But the bottom line is, I’d have to either commit to trying to make it in the NHL, push hard and work even harder and still possibly not get it and then have to work for my father. Or, I could be smart about this.
I’m going to be smart.
When I fill Coach in on my plan, he agrees so easily I wonder if he had the same idea. He doesn’t even seem surprised.
We shake hands, and he reminds me about the first official team meeting tomorrow night.
“We’ll be there.”
A knowing smile crosses his face, and I wonder if he knows I mean me and Jacobs. Together.
After our meeting, I make my way back into the fray of people carrying moving boxes and going about trying to get moved into the dorms.
When I’m assigned my new room, I take most of my stuff from my car and carry it to the third floor of the jock building again. Only, this time, I’m at the other end of the hall.
Ten bucks says I turn the wrong way countless times getting off the elevator before I get used to it.
I dump my stuff in a pile in my new room which doesn’t take long. I’m sorting through it when a text comes through from Jacobs with his new room number.
I walk out and knock on the dorm room next to mine. When my new neighbor opens the door, his adorable confused line forms between his brows.
“Hi. I thought I’d introduce myself. I’m Beck. I literally live next door to you now.” I point to my left.
Jacobs’s face lights up. “Really? That would’ve helped over the summer. Much easier to sneak around.”
“Shame we won’t be doing that this year, right?”
He grips my shirt and pulls me inside his room. “Technically, we’ll still be sneaking around for one more day.”
“About that …” I lick my lips. “Do we really want the first official meeting to be the place to do it?”
“Yup. Get it out of the way and deal with any issues. Though, I doubt there will be. Grant dealt with some snarky comments, but nothing too bad. It’s the freshmen we’ll probably have to keep an eye on.”
“Probably.” I lean in, going for his mouth, but he pulls back.
“Did class registration go okay?”
I rub the back of my neck. “Uh, not really, but I’ll get it done.”
“What were you doing all morning? Bribing someone to give you the room next to mine? Geez, it’s as if you like me or something.”
I grin. “Or something, but our living arrangements were purely coincidental—a sign if you ask me.”
“Hmm, I don’t know if I believe you, but I get to reap the benefits of whatever deal you made, so I’m not going to complain.”
Oh, he has no idea how he’ll reap the benefits of what I actually did accomplish this morning.
He will though.
Tomorrow.
29
Jacobs
I’m trying really hard to take our rooming situation as a good sign and not a bad omen, because if we break up, that’s going to be a whole world of awkward. Though, I suppose if we break up, we’ll have more than rooms to worry about. Like the team. The Frozen Four.
Which means there’s only one solution: we work on our relationship just as hard as we fuck.
I would say it will be easy, but ever since yesterday, Beck’s been … distant. Not completely, but he was distracted all last night, stayed up late on his laptop, and then came to bed after I was already asleep.
He left my room two hours ago while I was half-asleep. He kissed my head and told me to meet him at our coffee place at eight.
I jog the whole way down to breakfast. He’s waiting at our table by the back wall with our orders already in front of him, and I can’t wait until I can walk right up and kiss him without holding back.
Very, very soon.
“Where’d you run off to this morning?”
He doesn’t answer me. “It’s about time,” Beck says and kicks out the chair opposite him.
“We agreed on eight. It’s ten to.”
He shrugs. “Still too late in my opinion.”
“And yours is the only one that counts.”
“See? You’re learning.”
I shake my head and dig in. It still hasn’t hit me that this is our last year at Colchester. The usual return to school anxiousness has kicked in as I think of the overwhelming amount of coursework. With hockey and the championships on top of that, it’s going to absolutely fly.
And maybe I should be worried that I’ll graduate this year and possibly say goodbye to Beck. Especially if he has to move to New York and take over his dad’s company, but I take comfort in the knowledge that we’re both stubborn shitheads, and if we want to find a way to stay together, we will.