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He almost made it, too—was holding his key card up to his door—when Hal stepped out of the next room and caught sight of him and frowned. Silently, he beckoned Remy over and waved him inside.
“Mornin’, Cap.”
“Morning, Lads. You’re not wearing shoes.”
“Huh?” Remy looked down. It was true. He’d walked down the hall to Jed’s room in just his socks last night.
“Spend the night somewhere else?” Hal asked, giving him that piercing stare that Remy was coming to think might be some kind of Swedish mind control trick. There was no way Remy was going to lie to that face.
“Like, outside the hotel?” he asked, stalling.
“Like, inside the hotel, but not in your team-assigned room.”
“Technically?”
“Technically, I don’t care as long as you weren’t off our floor,” said Hal, sounding uncharacteristically irritated. “But if you were with our esteemed goalie, I have thoughts.”
“Thoughts.” Was there any way Remy could get out of this conversation? Probably not. And repeating everything Hal said probably wasn’t going to win him any points, either.
“Yes. Thoughts.”
“Okay.”
“I take it you were, then.”
“With Jed?”
“Indeed.”
“I wasn’t with Jed, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Explain.”
“I just, you know, fell asleep watching a show in his room.”
Hal sighed, like he was disappointed in Remy, Jed, and possibly the entire rest of the world. “Remy, I don’t want to make any assumptions. But I saw you with your former coach in Boston, and it looked to me like maybe you were having some kind of lover’s spat.”
“Lover’s spat?” He needed to stop repeating Hal, but honestly, he didn’t have words for any of this.
“Yes. A fight, with a lover. Am I wrong?”
“Mike and I aren’t together.”
“But you were? Until, say, very recently?”
“Sort of. Why?” Remy still wasn’t sure where this was going.
“Because I don’t want you using my goalie and best friend as a rebound. I know he looks tough and likes to act like he doesn’t have feelings, but he’s not built for that.”
Oh. That’s where this was going.
“Not gonna happen, Cap, I promise,” Remy said. “It’s not like that.” Because he seems to be immune to me, for one thing.
“I wish I were as sure as you that it’s not like that,” Hal said. Which, what? Hal was Jed’s best friend, so did he know something Remy didn’t?
“What I mean is,” Hal continued, probably seeing the confusion on Remy’s face, “if you’re going to start something with him, make sure you mean it. And remember that he’s only human.”
Was Hal warning him away from Jed, after basically forcing him to live with Jed and putting Remy in this situation to begin with?
