Page 47 of Scoring Slater
It needed a comment. Breathing deep, he typed the truth.I miss your laugh. I miss you.
His heart pounded and nerves knotted in his stomach as he pressed the button to post it.
For several minutes, nothing happened. He sat with the phone and his tea. Then the first comment appeared. Joseph had left a heart. Then Vince did the same. Then Leo and Celek left supportive comments. His friends had his back. As the minutes ticked by, more teammates left comments. Then some of his college buddies. And then the fans starting rolling in, following his account and flooding his page with comments. He felt a bit like Slater, with the notifications pinging every few seconds.
Half an hour later, as he obsessively refreshed his feed, Slater's account appeared in the comments.
I miss you, too.
His heart stuttered and he forgot to breathe. With shaking fingers he called him. Several rings later, just as he was beginning to think the call would go to voicemail, Slater picked up.
"Hey."
He gripped the phone. "Hey… So, you saw my post."
"Yeah."
Silence stretched out as he waited for Slater to say more.
Nothing came.
"That's it? Just ‘yeah'? I made my profile public, and posted that photo of us. I'm not hiding how I feel. I'm not hidingat all."
For a long moment, only Slater's breathing came through the speaker. "You made a grand gesture at the auction. But then regretted things because they caused too much attention. How do I know this time will be different?"
He couldn't fault Slater for the worry. "Because it is."
"You sure about that? Have you seen how many comments your post is getting? How many followers you've gained? It's attracting a lot of attention. It won't go away, even if you end up deleting it because you get overwhelmed."
Noah dragged his hand through his hair. The glacier that had been ramming his chest for two weeks lodged itself into his breastbone making breathing a struggle. "I'm miserable without you. Please come home."
"You really hurt me." His voice cracked and he took a deep breath. "I know I screwed up too. But I don't see how this really changes anything. Like you said, we want different things."
"I want you."
"I want you too, but I don't want to hurt you, and that's all we keep doing to each other."
The call ended.
Noah pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at the call time on the screen. Just over a minute. He rubbed his chest as if that would help his strangled heart. How could he prove to Slater that he was serious about giving them a shot?
He didn't know what else to do.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Noah hurried into the arena. His arrival was later than his customary game day schedule, but planning out a grand gesture for Slater had taken longer than he'd anticipated. One week of thinking and wondering and finally, he'd come up with what he hoped would show Slater how serious he was, and the depth of his feelings.
Pride Night at the arena was the perfect setting. The players' uniforms had the Bedlam symbol in a rainbow hue, and all of the players would be using rainbow tape on their sticks.
He changed out of his suit and went through his pre-game routine. Nerves buzzed through his system. Would his efforts be enough?
Leo came over after the pre-game meetings, when he was in the middle of taping his stick. "Everything set for tonight?"
"Yep. Thanks again. You and Kelsey have been awesome."
Leo and Kelsey knew of his plans because they'd helped out. Kelsey had mined the Bedlam account and player accounts for pictures of Noah and Slater together, and sent them to Noah that morning. After the morning skate and meetings, he’d skipped lunch with Vince and headed home to work on creating a few collages of the photos. That had taken him all afternoon, aside from his pre-game nap, but they were set to go live in a special post once the game is over. Leo had helped him decide on something a little more permanent a few days earlier. Something he and hopefully Slater would see every day.
In the dressing room, guys were pulling on gear and chatting. He got ready, but left off the shirt he normally wore as a base layer.
