Chapter 67

67

“Oh, yeah,” I grunt, tipping my head back, eyes closed. “Yeah, right there. Feels so fuckin’ good. Don’t stop—”

Caleb lifts the massager wand away from my calf and clicks it off. “Dude, you have to stop.”

I blink my eyes open, glancing down the length of my body to where Cay is sitting, my legs propped in his lap on a pillow. Sy is curled up on his other side, watching us.

I just got back from a brutal early morning workout, and Caleb agreed to use the wand on my legs. Of course, I had to bribe him first. And Caleb Sanford isn’t cheap. I’m making a home-cooked steak dinner tonight and doing his laundry for a week. But it’s worth it.

Was worth it. Now he’s stopped, and I’m about to threaten that I won’t make my world-famous Cajun rub grilled shrimp skewers.

“What the hell?” I whine.

“You were making sex noises,” he replies, glaring at me. “Shut up while I do this, or I’ll make that mouth earn it’s moans.”

I bottle up quick, eyes wide.

We haven’t discussed it since, you know, it happened. The dick sucking. That night was fucking amazing. By the time we all stumbled into my shower at 3:00am, we could all barely stand. I was so tired the next morning, I slept through my alarm and missed strength and conditioning. Totally worth it.

Rachel is perfect for me. For us. The us being me and Caleb. Because the scary truth is that I think there is an us. The guys have always teased us about it, and Caleb has always just shrugged it off. He never lets the chirping get to him, even when he played.

DLP is a label that used to haunt me. When my last team first teased me with it, I wanted to prove how not gay I was. I screwed bunnies left and right. I made some stupid choices in the name of my bullshit no-homo agenda. I know I hurt some girls. And now the truth is clear to me: I hurt Cay too.

I was the first one he technically came out to, and I threw myself into being his supportive straight friend. I cut the toxic crap and backed him one hundred percent. I even bought an ‘I’m an Ally’ rainbow heart sticker for the water bottle I take to the gym. The other guys can laugh, but I’m gonna be on the right side of history.

More importantly, I want to be on the right side of my friendship with Cay. He’s never asked me for anything. Never really mentions it at all. He’s not the type of guy who dates. For the last few years, I think he’s survived solely on super-secret hookups.

Enter Rachel.

She’s twisted us both up and now we’re inside out and upside down. A few months ago, my life was so easy. I had everything planned out: career, marry a hot wife, kids, retire and coach. It’s the playbook for so many guys. It’s comfortable. Pro athletes like routine.

Now I’m sitting here with my legs in Caleb’s lap, waiting for Rachel to get home. Because we live together. The three of us. And we fuck like gods. The three of us. And this is not what I had in mind for my short list of totally obtainable life goals. It feels like I went to Seattle to meet Amy, met Rachel instead, and then she promptly snatched my Etch-a-Sketch from my hand and shook it all to hell.

Apparently, I’m making a new list of life goals: play professional hockey, bind my soul to Rachel Price, mouth-fuck my best friend and love it, and convert my house into a four-person sex den, marriage and kids optional.

Who am I, and what have I done with Jake Compton?

Rachel is on her way home right now. With Mars Kinnunen. Apparently, they worked out their drama last night. We didn’t get all the details of the surprise daddy reveal, but I know this much: they fucked. Caleb and I expected it. We sorta told her to do it. But it still hits different knowing it happened.

“Hey,” Caleb mutters, his dark gaze locked on me, reading my every thought. “You good?”

Am I good? I can’t quite tell. I feel like I swallowed a pin ball, and now it’s just trapped inside me, pinging around. I want her back. I feel unsettled with her gone. I just want her to walk through that door and hope that this weight on my chest lifts away.

“Think she’ll actually get him in the door?” Caleb muses.

I shrug. “She got you on your knees. I bet she can handle one broody Finn.”

“My guess is he did most of the handling last night.”

I roll my eyes at him. “Shut up and massage my legs, or I’m giving your shrimp skewers to Poseidon.”

He smirks, clicking the massager back on. The rounded head pulses as he presses it to my leg and I sink back against the cushions of the sofa, letting my DLP take care of me.

I thinkI must fall asleep on top of Caleb, because when the front door alarm chirps, I suck in a breath, jolting awake. Poseidon bolts off the couch with a bark, racing to the door. I’m instantly on edge. There’s only three other people with the code to my front door. One is on the couch with me and one is in Japan. My heart leaps in my chest knowing this must be—

“Puppy!” Rachel cries and the dog goes nuts, bouncing and whining like an idiot. That girl is gaga for Poseidon. All dogs really. We walk him on the beach in the evenings, and when we pass another dog, she’s just as embarrassing.

And it’s not just dogs. Sometimes we see crabs in the sand or dolphins out in the surf, the occasional gopher tortoise. Whenever that happens, our calm, collected doctor totally loses her cool. It’s goddamn adorable. The other day, Caleb had to forcibly remove her from a pair of ladies and their horses doing a sunset ride.

My memories of her jogging down the beach wearing cheeky swimsuit bottoms fizzle from my brain as reality comes crashing back to me. If Rachel is home, that means…

“Oh shit, here we go,” I murmur, slipping my legs off Caleb’s lap.

