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“No. I have plans for us.” Remy winced as he pulled off his sweater.

“You hurt yourself?”

“Eh. That hit in the third wasn’t great. I’ll survive.”

“Go get looked at. Then I’m gonna drive you home and feed you, and you can crash. You need rest.”

“Those weren’t my plans!” Remy protested. “Well, they were part of my plans. But there was also gonna be kissing.” It came out louder than he probably intended.

“Glad someone’s getting a celebration tonight,” Petey grumbled from the other side of Remy. “Must be nice to be all loved up.”

“Shut up,” Remy said and blushed, looking at Jed and then looking away. He glanced back and turned an even deeper pink.

Well. That was interesting.

It probably meant nothing.

But maybe. Maybe.

Jed tucked the thought away. Mulled it over while he waited for Remy to see the trainer, and then tried not to think about it even more while he took Remy home and heated up some food for them both.

And then to Jed’s relief, Remy made good on his plans, leading him over to the couch and tugging off Jed’s shirt before he pulled off his own.

“You don’t want to go to the bedroom?” Jed watched contentedly while Remy kicked off his pants and straddled him. Remy had a few fresh bruises, but they didn’t slow him down. Jed was never going to get tired of the sight of Remy undressing for him.

“Nope.” Remy rubbed his cheek against Jed’s beard and then tugged Jed’s head back so he could kiss and nip his way down Jed’s neck. “I’ll fall asleep. And I miss this. I was thinking about it all day, you know.”

“I didn’t know.” Jed ran his hands up and down Remy’s back. He’d missed this, too, more than he’d been willing to admit to himself. Remy was so open when they were together like this. So unembarrassed by his own enthusiasm. Jed almost couldn’t take the feelings that surged up, then.

So he found Remy’s hands and used them to flip their positions, putting Remy flat on the couch where he could hold Remy’s hands over his head and just look at him. Remy licked his lips and smiled up at him, and Jed said, “Don’t move. I mean it.” He gently kissed each of Remy’s many bruises as he made his way down Remy’s beautiful body, and took Remy in his mouth, and licked and sucked until the only things he knew were Remy’s taste and the heat of his skin and the desperation in his voice as he begged Jed to finish.

And after he’d done that, he led Remy to bed, and Remy said, “Don’t you want?” and then, “But what if I want,” and Jed paused, torn between wanting to make sure Remy got what he needed and wanting to give Remy the truth.

Remy must have seen something in his face, because he reached up for another kiss, gave a contented sigh, and then said, “It’s okay if you don’t. That was so good. It’s never been like this for me before.”

“Not for me, either.”

Remy pulled Jed down and gave him one more soft kiss and then fell asleep without another word, leaving Jed to lie awake watching the shadows on the ceiling. Imagining, not for the first time, what it would be like to have this next year and the year after that. He didn’t want to hope for too much. But in this moment, it was hard not to.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

REMY

The first round of the playoffs was everything Remy had known they would be, but more. More intense and more brutal, the toughest hockey he’d ever played in his life, when he’d never been more tired or beaten up.

But.

His team had made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

In his first full NHL season.

And he’d contributed to that; he was adding value on the ice. Hal and Bakesy both told him so. Even Coach had barked some mildly encouraging words at him during practice. And Jed and Petey both praised his play more than he thought he deserved. He was pretty sure that Petey just liked the goals Remy set up for him.

As for Jed, well. Remy thought—hoped—Jed wanted to keep him around.

The playoffs were almost exciting and consuming enough to keep thoughts about his contract, and the summer, and what happened if they didn’t win and this was it, out of his head. Jed helped, too, forcing him to do yoga and taking him on a hike on one of their rest days before the series started, and dropping him off at Petey and Jake’s another afternoon to play video games.

Remy grumbled at that, because he wasn’t a five-year-old who needed to be sent on playdates, and he could think of other things to do with a few hours of free time. But Jed said it would do them good to get out of the house, and he needed to check in with the training staff, so Remy might as well let Petey and Jake distract him for a while.