Page 155 of Arctic Titans of Northwood U: Volume 1

“Man, that sounds really cool,” I told him. “Why did you…hide that when you came here?”

Caden snorted. “A house full of hockey players? Straight guys are notoriously uncomfortable with gay roommates. I didn’t want to cause that.”

I felt a wave of guilt wash over me. “Sorry about that.”

“I’d say we’re even,” Caden teased, thrusting his hips to press his crotch harder against my ass. “Then I realized my roommate was openly gay and our keeper was bisexual, and we have two clueless guys groping jokingly all the time, even if they are straight. And frankly, I was shy until not that long ago. But it’s not as terrible as I imagined.”

“No. No, it’s not,” I admitted. It was more a reminder to myself than anything else. Maybe, maybe…

But anxiety zinged in me before I could even follow that thought. Fear gripped my heart. My muscles tensed.

“Hush,” Caden whispered over my neck. He held me for no other reason than to be there. He held me with no intention or attempt to rip my clothes off. I even wished he would so I wouldn’t have to face my thoughts and fears. But he held me all the same and we slowly drifted to sleep.

My biological clock — or, more likely, my anxiety — woke me up at dawn. We had slept through the night and I needed to get back to my room. I got up quietly, listening to Caden’s murmurs of protest, then snores of falling deeper back into sleep. I pulled a cover over his bare torso, then kissed his cheek. I didn’t know why I did that. It just felt like a thing I really wanted to do just then. And when I kissed him, it didn’t disappoint. My heart tittered. I was happy when I put on my shoes and jacket and went back to my room. Jordan was fast asleep, as I’d expected, and I undressed quietly to sleep in my own bed.

But as I did, my head was full of Caden.

Chapter Seventeen

CADEN

“What does it even mean to date someone?” I asked. My boot crunched the thin layer of ice in a puddle in front of the Thinker. My breath was so misty I felt like a dragon on the cusp of adulthood.

Noah lifted his index finger. “According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary…”

Sawyer grabbed his finger and pulled it down. “I don’t think that’s what he meant, baby.”

“Oh.” A look of understanding washed over Noah’s face. His cheeks were pink with the cold air biting him and his smile was awkward, but hearty.

We entered the tavern at its most empty hour. There were a couple of girls in one corner and a couple on their visibly first and possibly last date in the middle. The guy was very elaborately describing the experiments that anyone could perform to prove the Earth is not round. The girl was justifiably on Tinder.

We each ordered various flavors of coffee at the bar, picked them up, and settled at a tucked-away table in the darkest corner of the industrial brick walls of the tavern. “All I asked was how your dating life’s been going. It’s up to you to define it.”

“That’s not how defining something works,” Noah muttered. “But I’ll grant you that it’s subjective in this context.”

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “We’re not dating. It’s…complicated.”

“So you keep saying, and yet it looks like dating to me.” Sawyer leaned back in his chair and threw his arm over Noah’s shoulders.

I snorted. “You just want it to be true because it means you called it first.”

“Hey, when you learn what’s good, you want your friends to have it, too.” His fingers idly played with the hair on the back of Noah’s head. Noah seemed to enjoy it more than a sleepy kitten would have.

“First of all, I shouldn’t even be talking about this. It makes him uncomfortable. I have no right.” I blew on my coffee, then sipped it and burned my tongue. “Damn.”

“What do you mean it makes him uncomfortable?” Sawyer asked with a little frown.

I folded my lips guiltily. “I said too much already. Ah, just let it go.”

We did. For a short while. “I told Avery this morning. He approached me in the hallway and asked if I would be staying over tonight again. I said I would and the fucker smiled. I’m not even kidding. His lips physically stretched. Do you even realize how much joy is necessary to make that happen? So I told him everything. He didn’t smile then. He gave me a solemn nod and said, ‘You gotta do what you gotta do.’ I felt like I was launching a nuclear warhead.”

“So…it went well?” I asked, confused.

Sawyer gave an exaggerated shrug. “Who’s to say? I think so.”

“You know him better than anyone,” I said, as Noah nodded his agreement to that.

Sawyer enjoyed a sip of coffee before answering. “I think he’s dating someone, too. I don’t know why we’re all shrouded in secrecy like it’s the sixth grade.”