Page 18 of Icebreaker
“No, I have some on.” I didn’t have a plausible explanation for why it mattered, since he saw me in pajamas all the time, so I kept quiet.
“If you say so,” Brennen answered in a sing-song. “I need you to come keep me company while I fix breakfast. The food on this trip sucked, and I’m staaaaarving.” Silly Brennen was my favorite. It made me feel like we were real friends.
“Do you have time for that?” I needed to stall and distract him so I could ditch these clothes and leave my bedroom properly dressed.
“Yes. And this is the worst part—I got stuck hanging out with Matty and my brain needs to be disinfected.”
“I like Matty.” For some reason, Brennen made noises suspiciously like a growl. Weird.
“I question your taste. C’mon, nakey boy, you gotta move or you won’t have time to eat before class.”
Brennen Tate called me nakey boy. Brennen Tate thought of me naked.
My day could not get any better.
CHAPTER SIX
BRENNEN
“Motherfucking pieceof fucking shit fucking lock.”
The landlord, a.k.a. my dad and uncle, had promised yet again last week to fix the locks in the apartment, but they hadn’t gotten around to it yet. I’d missed my chance to possibly see Ellie naked, which pissed me off.
Except I liked that Ellie’s door kept coming open. He thought I hadn’t noticed him talking to his stuffed animals when he was in there.
As far as I could tell, Ellie didn’t have any other friends. It didn’t surprise me that he hadn’t connected with anyone during the three years he’d been in school. Ellie was an introvert and then some, and he rarely spoke first to anyone. But he was wonderful, and I wanted everyone, except Matty, to understand that.
That asshole had pissed me the fuck off this entire trip. He’d chirped in my ear nonstop about Ellie. Yeah, I wanted Ellie to be happy and find his people, but Matty wasn’t it. Ellie was soft. He was tenderhearted. Matty would chew him up and spit him out.
Unfortunately, he also couldn’t shut the fuck up about how cute Ellie was, which was correct, and that he was so fucking smart, also true. He made sure to point out that Ellie was oneof those guys who didn’t get noticed, but once you had, he wouldn’t leave your thoughts. I couldn’t tell if Matty was actually interested in Ellie, trying to get under my skin, or both. Likely the last one.
I’d spent most of my off-ice time this trip wondering what Ellie was doing. Was he getting a proper dinner without me there? Did he make it to class on time, or did he leave something behind like he always did, if I didn’t grab his stuff for him? Ellie was a bit on the disorganized side, and he’d get wrapped up in a project or a book and forget to eat. Never in my life had I paid so much attention to a roommate.
He’d never admit it, but Ellie hated having the lights off in the apartment. I took that to mean he was scared of the dark. He hadn’t said he disliked being alone in the apartment, but on the nights I was out late, he always stayed up until I got home. I would see the light click off from under his door when I came home and locked the door behind me. When I realized it was messing with his sleep, I started returning earlier so it wouldn’t fuck him up.
I didn’t regret inviting him to come stay with me, but I didn’t know what my problem was when it came to him. He hadn’t given me any sign he was interested in fooling around. The Daddy in me wanted to take care of him like a lost bird that had fallen out of the nest. But being gay and in my vicinity didn’t automatically make him interested in me. I was borderline obsessed to a nearly unhealthy level. It sure as shit fucked up my time on Manhole because I swiped left on anyone who wasn’t magically Ellie.
None of it mattered now, though, because Ellie was about to come out of his bedroom, sadly not naked, and I could see him for myself. Objectively, two days wasn’t a long time, but these past two had felt like a goddamn eternity.
“Good morning,” Ellie’s soft voice called from the doorway. I turned around from the stove where I was fussing with the bacon to a fucking vision. He was dressed in his usual uniform of jeans and a shirt, but his tentative smile was one that he didn’t share with many people. I was one of the lucky ones.
“Hey, you okay? That was a quick run to your room.” Fuck me, I needed to keep my mouth shut because Ellie’s smile dropped.Fix it, genius.“Sorry, never mind.” No response. “I fixed your favorite breakfast.” He looked interested. “C’mere, and I’ll prove I know what it is.” Ellie stepped and broke into a wide, toothy smile.
“Okay, you got me. That is my favorite.” In the pan was a chocolate chip pancake that was supposed to resemble the shape of a rabbit. “Thanks for making it.”
“I’ve been stuck with crap hotel food and not much of it. We cleared out the vending machine just to get some food that didn’t suck.”
With the food done, I plated our breakfasts and brought them to the table. Ellie perched on the edge of the chair in anticipation. Something settled deep in my chest when he dug in with gusto, devouring what I’d made for him. It fed my suspicion that he hadn’t done much cooking while I’d been gone.
“Are you going to class today?” Ellie asked with a mouthful of food. I squelched the urge to remind him not to talk with food in his mouth. I handed him a glass of juice instead, which he gulped down before shoving more pancake into his mouth.
“My later ones, yes, but I need some sleep or I’ll be fucked at practice this afternoon. You gonna be there?”
“Yep, with my tape and pucks.”
“Cool, cool. We’re going to a team dinner tonight.”
“Oh, okay.” The note of sadness in Ellie’s response shouldn’t flip-flop my stomach, but it did because I never claimed to be a good person. “Okay. I’ll see you when I see you.”
