Page 34 of Knocked Sideways

“I guess.” He didn’t think that sounded appealing at all, even if he knew he should.

“So perhaps you should remove yourself from temptation before you completely obsess over him again?” Lily pressed.

Too late, Remy thought.

“I mean, I’m handling it,” was what he said.

“Well, if you’re not going to move out, then you at least need to spend less time with him. Have you gone out with Petey again?”

“No. I mean, he’s asked,” Remy admitted. “But you know I don’t really like going out most of the time.” And if I went out with Petey, I wouldn’t get to ride back with Jed after practice and let him feed me dinner, he thought but didn’t say.

“Well, by all means, then, go ahead and pine in silence for your goalie. But really, Remy”—Lily turned on the video so that he was looking her in the eye—“that’s not going to do you any good. And you called me because you already know that, and you just wanted to hear someone tell you again that what you need to do is go out and meet someone else. Am I right?”

“You’re right.” Remy rubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “Okay. I’ll let you go. Love you.”

Of course Lily was right, and of course he already knew what he needed to do. He was going to obsess—okay, was already obsessing—over Jed, and he wasn’t going to stop unless he moved out and found someone else who was just as sexily gruff and competent and perfect.

Damn it.

They were leaving on another road trip soon, up to Buffalo, Boston, and New York. Maybe that would help him regain some perspective.

Jed couldn’t actually be perfect, after all.

“Dude, I’ve barely seen you.” Petey bumped against Remy as they boarded the plane to Buffalo. “I mean, whatever you’re doing is working pretty well. But—” And here Petey broke off to look over his shoulder, as if making sure Jed was out of earshot. “—how is it living with Monty? That can’t be much fun.”

“Why not?” Remy followed Petey to the back of the plane with a brief nod at Jed, even though it seemed wrong not to be settling down in the seat next to him for the evening.

“Because he never does anything except sit at the bar and scowl when he comes out with the team. Although I guess Monty’s been off babysitting duty since you moved in. So, thanks for that. Last night was lit.”

“Yeah, you missed out. We met this girl who was down for pretty much everything,” Jake added, sliding into the seat across the table from Petey and pulling out a deck of cards. Remy knew they played no-stakes, two-player card games most flights, having been banned by Bakesy from the “grown-ups only” poker game due to Petey’s fundamental inability to care about the rules of anything other than hockey. “You want in, Lads?”

“That’s okay.” Remy’s brain tripped a bit over the “we met”—as in, did Petey and Jake hook up with girls together? Did he want to know?

“Anyway,” Jake said, after he and Petey had picked up their hands, “you should at least come out with us in New York. You don’t have to be all work, no play like Monty just because you’re livin’ with him.”

It still sounded completely unappealing, but he wasn’t going to get a better chance to put what he’d resolved to do into action, so he took a deep breath and committed. “Okay. I’ll take you up on going out in New York. Feeling awesome never hurts.”

“Feeling awesome.” Petey laughed. “Let’s call it what it is, now. You need to get laid so bad, I can tell. Don’t worry, we’ve got you.”

They arrived at the hotel in Buffalo past midnight, with barely enough time for a decent night’s sleep before breakfast and a video meeting the next morning. Remy was feeling bleary-eyed and out of sorts as he pulled on his Blizzards hoodie—the color was almost offensively bright—and made his way down to the conference room again.

He was lucky to have a room to himself, because Lawson, who he’d replaced, hadn’t had a road roommate, and no one else cared to switch things up mid-season. But the hotel bed had nothing on the bed in Jed’s guest room. And he was already used to waking up to the smell of fresh coffee, not the fake-fresh odor of Buffalo’s finest downtown chain hotel.

Jed, morning guy that he was, was already sitting with Hal and Bakesy in the breakfast room. And even though Remy thought he should probably use the trip to reestablish some distance from Jed, he wasn’t awake enough to have the self-control he needed to sit somewhere else.

So he slipped into the seat next to Jed after grabbing some food and a big cup of coffee. And if he felt himself relax when he accidentally knocked his knee against Jed’s, well, that didn’t mean anything other than that he was still half-asleep and needed more caffeine.

Plus, they could be friends, right? As hard as it was for Remy to believe it, he thought maybe he and Jed were becoming friends. It was totally normal to sit with friends.

“Good morning,” Hal said somewhat formally as Remy sat down. Bakesy gave him an up-nod, his mouth full, and Jed looked over and gave him a nod, too.

“Mornin’,” Remy replied, slurping the coffee down and making a face. He’d had worse for sure, but it was pretty nasty.

“I see you’ve gotten spoiled living with Jed,” Hal said. “His coffee is excellent.”

“Uh, yeah.” Remy risked a sideways glance at Jed, and his stomach fluttered when he saw that Jed was looking right back at him. “Yeah, his coffee’s a lot better than what I’ve been used to.”

“The roomie sitch working out okay?” Bakesy asked. “I know I haven’t heard Monty complaining.”