Page 32 of Ethan

“That’s not true,” Ethan argued, though it was alittletrue.

He was beingsmartabout this whole thing with Hank. Maybe he’d been too pointed in September and too obvious in November, and once he’d figured that out, things had been fine. Better than fine. He and Hank were texting nearly every day now, and once in a while, Hank actually flirted with himfirst. And if Ethan flirted to begin with, Hank almost always reciprocated now.

Besides, what were they gonna do? Have FaceTime sex?

Of course, at this point, just regular,non-sexyFaceTime might actually be nice. Ethan had hinted around it a few times, but it hadn’t happened yet.

“You’re both stuck in this weird friend zone, and I’d blame him, but you put you guys there, too. You’rebothdoing it, even though you both want more. It’s dumb as fuck,” Wally declared, tossing his jersey into the big laundry bin.

“Some things aren’t about sex,” Ethan declared primly, though this was definitely not one of them. It was about a lot of things. He genuinely liked Hank so much. He was funny and wry and sharp with his observations. He was a damn good hockey player, and Ethan didn’t think he’d ever get tired of watching him play.

“That’s what people say when they’re not having it,” Wally said. “I know that guy at Koffee Klatch gave you his number last week. Did you texthim?”

Ethan flushed guiltily. “No,” he admitted. “I should’ve.”

“Yeah, it’s literally fucking Valentine’s Day, and what are you doing?”

Ethan opened his mouth to explain. He wasn’t doinganything. He was still single, still open to possibilities, but was he, really?

Wally got there before he could. “Waiting around for some guy that might or might not be interested. That won’t even FaceTime you.”

“I haven’t asked him to,” Ethan argued.

“And he hasn’t askedyou, either.”

“He’s got a roommate on the road, who’s like,alwaysthere,” Ethan pointed out. At this point, they were both following along with Bo’s attempt at celibacy. Last week, Hank had guestimated that it had been at least since November since Bo had hooked up with anyone.Can’t say anything about him jerking off, thank God,Hank had pointed out,but it’s impressive, for sure.

Ethan had wanted to ask Hank how long it had been for him since he hooked up with anyone. Because it had been since last summer for him. He kept waiting to meet someone he wanted to kiss as much as he wanted to talk to Hank and not finding it andnotfinding it.

Even the guy at Koffee Klatch, who’d been cute, had a nervous tic of a laugh that annoyed him.

Hank’s laugh was deep and rumbly. A little rough. Not that he’d heard it in a long time. Too long, actually.

“You’re pathetic, officially,” Wally declared.

Maybe Ethan was. It was telling that declaration didn’t even particularly bother him anymore.

“Okay,” Ethan agreed, easier than he probably should. “I’m pathetic.”

Wally frowned. “Gonna spend the most romantic day of the year haunting your phone, hoping that this guy’s gonna text you. And not even a sexy or flirty text. Just atext.”

“Some of them are flirty and sexy,” Ethan argued.

“Not sexy enough,” Wally claimed.

He was wrong, but then Ethan’s definition of sexy had spent the last six months evolving.

Hank just existing and wanting to talk to Ethan, was sexy, no question.

“And you’ve not even told your brothers. Not even Charlie,” Wally continued.

“This is why we don’t talk about this,” Ethan grumbled.

“They don’t even know youlikethis guy. That you’re talking to him all the time.”

“Yeah, because they’d interfere. Especially Charlie.” Which was why hehadn’ttold them. Though God knew Ethan had been tempted once or twice or a hundred times to tell Charlie how close he and Hank had gotten. Maybe ask Charlie to put a bug in the ear of Inverness, the Bandits’ GM, to bring Hank up to the NHL roster, again.

Not that Charlie would, or that Inverness would listen.