Page 2 of Icebreaker
My patience was partially rewarded when Ellis finally slipped into the seat. Unfortunately, it was the aisle one. I gave him a pointed look and jerked my head toward where I’d been sittingoriginally. “Scoot means scoot.” Ellis pressed himself against the window until only about half the seat was used.
Ellis wasn’t small by conventional standards, medium build and around five-seven, but compared to my six-three overgrown frame, he seemed tiny. I was fascinated by his big eyes and wild riot of curly dark hair. The little freckles that dotted across his nose made me want to play connect the dots.
“Dude, it’s fine. You can use the armrest and the rest of your seat.”
“But if I do, then you won’t have enough room.”
“I’ll take the front position, and you take the back. Legs can touch because we’re adults.”
The exhaustion from tonight’s game hit me hard. Hockey may have been my life since I first strapped on a pair of skates at four years old, but the aches and pains were a serious fucking downside. Brynn wasn’t the highest-ranked school in our division, but they’d played hard tonight and given their fans plenty to cheer about. A dumb joke popped into my head, and my chuckling caused Ellis to give me a sharp look.
“What’s so funny?” His defensiveness pissed me off. I wasn’t the team captain, but if any of the guys were being a dick, I’d want to know about it. And Rafe, our captain, would too.
“I was just thinking that the Ice Dragons burned down the Lumberjacks.”
“Ha.” His chuckle stroked my ego more than it should. “The team wasn’t terrible tonight.”
“We lost by three. Three that I let in the net.”
“The line should’ve blocked those shots before they had a chance to score.” The fierceness of Ellis’s pronouncement surprised me. The thought was appreciated even though our loss came down to the team’s lack of focus, which included me. “Did they,” he paused dramatically before continuing, “smoke you?”
“Oh nice. How about…? Well, shit, I’ve run out of jokes.” My admission earned a soft huff of laughter from Ellis.
“You had a good run.”
“Run of one?”
“Better than zero.”
“Oh yeah, I cooked,” I added with a roll of my eyes.
“No crumbs, no splinters?”
As the bus moved out of the parking lot, the surrounding noise died down. Most of the guys put in their earbuds and listened to music or just went to sleep. I knew I should use the time to catch up on my sleep or read ahead for class, but Ellis was too much of a temptation to ignore.
He wasn’t actively paying attention to me, and why that bothered me wasn’t anything I wanted to think about. Instead, he spent his time staring out the window into the dark landscape he couldn’t see. Every once in a while, he’d pluck at his pants, smooth them down, and then repeat it all over again. Did he vape? He couldn’t keep his fingers away from his mouth.
Despite my encouragement to spread out, Ellis made himself small in the seat next to mine. Every attempt at small talk caused him to curl up more. He’d be a pretzel soon. Rather than continue to torture him with attempts to chat, I pulled out my phone to watch a movie. When I glanced over at him, I caught him looking to see what I was scrolling through.
“Where’s your phone?”
A blush crept up his neck. “So dumb. It’s in my backpack in the luggage compartment so I wouldn’t forget it.”
“And you forgot it.”
“And I forgot it. But in my defense, I thought California would be warmer in December.”
“Not in Northern Cali.” Without asking, I handed Ellis an earbud. “Put that in, and we’ll find something to watch. Action? Comedy? No drama, please.”
“Comedy, if that’s okay.”
We settled onThePrincess Bride. My dad loved this movie, but it’d been a few years since I’d seen it. Meanwhile, Ellis was mouthing the dialogue. He’d obviously seen it a hundred times, but he reacted like it was his first. Fucking adorable. He was even cuter when he forgot to plaster himself against the bus window and relaxed into his seat.
“Oh shoot, sorry!” Ellis’s head bounced against my shoulder about halfway through the movie. Ellis had been trying to keep his head on the seat rest, but the later it got, the more he forgot to keep his distance.
“For what?”
“Umm, putting my head on you?”
