Page 58 of Hot Ice, Tennessee

“That’s Jesse for you,” Robbie said. “Fuck yes.”

I pulled in a sharp breath and let it out as I set the barbell back down onto the ground, breathing heavily.

Earlier, I’d been on the treadmill doing my warm-up run next to Robbie when Andrew had spotted me in the gym. He’d come over and taken the machine next to mine, and since then, the three of us had been chatting about football, hockey, and TNU as we worked out together. Andrew joined me and Robbie for squats and deadlifts after, and we’d been taking turns spotting each other for the last twenty minutes.

“My glutes are going to be pure hell tomorrow,” I said.

“Worth it,” Andrew said.

Robbie laughed. “My core’s going to be fucked after the planks we did.”

“I feel like that’s been my entire summer so far,” Andrew added. “I’ve worked out harder this summer than any in my life.”

“TNU athletics don’t fuck around, that’s for sure,” Robbie told him.

Andrew stretched his quads, nodding. “Max jokes about me being a star wide receiver, but next season, I really do want to make that happen.”

“The football team doesn’t know what’s going to hit ‘em.”

My thighs were still completely on fire. I grabbed my water bottle, popped the top open and took a long swig, encouraging Andrew on his last set of deadlifts.

I’d been working out more than usual, too. In the last few days since I’d lost the game against Nashville, I’d thrown myself right back into workouts and studying, like I was on repeat from the week before it. The library was my second home, and the gym was my third.

A sandy-blond guy walked past us in the gym and I did a double take. For a split second I wassureit was Mason, but when he turned, I saw that it was just some other guy who wasn’t nearly as hot, anyway.

Not like the cowboy’s going to be in a TNU campus gym.

“Good work,” I told Andrew, idly watching his deadlift reps. “Don’t forget to breathe. You can do five more, yeah?”

He heaved a sigh. “I can do five more. Just going to take a quick break first.”

“Smart.”

For a minute he grabbed his water bottle and I reached for my phone.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Mason for the past three days, everywhere I looked. The blow job was one thing—hotter than fucking hell. But I also passed by some Hostess cupcakes in the convenience store yesterday and couldn’t stop smiling.

Mason hadn’t texted me since that night, and I knew it was because he was trying to be a good boy about it.

I knew he was trying to please me, keeping things “no strings attached.”

Butgoddamn, the dutiful way he was trying to begoodwas only making me want him more.

I bit my lip and thumbed through my phone, looking over some old texts from him and sliding up to one of the photos he’d sent of him, shirtless in his backyard.

When I glanced up from my phone Andrew and Robbie were looking over at me a smile on both of their faces.

“You lookhappy,” Robbie said.

“Shut up.”

“Sanocki never looks happy like that,” Robbie told Andrew, and Andrew laughed.

“Going to be honest, man you look like you’ve got a bit of a… aglow,” Andrew said.

“I do not have a glow. What am I, a new mom?”

Andrew snickered. “New daddy, more like. You fucking somebody?”

---