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He nodded.

“All right. I’ll see you Wednesday.”

Bobby gave a small wave to Caleb, who returned it before they walked away.

“Shall we?” Caleb looked at Aaron.

“Yeah.” He picked up his skate bag.

“You really didn’t do bad today. Ian’s right—you just need a brushup. Rick was just being a jerk. He was like that when we were teammates back in high school. I was glad to see he doesn’t teach that to the kids, but I didn’t appreciate him tearing you down.”

“I think he’s trying to impress you.”

Caleb nodded as they headed out to the parking lot. “I know. He’s tried over the years to get me interested. He was out before I was, and as soon as word got to him that I’d finally done it, he emailed saying we should get together. He’s a friend, for sure, but there are aspects to his personality that don’t make him boyfriend material—things like tearing people down.”

Aaron fought the urge to take Caleb’s hand as those warm feelings rose up inside him yet again. He really needed to find a way to keep those at bay—because he wasn’t boyfriend material either.

Chapter Nine

I’M cleared for skating.

Celebrate with me tonight?

My house. Dinner. At 6.

Caleb pressed send before he could think too much about it. It was an excruciating seventeen minutes before a message came back.

Congrats. Dinner it is. What can I bring?

Yes! Aaron agreed to another get-together. That would be three days out of four—or five if he counted the evening of the carnival—that he got to hang out with him.

His grocery trip was interesting because the citizens of Foster Grove weren’t expecting to find Caleb pushing a cart through the local market in the middle of the afternoon. There were more than a few stares, which he found funny. Caleb simply nodded and smiled at those who gawked.

In the pasta aisle, he thought the stock boy who was putting sale tags on some of the noodles might get a crick in his neck as he kept turning to look at Caleb while he surveyed the selection. Once he dropped his tags, and Caleb kneeled to pick up the ones that fluttered to the floor at his feet.

“Oh my God. I’m so sorry.” Caleb saw the guy’s name was Liam. He looked around as if fearing who might have seen his fumble.

“No problem.” He handed over what he’d collected.

“Thank you, Mr. Carter,” he said nervously.

“It’s Caleb.”

“I can’t believe you’re here. I wanted to meet you at the carnival, but I couldn’t get off work that night.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Liam.”

“How’d you know my—?” Caleb smiled and subtly gestured at Liam’s shirt. “Oh, right. I’m not usually so scattered. It’s so cool to meet you. I play center at the high school just like you did.”

“Always good to meet a fellow center. Are you having a good season?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Carter, is Liam bothering you?”

Caleb watched Liam go pale as he saw who was behind him.

Caleb turned to find a stern-looking woman in a pantsuit wearing a name tag that read Gloria with Manager underneath. “Not at all, ma’am. He was helping me pick out some spaghetti, and we got to talking.” Caleb turned on some charm. There was no need for Liam to get into trouble.

“All right. If you’re sure.” She eyed Liam. “We don’t want our employees disturbing the customers.”