Sitting at this angle on the couch, we’re hidden from view, but I can hear her talking by the door. A deep voice responds. Unless Poseidon has learned the power of speech in the last two minutes, Mars Kinnunen is in my house.

Cay must have fallen asleep too, because he’s rolling his shoulder and cracking his neck, his mouth set in a deep frown. Right, game faces on. This is our turf. Show no fear. Mars Kinnunen is gonna come in here and show his damn face. He’s gonna say more than three words to me, or so fucking help me—

“Easy,” Caleb mutters, sensing the way I’m spiraling out.

Fuck, I’m terrible at this. I just want to bounce off the couch like Poseidon and wrap Rachel in my arms. I want to drag her upstairs and bury myself in her sweet pussy and tell her how much I missed her. She was only gone 32 hours. I have got to chill.

“Hey!” she calls out. “I’m home!”

“In here,” I reply.

Shit, do I sound casual enough? Meeting your lover’s lover for the first time is not a casual moment…but then I already know Mars. I mean, no one really knows Mars Kinnunen. But we’re teammates. I see him every day. We play together. Travel together.

He came to the beach the other day. We had our longest non-hockey related conversation over by the grill. I asked him what kind of beach food they eat in Finland, and he actually answered me. It was at least five sentences.

“Be cool,” Caleb mutters darkly as Rachel comes around the corner.

Fuck, just seeing her face has me relaxing. “Hey, baby,” I call, holding out my hand over the back of the couch.

She comes right to me, and I take in Mars for the first time standing behind her. He’s never been in my house before. He’s standing there, framed in the entryway, his gaze moving slowly around the open living space. Rachel blocks my view of him as she takes my hand and curls herself over the top of the couch.

“Hey, angel,” she says, smiling at me.

My senses fill with her as she leans down, kissing me. I weave my fingers into her hair, staking my claim. Mars better be watching. This girl is mine, and I’ll kiss her whenever I want. She smells like her—all floral and soft. But she smells like him too. It makes my cock twitch and my hindbrain growl. I want to drag her over the top of the couch and wrap her in my arms, holding her against me until his scent fades. Or at least until mine mingles back in.

She pulls away with a soft laugh and gazes down at me, brushing my hair off my forehead.

I chase her hand like the pussy-whipped fool I am.

“Hard work out this morning? You seem sleepy.”

“It fucking sucked,” I mutter. “I got home and passed out.”

She hums, glancing down the couch to look at Cay. “Did you boys behave while I was gone?”

“Better than you,” he replies, his gaze darting over her shoulder to where Mars is still just standing there like a giant statue.

She straightens, her hand taking Caleb’s on the back of the couch and giving it a squeeze. Fuck, she already knows us so well. She knows I need the instant reconnection, the affirmation. While Caleb is still lost in emotional no-man’s land. When he’s ready to warm up, she’ll be there, but she’s not gonna push him.

“Mars, you want something to drink?” she calls over her shoulder, moving past him towards the kitchen.

“No, thank you,” he replies in that deep voice.

Rachel pulls open the door to the fridge. “Jake, Cay, you want anything?”

“Grapes,” I call, as Caleb says, “Water.”

I feel like a volcano ready to blow. I don’t do awkward silences, but Mars and Caleb could be gold and silver medalists in the sport. This is so fucking unfair. I’m gonna come off as the panicked, needy one when I can’t stand the heavy silence any longer.

Rachel shuts the door and turns, balancing several drinks and the bowl of grapes in her hands. “Here,” she murmurs, offering Mars the bottle of water clutched in the curve of her elbow. “Come say hello.”

He takes it wordlessly, following behind her into the living room.

She hands Caleb a can of sparkling water before offering me the grapes with another soft smile. She knows this is weird for me. At least she’s a talker too. Thank fucking god.

Caleb and I are sitting at the short end of the “L” shaped sectional. I’m tucked into the corner, and he’s flopped at the other end. Rachel comes around the long end and sits next to me, curling her legs under herself as she cracks open her own can of shitty sparkling water.

Like the weirdo he is, Mars doesn’t sit next to her. No, he sits in the oversized chair, his bottle of normal person water untouched in his hand. Poseidon hops up next to her instead, his face all up in her business looking for pets.

“You know we know, right?” I call, unable to stand the silence a moment longer.

Mars pulls his broody gaze away from her and the dog. “What?”

“I said you know we know…right? He knows we know?” I add at Rachel.

“He knows you know, Jake,” she replies, taking a sip of her water, one hand scratching between Sy’s ears.

“He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t know,” Caleb adds, his own dark gaze locked on the Finn. Caleb is always so good at reading people. “He’s curious. He wants her, but he wants us to curl up and die so he can have her. He wants his path clear of all obstructions—”

“Cay, don’t be a jerk,” Rachel warns.

“Then let him tell us I’m wrong,” he replies, his gaze shifting slowly back to the Finn. “Am I wrong, Mars?”

I watch him too, waiting.

Mars says nothing.

