Page 54 of Ethan

What he hadn’t needed to do was get cozy in Ethan’s hotel roomandbe shirtless. Ethan’s gaze sweeping over him, heating him up from the inside out.

“Sure,” Ethan retorted impudently.

Warmerandsafer, Hank didn’t say.

Ethan and Charlie’s room was just down the hallway. Ethan shoved his card onto the reader and pushed the door open.

Charlie’s side of the room was easily identifiable. It had to be the one with the suitcase neatly open on the floor, a handful of packing cubes visible.

In comparison to theothersuitcase, at the foot of the second bed, which looked like it had actually exploded, clothes hanging half in, half out. No packing cubes to be seen anywhere.

But then to Hank’s surprise, Ethan went and collapsed on the bed next to the neat suitcase. At Hank’s shocked expression, Ethan just laughed.

“Yeah, nobody ever believes me when I tell them Charlie’s a fucking travel slob, either.”

“A study in contrasts, I guess,” Hank said. He gingerly took a seat on the foot of Ethan’s bed, because while sitting there felt like a bad idea, sitting on Barney’s bed felt like a step too far.

“You’re telling me,” Ethan complained.

For a second, they didn’t say anything. Ethan slid a little closer. Their thighs weren’t quite touching, but Hank could imagine how warm the thick fabric of Ethan’s sweatpants would be. Leaking right through his own, worming its way into his own skin. He swallowed hard.

Ethan’s eyes were so blue, gazing at him. Curls rumpled. He licked his bottom lip. And suddenly Hank wondered if Eth hadan ulterior motive thatwasn’treassuring him before his first NHL game.

But no.No.

Hank dragged his brain—and his dick—back to a safer topic. “So what did Charlie say?”

That broke the tension, at least, and Ethan rolled his eyes. “He’s so . . .ugh.”

“You could’ve called Avery,” Hank suggested.

He still couldn’t quite believe that Ethan had soughthimout. Sure, he’d also played in plenty of NHL games, but he wasn’t Ethan’sbrothers.

“Oh sure, yeah, I could’ve,” Ethan said dryly. “And then when he accidentally lets it drop a month later to Charlie that I had to call him after Charlie’s very impassioned, very practiced pep talk? Yeah, no thanks. Plus, it’s not like Avery wouldn’t be giving me practically a copy of the same thing. About this kind of stuff, they’re sort of painfully aligned.”

“Ah.” Hank didn’t know what to say. And making it tougher was that he didn’t know what Charliehadsaid that was so unhelpful. Though he supposed, in the end, he could guess.

Also, hecouldsay the stuff that he wished someone had said tohimbefore his first game.

“It’s okay to be terrified, you know,” Hank said.

Ethan barked out a laugh. “Yeah?”

“I’d bet that Charlie didn’t say that,” Hank said, amused.

“You’d be right. It was a whole lot ofit’s just like another game. And,if you focus,you’ll be just fine. That kind of bullshit.”

“It’s not just like another game,” Hank confessed. “But the focus thing? He’s not wrong, there.”

“Well, I didn’t think he’d be one hundred percent full of bullshit,” Ethan said, voice wry.

“Youaregonna be fine, but it’s also fair to be terrified.”

“Were you?”

Hank had a feeling Ethan already knew the answer to this question, but he’d asked it anyway. It was hard to say why, but Hank found himself wanting to know anyway.

Ethan wasn’t really a closed book, but Hank still wanted to know himanyway.