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Petey nodded sagely. “Yeah, he really is, like, the best guy on the team. After Hal. And me and Jake, ’cause we’re pretty great, too.”

“You’re okay.” Remy bumped him with his shoulder. “Thanks for the talk. You were actually helpful. Even if I’m still not sure what to do.”

“Why’re you so surprised?” Petey asked. “I told you we’re insightful.”

“You are,” Remy admitted. “More than I gave you credit for. Thanks. Really.”

He let them deal him back in so that he could keep himself distracted and let their advice percolate in the back of his head for the rest of the trip home. He didn’t want to mess things up by making some kind of move on Jed. But maybe he could let himself spend as much time with Jed as he wanted—do the whole friends thing, which Jed hadn’t exactly discouraged so far—and see what happened.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

JED

Jed thought maybe things would get weird again between him and Remy after their sleepover. He certainly didn’t know what to make of Remy seeking him out like that, wanting to hang out even as he rubbed some other guy’s mark on his neck, and then falling asleep in Jed’s bed. He’d barely been able to sleep, hearing Remy’s breathing and knowing he was close enough to touch. Knowing that Remy had chosen him that night, but not whether it meant anything more than that Remy needed a friend.

But except for that awkwardness in the morning when Jed had almost lost his mind because Remy pressed up against him in his sleep, it was like nothing had changed. Remy sat with McBride and Moreau on the flight and acted like normal on the drive home, alternating between scrolling on his phone and chatting with Jed about the week ahead. They ate dinner together like usual in front of the Montreal game because Remy wanted to see how his old team was doing. Remy stuck to his side of the couch. No heart eyes, as far as Jed could see. Maybe Hal was full of it.

The next morning, it was snowing hard when Jed woke up. He was glad they had the day off and didn’t have to drive down the mountain. When he came up from his morning stretches, Remy was in the kitchen, staring out the window with a dreamy look on his face.

“I love it when it snows like this,” he said, pouring Jed some coffee and handing him the steaming mug. “You don’t see it like this in the city. Reminds me of being in Vermont. And we get a snow day!”

His eyes sparkled, which was adorable. That wasn’t a word Jed had used to describe anyone in a long, long time, but it was the only word that fit. He had a terrible impulse to drag Remy over to the couch and cuddle him while he finished his coffee.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good thing that they were snowed in together all day.

But the morning turned out to be more relaxing than Jed feared. He decided to make bison chili for lunch, and Remy had apparently exhausted the internet because he asked if he could help. They ended up chatting across the kitchen island while Remy chopped and Jed sautéed and then left everything to simmer in his big Dutch oven.

Remy asked if he’d learned to cook at home, and somehow, that led to Jed explaining that “home” had been his grandparents’ ranch in Montana, because his mom had taken off when he was young, and his dad worked in whatever oil field was hiring and was hardly ever around. Jed didn’t share his past with many people, but Remy was a good listener, and it was easy to talk while they were working.

And Remy had a lot of questions about the ranch and whether that was where the bison meat came from (yes) and if the photos on the wall were taken there (yes) and whether Jed’s grandparents still owned it. Jed said it was still in the family, like he always did if the subject came up, and then added that his grandparents had passed away a few years back, but he’d bought it from them about two years into his second Boston contract, and now his aunt and uncle were working on restoring the overgrazed land and increasing their bison herd. Those weren’t details he usually shared, but for some reason, they came out today.

Remy didn’t ask about his parents, which Jed appreciated. He had noticed Remy mentioned his sister often but never talked about his parents, either, and Jed thought that might be something they had in common. Maybe someday, he’d find out.

By the time the chili was ready to eat and they’d had their fill, the snow had stopped.

“Do we need to get out there and shovel or something?” Remy asked, looking more eager than he should to engage in manual labor.

“Well, I hire a guy to do the driveway, since I’m gone a lot and it’s so long. But I usually clear out the path to the front door and around the garage doors myself, if you want to help out.”

“For sure. I’m not used to sitting around all day. And I need to check out this Colorado snow I’ve heard about, see if it’s really so much better than what we get in Montreal.”

“There’s no comparison. But it’s colder than it looks. Do you have waterproof gear?”

“My boots, yeah. Nothing else, though.”

“Okay, let me see what I can dig up for you.”

Remy put on his parka and boots while Jed rummaged around in a closet by the garage door and came up with an extra pair of waterproof gloves.

“Where’s your hat?” he asked, handing Remy the gloves.

“Uh, around somewhere? I’ll be okay. I don’t get cold that easily.”

Jed refrained from saying that Remy absolutely needed a hat when the windchill was below zero and turned back to the closet, coming up with a Blizzards-blue ski cap that he handed Remy wordlessly. Remy pulled it over his hair, curls sticking out around the edges.

“Satisfied?” he asked.

Not hardly, thought Jed. The blue hat brought out the pink in Remy’s cheeks, and he was standing close enough that Jed would hardly have to move to lean down and drop a kiss or two at the hinge of Remy’s jaw and see if he could get the color to spread.