Page 16 of Two for Holding
Right, of course not.Tom would never.He was so squeaky clean.Even when he got mad, his anger took the form of self-deprecation.Jax still wasn’t over the revelation that Tom acted so weird around him due to his own feelings of inadequacy.This guy—with his knife-sharp jawline, his piercing eyes, his towering presence on the ice, and his aw-shucks Canadian manners off of it—felt inadequate because Jax could cut a fucking bell pepper faster than him.
It made Jax want to wrap him up in a blanket and then shake that blanket burrito until it made sense.
“You were, uh, going to get…going out to…um…”
“Go to a club and find someone to fuck, yep.”
“Someone,” Tom repeated.
The emphasis was weird, as if he wanted to insinuate something but didn’t dare say what.
Jax rolled his eyes and pulled Tom inside his hotel room by the elbow.The door clicked shut.“A man, yes.”
“Right.”
Jax considered whether or not he had the patience to explain to Tom why his baffled confusion in the face of anything not entirely heterosexual was getting very old and somewhat insulting.Homophobia didn’t only show itself in slurs and violence, but also in being treated like a space alien for being gay.He decided against getting into it for the sake of his sanity.A man only had so much time to spend staring at Tom Crowley’s confused face before starting to think he was a little adorable.Jax didn’t need the crisisthatwould cause for both of them in his life.
“Yes, I’m gay, and I like hooking up.We’ve been over this.”
Tom appeared to digest this for a moment.Then his mouth set in a thin, stubborn line.“Well, I can’t let you.”
“Why?Because I might get my gay cooties all over you?”
Jax really had to stop saying purposefully outrageous things in Tom’s vicinity.He just enjoyed the confused flutter of Tom’s sooty eyelashes so much.
“Because it’s past curfew.”
“Have you ever broken a rule in your life?”
“Yes.”The answer came instantaneously, Tom’s voice so firmly haunted.Jax resolved never to ask.
“Okay, well, I don’t want to stick around here talking about drills.I want to get laid in a place where no one will be wearing my fucking jersey.”
Tom positioned himself so he blocked the door.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“You’re being reckless.”Tom crossed his admittedly impressive arms across his admittedly very firm chest.
Jax considered the effort of getting past him.In a physical altercation, they would be pretty even.Tom was taller, sure, but Jax was broader and stronger.Tom was faster, but Jax was more wily.He could get through, but then his hair would be all fucked up again.He’d still have to get a cab to a club and get tipsy enough to have no trouble chatting someone up but not so tipsy he’d have trouble following through.Then he’d have to find a place to do it—after Edmonton, he would never bring another man to a team hotel, and Jax was too old to be fucking in bathrooms.
It all sounded like a lot of work.
“All right, fine.”He sprawled back on the bed.“Tell me about these drills.”
He could hear the soft tread of Tom’s feet on the carpet.“Well, I thought we could ask Morris for some more forward-heavy drills where the D-men need to stay on the ice but aren’t getting totally gassed.”
Jax peered up at him as he stood awkwardly at the end of the bed, hands folded together, looming like…well, like a crow.
“Sit down.You’re making me nervous.”
Tom eyed the chair by the table on the other side of the room.
Jax patted the bed.“Come on.I don’t bite.Unless you’re into that.”
Tom took the chair.
Wuss.
