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“Sure, that sounds great.” Remy gave the guy a brief smile. “I’ll take the same, thanks.”
The guy nodded and continued heaping food into a bowl for Jed, finishing it off with a healthy squirt of hot sauce, and started ringing Jed up.
“Put both of ’em on there, please.” Jed pulled out his phone to pay.
“I can get it—” Remy started, but he quieted right down when Jed shook his head.
“My treat.”
“Thanks.” They both stood there awkwardly for a minute while the guy made Remy’s bowl, and then Remy followed Jed to a table by the window.
“This looks good. I didn’t get much Tex-Mex up in Montreal.” Remy started loading up his fork.
“I guess you wouldn’t. Good bagels, though, right?” Jed wasn’t a fan himself, but he’d had teammates with extremely strong opinions about Montreal bagels.
“I mean, those weren’t really on my meal plan.” Remy gave him a real smile then, and fuck, that shy upturn of his lips was hard to look away from. “And don’t tell the press or my old teammates, but at UVM, I figured out something pretty important.”
“Yeah?” Jed kept his voice casual.
“Yeah.” Remy leaned forward and lowered his voice, and Jed found himself leaning in, too. “I’m actually more of a New York bagel guy.”
Jed laughed, and Remy looked pleased.
“Your secret’s safe with me.” They each took a big forkful of food, and Remy hummed with approval.
“Good?” Jed tried to ignore how warm that sound made him feel.
“So good.” Remy licked some sauce off his lower lip and started loading up his fork again, and Jed found himself staring. Remy’s lower lip was perfect, full and dark, and—Jed blinked and forced himself to take another bite of food.
For a few minutes, they both concentrated on eating. Jed had seen how hard Remy skated at practice. And not that Jed was looking, but he’d noticed Remy didn’t carry any extra weight. He was on the lean side for a defenseman, like he hadn’t been eating right up in Montreal.
Not your problem, Jed reminded himself. His problem was getting Remy to treat him like any other guy on the Blizzards, and that meant he needed to try to have a normal conversation. About hockey, or teammates, because that’s what they were.
He landed on asking, “Looking forward to moving in with Moreau and McBride?”
“Yeah. Petey’s a good guy. And the hotel’s fine but a little soul-sucking, you know?”
“I do.” Living out of hotels for so much of the year was the worst part of being a professional hockey player, Jed always thought. Well, that and the permanent damage he’d done to his body, but he was good at ignoring that. “I bet living with Moreau will be anything but depressing. You’ve known him for a while?”
“Yeah.” A smile flitted over Remy’s face. “I played in high school and Junior A with his brother, Levi, before I went to UVM. You know him? Levi Moreau—he plays for Ottawa now.”
“I know him. He’s a talented goaltender. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets the start there next year.”
“Yeah. Anyway, I ended up spending a lot of time with his family. His parents are seriously into hockey, and they kind of adopted me and my little sister, in a way, which basically made it possible for me to keep playing. I’ve known Petey since he was, like, eleven. He was a huge pain in our asses when we were teenagers.”
“So he hasn’t changed much.”
Remy let out a short, genuine laugh, and Jed’s gut twisted. Remy’s laugh was deep and lit up his whole face. ”Yeah, I’m sure he hasn’t changed much at all. It’ll be like living with a little sib again.”
“You have just one sister?” Jed usually steered clear of asking new teammates personal questions until he knew them a little better, but he found himself curious, and Remy looked happier talking about the people who were important to him.
“Yeah, Lily. She’s seven years younger than me, and she just started university in Montreal. We didn’t get to see each other all that much after I started playing Junior A, but we’re tight. That’s the hardest part of this trade for me. It was really good to be back in Montreal with her.”
“That’s tough. Is she going to be able to visit you anytime soon?”
“I hope she’ll be able to come down for her spring break in March. She’s organizing getting my stuff down to me, so I owe her big-time. Not that I had much, but, like, I definitely couldn’t fit it all in my luggage for the trip down. I had to leave a bunch of clothes and stuff up there.”
“If there’s one thing I’m sure Moreau will be happy to give you tips on, it’s clothes. And I think some of the younger guys tend to hang out at Moreau and McBride’s place, so you’ll get to know them pretty quick.”
