Page 149 of Hockey Bois
Nick pouted. “You said we were going to make out.”
“Technically I asked if there was a make-out spot. I didn’t saywewould make out. Let’s go for a walk; we can always kiss when we get back.”
“You’re so mean to me,” he whined, but dutifully unbuckled. “It’s a two-mile trail. You sure you’re up for it in this heat?”
“How the hell do you know that?”
“I’ve run every lake path in Howard County multiple times. This isn’t even the nicest, but it doesn’t close at dusk.”
With a heavy sigh, Brady opened the passenger door. “Well, two miles isn’t terrible. Just don’t make me run ’em.”
Nick followed him out of the car, the heat and lake smell bringing him back to his youth. “Why not? You’re the one dressed like you’re about to go to the gym. I’m inkhakis.”
“You saying I’d actually win a race?”
“Race to the pier up there and find out?” he offered. Not bothering to wait for an answer, he took off. He hated sprinting, it wasn’t his event at all, but when he heard Brady running after him, he pushed.
“And the champion”—Nick panted as he skidded to a halt just off the pier—“is Nick Porter! The crowd goes wild!”
He had time to do a victory lap around the pier before Brady caught up, jogging and wheezing.
“You do this for fun?” he asked between breaths.
“I mean, I’d usually do at least a mile—”
“Ugh.” Brady practically collapsed onto the grass, sprawled out with his shirt rucked up to expose his belly button.
Asshole.
Nick sat next to him and smiled widely. “You’re cute when you’re dying.”
Brady groaned. He patted the grass next to him until Nick lay down beside him.
“You know there are no natural lakes in Maryland? They’re all man-made.”
Brady snorted; he’d caught his breath at least. “Your state is so weird.”
“You guys have Philly in yours, so…”
“Ew, don’t remind me.”
“You also have Pittsburgh, but I feel like you don’t understand that that’s an insult—” He laughed when Brady pinched his side.
“Don’t go off like your state doesn’t drown everything in Old Bay.”
“Old Bay isdelicious, so you’re welcome.”
“Old Bay is anatrocityto tastebuds everywhere. If I never eat it again, it’ll be too soon.”
“I should send you up with some when you go for Thanksgiving. See if your family likes the culinary joy of Old Bay fries.”
Brady choked on a laugh. “They wouldhateit. I’m totally going to bring some.”
Fingers, clammy and warm, found their way to his. Nick turned to face Brady and smiled at him in encouragement. “I’msohappy I get to corrupt you with my Maryland ways. I’ll get a ‘y’all’ out of you one these days, I swear.”
“Over my dead body,” Brady said seriously. Then he leaned in and kissed Nick’s nose before pulling back, the whole thing so fast Nick wasn’t sure it’d happened except for the tingling on his skin. “Tell me about your races when you were a kid. You ran here?”
“Uh, yeah,” Nick started. He flushed in the growing twilight. They talked all the time, but rarely did it venture into their past and their lives outside each other. “Not for races, just for fun. I think a middle school around here did a fun-run thing once, and they had us track kids from all the high schools come to help out.”