“Fucking perfect,” Caleb mutters.

“Wait, so how is this gonna work then?” I say, shifting to stretch out my legs as I pop a grape into my mouth. “Mars, are you moving in here?”

“No,” he and Caleb say at the same time.

“So…what then?” I say, glancing around. “You’re with Rachel, and we’re with Rachel and never the two shall meet? You gonna keep being weird at practices? You gonna avoid us in the group chats? Total Great Wall of Kinnunen? Because I gotta say, that’s not really gonna work for me.”

Ever the peacemaker, Rachel takes my hand and gives it a squeeze. “What would work for you, Jake?”

My gaze locks on the bear in my living room. “Well, I mean…Mars, you gotta try harder, man. Be part of the team. And I don’t just mean this team,” I add, gesturing around at the four of us. “And we are a team.”

“Explain,” he says, his blue eyes narrowed at me.

“Seriously? That wasn’t clear enough? Okay…umm…well, you gotta talk to me more. I want full sentences and like, facial expressions and stuff. And you gotta be in the group chat. Use emojis and GIFs if you don’t wanna talk. But leaving me on read is the fastest way to piss me off. Ask these two,” I say, jabbing a thumb at Rachel and Cay, the bowl of grapes balanced in my lap.

He makes a face like he just sucked on something sour, but slowly he nods.

“I’m not saying change your whole personality,” I add quickly. “I’m just sayin like…let us see your personality. You must show it to Rachel. She wouldn’t be interested in a total dud of a dude. Just…I want more,” I finish with a shrug.

Mars glances to Rachel and she gives him a nod. Sighing, he turns back to me. “I don’t like red meat and I prefer reading to watching television. And I have a labral tear in my right hip.”

I take a deep breath. This isn’t groundbreaking information, but it’s a start. “How bad is it?”

“Painful enough that I’m compensating in the net. But it’s on the mend.”

“How long have you been playing injured?”

“And keeping it secret,” Caleb adds with a glare.

“All season,” he replies. “I first noticed it over the summer.”

I shake my head, my frustration rising. A lot of traumatic shit I keep bottled up tight is threatening to come out and now is not the time or the place. I take a deep breath. “Man, you gotta tell us shit like that. I get not telling coach, but you gotta tell me. I’m your D.”

“I know,” he mutters, his gaze dropping to the bottle of water in his hands.

“I’m protecting you out there. I would have changed my game to hold back, guard your right side better—”

“No,” he growls. “You shouldn’t have to compensate for me. We play our own positions.”

“We play as a team, asshole,” I reply, sensing Caleb tense next to me. “You’re hurting, you tell your D-line, and we protect you with everything we’ve got. That’s how it works. You’re not alone, Mars. Not on that ice, and not in this house. You don’t get to work alone anymore.”

“It’s a difficult habit to break,” he admits.

“Yeah well…our Rays shit will work itself out on the ice,” I reply. “But if you’re with Rachel now, you’re with us too. Me and Cay. You gotta trust us. No more secrets. You’re gonna tell us when you’re injured, and you gotta let us help you. Agreed?”

Slowly, he nods.

“Decide here and now, Mars. Get all in with us or get all the way out.” My speech over, I point over my shoulder towards my front door.

He glances sharply at Rachel before looking back at me. “What does ‘all in’ mean to you, Compton?”

Next to me, Caleb shifts. I can’t help but smirk. “Well, for starters, you gotta let me sleep with my thumb in your ass. And you know about Naked Thursdays, right?”

“Ohmygod,” Rachel mutters as Caleb snorts.

“This is a joke, yes?” Mars glances to Rachel, one brow raised. “He’s joking?”

“Yeah, Mars. I’m just fucking with you. Well…I mean, that’ll be up to you,” I add with a wink. “Say the word, and we’ll commence with the fucking right here, right now. Cay and I can’t wait to see you make use of that torpedo between your legs. Are you sore, Seattle?” I add, throwing her a teasing grin. “Not gonna lie, it gets me hard picturing the two of you together. I really hope you’re into sharing, Mars. Cause Cay and I flipped a coin, and I get to tag-team her with you first.”

Rachel groans again as Mars looks at me like I’ve grown a second head.

“You’re serious?” he asks again.

And now I’m laughing. I slip off the couch, giving Poseidon a pat as he trots at my side around Caleb’s end of the couch. “Actually, yeah. About the coin flipping thing. We got bored last night watching Great British Bake Off. But I don’t think you’re really up for a tag-team right now,” I add, sizing him up. “And if I know my Seattle Girl, she didn’t stop until your dick all but killed her last night. Am I right, baby girl? Does your sweet pussy need time to recover before we double-team you again?”

She just rolls her eyes at me, letting me lean over the back of the couch to kiss her upside down. “Are you having fun?” she murmurs.

“Hey, if he can’t take it, he can leave,” I say loud enough for him to hear.

“How about we ease into the chaos a little,” she replies, her fingers brushing lightly down my arm. “Start with something a little more casual than a four-way.”

“How about we start with dinner?” I look over at the giant Finn. “Mars, you’re staying for dinner.”