Page 80 of Two for Holding
“Nah, I wouldn’t know the first thing about coaching.Oh, hey, Howie?”
“Huh?”Howie glanced up from taping his stick.
“Denisov—on Chicago’s second line?He put something really stupid online the other day.Lemme show you.”
Howie went over to check it out and immediately broke into a braying laugh.“Oh, damn.I bet I can lose him at least a face-off if I time it right.”
“But don’t let him crush you to the boards too much, kid.The man’s six-foot-seven.”
Jax elbowed Tom lightly.“You think we can hire him as a coach?”
Trout’s eagle eyes narrowed in their direction.
“I wish,” Tom muttered.It would certainly solve a lot of problems.Maybe Tom could talk to the GM when he wasn’t seeing Jax anymore.He’d have too much time on his hands then anyway.
The game ended up being an overtime loss, with an incensed Denisov scoring on them two minutes after the end of regulation.Still, a point was a point, and he had lost several face-offs against Howie.
“It’s as if Trout doesn’t want us to win,” Tom complained to Jax as they headed for the showers.They were the last two in because they’d been tapped for media, the endless curse of the captain and alternates.
Jax winced.“I heard he went hard on you guys this morning.Hope Morris gets back in time for the roadie.”
“Yeah.”Although, the longer he led the bench, the more Tom noticed Morris wasn’t particularly helpful on his own either.It had taken their intervention to get the team up to a solid winning record.Tom had a tab open on his phone to research drills, and he worried he ought to be watching the video review for the goalies on top of everyone else, but he didn’t have the time or the eye for it.None of these things were in his job description.“I never want to be a coach.”
“No?I thought for sure when you retired…”
Tom realized, suddenly and sharply, that he had no clue what he would do when he retired.He didn’t want to coach, didn’t want to spend time on any of the annoying parts of hockey and none of the actual playing.He definitely didn’t want to be in the public eye anymore.But as for something hedidwant to do?Tom had nothing.
It was as if Jax could see the sudden existential crisis on his face.“Guess you’ll be one of those millionaires who spends all year on the beach, huh?Get a little house in Cabo, drink cocktails all day…”
“Burn to a crisp and die of skin cancer.”
Jax stared at him.“Wow.What crawled up your ass and died?”
Tom wanted to tell him nothing had ever crawled up his ass besides Jax’s dick, but that was neither appropriate for the workplace nor sexy.“Nothing.Weird day.Come over?”
He hadn’t meant to invite Jax.He’d meant to play it cool, act as unaffected about it all as Jax.But Jax was right there, naked under the showers, and Tom was only human.He had eight days left.He wanted all of them.
Jax hesitated, chewing on his lip.“Yeah,” he said eventually.
“You don’t have to—”
“No, no, I want to.”
“Okay, um, see you later?”
“Yeah.”
At home, Tom showered thoroughly despite having just cleaned up at the arena.He didn’t want to repeat yesterday’s awkward interlude; he wanted to be ready for everything.Thinking about what “everything” entailed left him a little glassy-eyed and wobbly-kneed under the stream, making the whole process take longer than it should have.After, his skin was so sensitive from the lingering heat of the water and the memories of last night he couldn’t handle the thought of the tough, scratchy fabric of any of his pants, so he pulled on threadbare sweats and his most washed-out T-shirt.He realized too late he hadn’t given Jax a time, which left him wandering aimlessly around the apartment, dusting off surfaces he hadn’t bothered cleaning in years and wondering what Jax would do to him this time.
By the time Jax got there, Tom had run through most everything his imagination had to offer, leaving him flushed and horny already.
“Okay, whoa, whoa!”Jax laughed when Tom dragged him through the door by his shirt collar and kissed him thoroughly.He snaked his arms around Tom’s waist and slowed the kiss into something more tender.“What’s gotten into you?”
“I was hoping you would,” Tom said, and then he had to stop and laugh at himself.He rarely watched porn because it used exactly that kind of cheesy line he’d thought no one ever said in real life.
Jax smiled, too, indulgently, as if he didn’t get the joke but enjoyed the sound of Tom’s laughter all the same.Tom’s stomach swooped.He kissed Jax again to keep from saying anything stupid.It escalated quickly as he slid his hands under the hem of Jax’s henley, the fabric soft—something designer and likely costing more than all of Tom’s shirts combined—though not as soft as Jax’s skin, warm under his touch.
He was vaguely aware of Jax moving them, walking him backward through the apartment, but Tom couldn’t focus on anything except how to get more.More touch, more heat, more of Jax’s tongue, teasingly dipping in and out of his mouth.When the backs of his legs hit the couch, he nearly fell.
