actually want to talk tactics outside of practice?
Hey, a milkshake is a milkshake though…
