Unrivaled, page 19
Max ran his fingers across the surface of the water. “No worries there. He’s passed out cold on the bed you got him.”
Grady leaned back on the cement pad and smiled at the sky. “That’s from Santa.”
“Oh, my mistake,” Max laughed.
Grady reached for his wineglass only to discover it was empty. Tragic. But judging by the lethargy in his arms and legs, he didn’t need any more alcohol.
“You all right?” Max asked after a minute. “I know we’re not the most chill family. Not what you’re used to.”
“You’re great,” Grady said without thinking. But he wasn’t ready to say the rest of it—didn’t know how—so he added, “Your family, I mean.”
Max let it slide. “So how come you’re sitting out here in the dark by yourself?”
Everyone else was upstairs. But that wasn’t the real reason. “Just thinking. Holidays are still hard. Not like they used to be, but….”
“I understand. This is only the third year we’ve played the game without my grandfather.”
“Super Max?” Grady guessed.
Max’s laughter blended softly into the night. “He was a Henry. He’d have loved that, though.”
With Max’s warmth beside him, the alcohol in Grady’s blood seemed that much more potent. He succumbed to gravity and lay back against the cement. “How come you’re always the lobster?”
Max laughed again. “What?”
“You’re not a lobster. Lobsters have tough shells, and they snap.” He made a little pincer motion with his hand. “You’re, like, a fake lobster. Maybe you’re only a lobster on the ice. Off the ice, you’re soft.” To demonstrate, he used his pincer to nip the flesh at Max’s waist.
“How much did you have to drink?” Max sounded amused.
Grady ignored him. “I’m the lobster. I’m prickly.”
“Oh yeah,” Max said. “Look at you. You’ve got half a palm tree in your hair.” He carefully carded his fingers over Grady’s scalp. “Terrifying.”
But now he was leaning over Grady, too close to ignore that softness any longer. It called to Grady’s, a reassuring whisper that he could take off his armor. “I should be the lobster,” Grady repeated quietly when Max’s fingers traced down the side of his face. “You crack me open.”
For a long moment Max held his gaze. Then he kissed him softly, slowly, his body braced over Grady’s like a shield. Grady anchored himself with a hand on Max’s shoulder and let the earth spin around them.
Eventually Max pulled away and stood. He held a hand down to Grady. “Come on. We should go inside. Santa can’t come if you’re not sleeping.”
Grady let Max pull him up and lead him inside. He left the weight of his shell by the pool with his wineglass.
MAX WOKE up to his pillow rumbling quietly.
The room was still dark except for a faint glow that had to be Grady’s cell phone. Max stretched slightly and got Grady’s fingers threaded through his hair for his trouble.
He never wanted to get out of bed.
You crack me open. Max couldn’t know exactly what Grady meant by that, and he wasn’t going to ask tonight. But he couldn’t ignore the way Grady’d looked at him when he said it.
And he definitely couldn’t ignore the pounding in his own heart when he pulled slick fingers out of Grady’s body and reached for a condom and Grady put his hand on his wrist and said, “Do we need…?”
They didn’t. Max let the condom fall from nerveless fingers and slid in bare, hopelessly overwhelmed.
Max had spent his whole life around hockey players. He was one. It had never surprised him that Grady played things close to the chest.
But tonight a dam had broken, and now Grady was talking quietly on the phone in the middle of the night, still wet with Max’s come, basically petting Max’s head while Max used him as a body pillow.
“You could ask them about it,” Grady said lowly.
If Max strained his ears, he could make out the female voice on the other end of the call—almost certainly Grady’s sister Jess. Something about two women named Amanda and Polly and a ski chalet bedroom? He tilted his chin up to let Grady know he was awake, in case he wanted privacy.
Apparently he didn’t. “Jess. I have no idea. It’s weird, I’ll give you that, but….”
Max inhaled and rested his head against Grady’s chest again. He was glad his parents kept the air conditioner cranked, or this could be uncomfortable.
