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“With you, I am.” Remy ran his hand up and down Jed’s side.

Jed thought about kissing him one more time but then looked at the clock. They were cutting it close. Time to remember he was a highly paid professional with a team counting on him.

“We’d better get up. Bus leaves in less than an hour.”

“If you insist.” Remy briefly dug his fingers into Jed’s back and then let go. “I know you need to leave. Coach is letting me fly down later so I can take Lily back to her apartment and get her settled in.”

“Okay.” Jed didn’t want to be apart from Remy so soon, but that made sense. “Tell her hi for me?”

“Sure.” Remy watched him as he got up and wiped off and pulled on his clothes from the night before. “Just, we’re really okay now, right?”

“Yeah. We are.” Better than okay, he hoped, but he didn’t say that out loud.

“Good.” Remy smiled up at him and snuggled deeper into the covers, and Jed somehow forced himself out the door and into the shower and onto the bus, as if his world hadn’t just rearranged itself and settled into place with Remy firmly at the center of it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

REMY

Remy was disciplined enough not to replay the entire morning over and over in his head on the way to the hospital. But he couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d called Jed “babe.” For real, out loud, no taking it back.

Jed used the word often enough. He had from the first time they’d slept together. But Remy’d never said it before. He’d wanted to, but he’d worried it would tip Jed off to the fact that Remy was completely, totally, crazy about him. There was no hiding after the way Jed had taken him apart that morning, though.

And saying it out loud was worth it, because damn, to see Jed actually blush? That was a sight he’d never forget.

Now his dick was perking up again. Fortunately, walking through the hospital lobby was enough to calm him right down, because even the brightest, cleanest hospital was pretty depressing, and Lily had not ended up in Montreal’s finest.

He found Lily sitting in the visitor’s chair next to her former hospital bed, all dressed and looking impatient. She was still too pale, with enormous dark circles under her eyes, but she was ready to go.

“Hey, what took you so long?” She stood up and gave him a hug that was far weaker than her usual tight squeeze, and then reached to pick up her bag.

“Wait a minute, let me get that. Have you been discharged already?”

“Yeah. Forever ago.”

Remy must have looked guilty because she relented quickly. “Okay, like ten minutes ago. But seriously, I thought you’d be here earlier.”

“Uh, yeah, sorry about that. I was, uh—” His mind blanked. He should’ve thought of a cover story on the way over. Instead, all he could call to mind was the wrecked look on Jed’s face when he finally let Remy go after the most intense orgasm Remy had ever shared in his life. “It just, uh, took me longer to wrap up with the team than I thought.”

“Is that what we’re calling it now?” Lily sounded knowing, and also like she was enjoying his suffering far too much. Some things never changed. He’d take it as a sign that she was feeling better.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Remy grabbed her bag and gestured for her to head toward the door. “Let’s focus on getting you home, okay?”

An hour later, Lily was safely ensconced at home, tucked in on the couch with extra pillows and a big mug full of hot lemon ginger tea, and Remy was sitting in the armchair that used to live in his apartment, looking around to see what else she’d brought over.

“Are you planning to stay here next year? You’ve really settled in.”

“I think so. It’s affordable and close to campus, and my roommates are fine, even if we’re not good friends. Speaking of plans for next year . . .” Lily trailed off, raising her eyebrows, as if she expected him to have an answer.

“There’s nothing to say yet, Lil. You know that.”

“Pretty sure you’re wrong, big bro. You’ve barely told me anything about how things are going with Jed, which, knowing you, means they’re fantastic, but you’ve convinced yourself it’s not going to last.”

“No! I mean, yes.” Would it jinx everything if he said it out loud? Remy reminded himself that jinxes weren’t real, not unless they were about hockey, and added, “I think maybe it’s going really well.”

“You think.”

“Yeah. I mean, we kind of had a fight because I didn’t tell him I was coming up by myself to look for you. But then we, uh⁠—”