Lindsay laughs, her arms slipping around his waist. “We’re proud of you,” she assures him. Nick squeezes her back. “But we’re still allowed to worry about you.”
“I know,” Nick says, groaning with an exaggerated, put-upon sigh and smiling. He wouldn’t have it any other way. “I just… I like Matt,” he says, and it feels like a secret. Taboo. “But what if I just like him because I need someone to fixate on that isn’t Connor?”
It’s something Nick’s been thinking for the last few days, worried that he’s incapable ofnotbeing obsessed over someone.
“The only way to figure that out is to keep going with it,” Marco replies diplomatically. “Chances are, it’s not that at all and he just happened to arrive in your life at the right time for you to be ready. But if itisjust a way to avoid whatever it is you’ve got going on with LaPorte, then that’s okay. You just need to stop sleeping with him before one of you gets hurt.”
“But the sex isreallygood.”
“Oh my God.” Lindsay bursts out laughing at Marco’s groan and blush. Nick grins.
“Like, I know it was just the once but holy shit, he does this thing where?—”
“I don’t need to know this!” Marco cuts in loudly, shoving Nick away and heading for the door. “I’m going to the rink! Fuck you and your feelings!”
“You’re driving me, you asshole!” Nick chases after him, tackling him in the hallway with a laugh.
“No gay sex talk in my car.”
“That’s homophobic.”
Marco whips around, pulling him in a headlock. “That’s me not wanting to know any more about your dick than I unfortunately already do,” he retorts.
“I’m also in favor of your dick remaining a mystery,” Lindsay pipes up from the kitchen doorway, watching them in amusement. “And you two should’ve left ten minutes ago.”
In unison, Nick and Marco turn to look at the clock, then curse loudly.
Looks like team dinner’s on them in DC.
The schedule doesn’t give him much time to think. Nick’s not mad about it—it stops him from being clingy, at least. He gets a couple texts from Matt here and there: a selfie in the morning, bare-chested and sleepy-eyed; a picture of the stage during sound-check at some festival in Phoenix.
There’s also an offer of more concert tickets—they’re part of some Halloween thing at the House of Blues, and Matt asks if he wants to bring some friends. Nick almost says no, since they leave early on November 1st for Winnipeg, but then he remembers that Sofia and her girlfriend Bianca are going to be in town.
She would never talk to Nick again if she found out he had turned down that kind of offer.
So he’s busy, and that’s good—it keeps him focused, keeps his mind on his hockey and away from everything else. He’s in good shape on the ice, and their game is improving because of it. He knows that no one will know anything has changed, but he doesn’t want to give anybody the chance to criticize hisperformance. Needs to prove to himself that he can handle both of these things at once.
When they face Nashville a second time, on their own turf, it goes much better. Picard insists on starting in goal, determined to show he can handle the pressure, and Nick has to hand it to the kid; he stands on his head to do just that. It’s a happy team that files back into the locker room, raucous until Tony and Jazz get them under control, both smiling in approval. “Hell of a game tonight, boys,” Jazz declares, beaming at them from her wheelchair. Nick’s so glad they didn’t disappoint her on a bad pain day.
“You crashing at mine tonight, Trix?” Marco asks, rubbing a towel over his hair. “Your cat probably misses you.”
“Jeez, you’re not sick of him yet?” Bam-Bam cuts in with a loud, obnoxious laugh. “Swear you two are more co-dependent than Sunny and his girl. Starting to wonder about your wife, Perez.”
“Aw, Brad, I’m sorry you don’t know what friendship is, man,” Nick says in a mock-sympathetic voice, even as anxiety races through him at the accusation. “One day you’ll find somebody who can put up with your shit for more than an hour.”
Bam-Bam reddens angrily. “Well you sure as hell aren’t going to if you spend so much time up Marco’s ass. At least I have a girlfriend. When was the last time you got a second date?”
Bam-Bam’s girlfriend is some Instagram model who they all know isn’t dating him for his personality, but even Nick isn’t mean enough to point that out.
“My love life is doing just fine, man, thanks for asking,” he says, glaring at Marco when out of the corner of his eye he catches the man’s incredulous little smirk. “It’s sweet that you’ve been tracking my dates for me. Good to know you care.”
“Don’t know if I’d call ten minutes of fundates.”
“Really, because it’s all your girlfriend gets.”
“Okay, okay, take it easy, or I’m fining both of you,” Hugsy cuts in, always the first to stop a fight breaking out.
One of these days he’s going to absolutely deck Bam-Bam for going too far, and Nick can’t wait to see it.