“What am I going to do? I can’t send them back to their room to freeze—”
Max’s brain did a record scratch, and he blinked a few times and started listening more closely. But the longer he listened, the funnier it got. There was no way it was a coincidence that Jess’s ex-girlfriend and her new girlfriend had planned a vacation where everyone else had canceled, insisted Jess take the room with the bigger bed, and then coincidentally discovered that the heat in their bedroom didn’t work.
He lifted his head again and reached up for the phone. “Gimme.” Grady obviously had no clue what was happening here.
“What?” Grady said. “No, don’t. Max—”
But Max already had the phone in his hand. “Jess. Hi. Did I hear you right?” He listed off the details he’d overheard.
He half expected her to ask who he was or why he’d been eavesdropping, but instead she said, “How is this my life?”
“No, I have a better question. Why are you asking Grady what to do?”
“Hey,” Grady grumbled without pausing in his scalp massage.
Jess groaned. “Oh God, you’re right. The man has the emotional intelligence of a garden snail.”
“I’m very fond of him,” Max said, because it seemed rude to agree out loud when Grady could hear him. “But listen. You’re on vacation with your ex and her new girlfriend. It was supposed to be a group trip, but everyone else supposedly backed out at the last minute. Somehow, despite the fact that you’re a single person on vacation with a couple, you got the bigger bedroom. And now your friends’ heat is out and they’re trying to bunk in with you. Kind of a coincidence, don’t you think?”
It took a moment for it to sink in. Then Jess said, “Oh my God.”
“You’re either in a porno or the first-ever lesbian triad Hallmark Christmas Special.”
“Oh my God,” Jess repeated.
“Oh my God,” whispered Grady.
“Bad news is you probably have to actually talk to them to figure out which one it is.” Max considered. “Or you put on your sexiest pajamas and let the cards fall where they may.”
“Holy shit.”
“Merry Christmas!” he said cheerfully. “You want to talk to your brother again?”
She did, so Max passed the phone back and closed his eyes.
This time Grady didn’t talk for long—he and Jess exchanged holiday greetings, and then she apologized for forgetting about time zones and promised she’d grill him about “Shithead—I mean Max” later.
Finally Grady set the phone on the nightstand, and the room fell back into darkness. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you at… three in the morning. Jesus Christ, Jess.”
Didn’t mean to drool all over your chest in my sleep, but here we are. “’S fine. Siblings, right?”
“Right.” He settled deeper into the pillows and adjusted the sheets around them. “I thought women were supposed to be better at talking about their feelings.”
“Eh,” Max said. “Two of them are still hockey players.” Best not set the bar too high.
Grady snorted. “Good point.” He settled the hand that had been in Max’s hair on the small of his back instead. “Are you seriously comfortable like that?”
“Mmm-hmm.” He forced himself to raise his eyelids. “Why? Too heavy?” Only Max’s head and part of his chest were resting on Grady—the rest was on the mattress or supported by pillows—but he wasn’t exactly a featherweight.
“No. I have a weighted blanket at home, remember?”
“’Kay.” Max closed his eyes again. “Night.”
Christmas was a huge success. The house didn’t have a fireplace, so they hung stockings off the breakfast bar, and Max’s mom was all too happy to include one for Grady.
Grady took the stocking with his name on it with big, bright eyes and a smile that was a little brittle, and Max desperately wanted to watch him open it, but he felt too protective to let anyone else do the same, so he chased Milo and Carly around the living room and threatened to eat their candy while Grady pulled out the usual stocking staples—toothbrush and toothpaste, socks, lip balm, an organic chocolate bar (Max might’ve helped with that one).
He wasn’t sure if the hugs that resulted surprised Grady or his parents more.
Max’s heart did a little somersault just from watching it.
Then Nora sat down next to him at the breakfast bar and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “So you sent him to a dentist, eh?”
Max shook himself and turned toward her. “What?”
She gestured with her head toward Grady. “For a night guard. The shape of his jaw’s changed. No buildup of muscle means no more teeth grinding.”
“I didn’t. I’ve never seen him wear one either.” Not that he spent every night with Grady, but he seemed like the kind of guy who’d wear the night guard in company anyway, even if it was deeply unsexy, because it was for his health, and would glower menacingly if Max ever dared mention it. Now that Max thought about it, he’d never heard Grady grind his teeth at night.
Nora was right, though. Grady’s jaw did look narrower.
Max could feel her gaze on the side of his face when she said, “Huh. He must’ve figured out a really good way to manage his stress, I guess.”
She went to the fridge to grab more orange juice, but Max sat there for he didn’t know how long, wondering if he could get up and press a kiss there, feel the difference under his lips.
“Uncle Max,” Carly said, like she’d been trying to get his attention for several minutes. “Can we open your gifts now?”
Max shook himself into the present. “Hmmm.” He glanced at Tanya and Logan over Carly’s shoulder and got a slight head shake. “After breakfast. Why don’t you and Milo help me set the table?”
By early afternoon they’d cleaned up the wrapping paper massacre and decamped to the beach, which was too cold for swimming but ideal for lounging. Milo and Carly took turns burying each other up to their waists, impervious to the slightly chilly—for Florida—weather, as any New Brunswicker would be.
Grady went back to the house to catch up with Jess, which left Max free to take Gru for a stroll down the beach and organize his thoughts.
You crack me open.
The words echoed in his head. He felt them in his chest.
He’d never expected Grady to let him in. He was pretty sure Grady never expected to let Max in. But something had given. Something had changed. And now….
A lot could happen. They were still professional hockey players, and Grady was looking for a trade. But they’d still see each other a few times a year, and they would still have summers off. They could train together.
Without intending to, he ended up back at the house. Gru beelined to his water bowl for a long drink, and Max hung his leash by the door and went looking for Grady. He found him in their bedroom, sitting on the bed and doing something on his phone.
“Hey.”
Grady put the phone down and smiled. “Hey.”
Max closed the door behind him and sat on the end of the bed. “How’s Jess?”
“Giddy,” he said wryly. “Guess they worked everything out.”
Grinning, Max crawled up the mattress to lie next to Grady. “Awesome. Merry Christmas to her.”
“Please don’t make a joke about Christmas coming more than once a year.”
“Of course not,” Max said. “That would be derivative.”
Grady turned onto his side and bit his lip, and Max took a deep breath. Time to lay the cards on the table.
“We should talk—”
“Do you think we can—”
Their eyes met. Max felt his cheeks go warm even as Grady flushed too.
Then the back door slid open and someone said, “Gru, no!” and Max groaned and pulled a pillow over his head.
Grady rescued him from suffocating himself. “Maybe when we have a little more privacy?” he suggested. “We play in Newark this week. Meet you after the game?”
“Yeah.” Max could feel his face smiling a little too widely, but he couldn’t do anything about it. “Sounds good.”
“Are you in town for New Year’s? Jess is bringing her girlfriends.”
“I’ll have to double-check we’re not flying out a day early, but I think I can make it.”
“Cool,” Grady said. He was such a dork. “It’s a date.”
Max’s heart did a stupid little flip, like it thought it was a figure skater instead of a hockey player.
“Max! Come get your dog!”
Groaning, he pulled the pillow back over his head. “Next year I’m going to Cancun without them.”
For a moment Grady said nothing. Then he lifted the corner of the pillow. “Does that mean I can have your share of the lobster?”
GRADY EXPECTED to leave Miami more than ready to go home. After three full days of not only Max but Max’s family, who were all variations on the theme of Max, Grady thought he’d be—well, Maxed out.
But he was only half right. He didn’t mind leaving behind Linda, Big Max, Logan, Tanya, Nora, and the kids. But he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off his Max. The morning of the twenty-sixth, they spent half an hour in their bedroom with the door closed and made out until their airport shuttle arrived.
Never in a million years could Grady have seen this coming.
He felt kind of stupid about that. It seemed obvious in retrospect that he’d spent the past few months falling for Max. Max was the one he wanted to talk to about his terrible dates, and the standard he hadn’t been willing to admit he was holding them to. Max was funny and offbeat and kind in an irritating way, like a dog who could tell when you were sad and kept putting its drooly head in your lap for pets.
And he was—though Grady could never admit this either—silly. In Max’s eyes, the world and all the people in it were there to poke fun at. The only person who’d seen that side of Grady in the past fifteen years was Jess, who couldn’t reject him because he was the only family she had. Being with Max gave Grady permission to be silly too. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed that freedom.
It turned out there was such a thing as pleasantly surprised. Max still got on his nerves, only now Grady felt all sappy about it.
Finally the alarm on Max’s phone went off and they couldn’t put it off any longer. They gathered their bags and opened the bedroom door.
Nora looked up from reading on the couch, raised her eyebrows, and cleared her throat.
“Subtle,” Max said.
Grady thought maybe she had a point. Max’s chin and neck were blotchy red with beard burn.
“Not the word I’d use,” Nora said cheerfully. Then she started singing “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”
There was a pileup in the driveway as everyone lined up to say goodbye while the driver handled the luggage. Even Grady got hugged within an inch of his life, though the embraces took less time than Max’s did. Max was still talking to his parents when Grady made it to Milo and Carly at the end of the line.
Milo was shier than his sister, and Grady didn’t think the kid had spoken more than two sentences to him outside the board game on Christmas Eve and a thank-you for his gift. So it knocked Grady for a loop when the kid squinted up at him in the sunshine and asked, very seriously, “Uncle Grady, are you and Uncle Max going to get married?”
Grady’s first impulse was to say no very loudly. He’d spent the past fifteen years determined to keep everyone he could at arm’s length because he couldn’t lose what he didn’t have.
His second thought was, I should be so lucky, which made him want to run screaming into the Atlantic. It was a wild swing from his gut reaction and a huge leap from where they stood now—they hadn’t even used the word relationship, never mind defined it—to that potential future.
Somehow his feet stayed planted and his mouth stayed shut, for which he was grateful. No one else seemed to have heard the question.
Grady took a deep breath and held it for a moment. Then he pitched his voice low enough not to be overheard and hoped he wasn’t jinxing anything. “Tell you what. If I’m around for Christmas next year, ask me again.”
And then that was it. Grady went home and slept like a log. The Miami house Max had rented was nice enough, but the mattress in their bedroom left something to be desired.
Practice on the twenty-seventh felt like a new beginning. Grady didn’t know if it was because he was in a good mood or everyone else was, but the guys were flying. Even Fletch, the dour-faced defenseman Grady usually resented for not pulling his weight, brought his A-game energy.
“You have a good break, Ace?”
Grady smiled at him, and it felt natural for the first time in a long time. “Yeah, actually. You?”
“Really good. Nice to catch up with the whole family.”
Not long ago, the words would’ve made Grady bristle, like it was a reminder that everyone else had a whole family, and he only had Jess. Looking at it from the other side of a mental breakthrough, Grady couldn’t detect any intentional malice.
“How’s your sister doing?”
“Jess?” For a minute the question didn’t register as being related. “She’s great. I’m picking her up at the airport after this.” Fletch didn’t need to know about her relationship situation, so he left out the bit about her girlfriends.
Frowning, Fletch said, “Oh. I assumed she was with you for Christmas. What did you do?”
Went to Florida and accidentally got a boyfriend. “Vacation in Miami.”
“Oh, good call. We’ll get enough of the snow.”
It was the friendliest conversation Grady’d had with the guy in years.
