As he stood under the stream of hot water, Matty angled his body slightly away from Kevin’s, as was polite. That didn’t explain the way his heart raced every time he looked over, carefully keeping his gaze up on Kevin’s face. He didn’t normally have to keep his eyes up—he just naturally didn’t want to see his teammates buck naked, hot or not.

That subtle difference was weird. Matty just liked Kevin, though. Kevin was nice and friendly, open, easy to be around, smarter than he gave himself credit for…

Matty just really wanted to be bros. Especially since Kevin seemed willing to overlook and play along with his awkward, clumsy, hella public kiss.

He kept going back and forth on why the hell he felt so weird around Kevin. Part of him knew how much leverage Kevin now had over him, but Kevin hadn’t once hinted at it.

Fucking hell, this guy was willing to overlook the kiss, not even bringing it up to make him squirm from teasing embarrassment later? That made him kind of the best bro ever. Or maybe Kevin was that desperate for a buddy in the city now that he’d just moved here, which made Matty want to be friends even more.

He couldn’t wait to bring him home and give him nachos and beer and introduce him to his roommates.

Matty scrubbed his pits and bits on autopilot, thanking God Kevin didn’t try to talk so he didn’t have to play the your ass is in my peripheral vision game.

Even if he wanted it to be. Especially because he wanted it to be.

Matty shook off his layers of thoughts, which were mostly useless bullshit speculation anyway, and stepped into his clothes. Kevin got dressed around the same time, and by the time he headed to the locker room door, Kevin was right there in his flip-flops alongside him.

“You’re quick to get ready to go,” Kevin told him.

“Yeah, with being the last one to leave the gym all the time,” Matty laughed. “Sometimes they really wanna lock up and go. You get good at fleeing.”

Kevin laughed. “I bet. You hungry?”

“Yeah. I got stuff for nachos at home, and some beer…?”

“Sold,” Kevin grinned. “Bus?”

“Yep, we should make it if we jog.”

The awkwardness of jogging in flip-flops made the next couple minutes fly by until they got on the bus and took their seats for the quick ride back to Matt’s place.

I hope my roomies like him.

* * *

“Hey, man, you’re back already. Oh, hi, Kevin.” Fisher was right by the door when Kevin and Matty walked in, and he raised his hand to high-five them both. “Just worked out?”

“Hi,” Kevin answered with a smile. “Yeah, it went pretty good. Glenn’s routines are always intense. He had us doing deadlifts.”

“Ooof, this early? God, he wants you packing on muscle,” Fisher laughed. “Nice. The other guys are home, by the way.”

CJ, Chris, and Fisher lived with Matty. They’d had a fifth guy in the house, Nate—their token non-hockey-player—but he wasn’t home a lot over the summer. He hadn’t been home much lately, in fact. It was kind of worrying, but so far, he’d been paying rent.

When they got to the living room, CJ and Chris were sprawled in front of the TV while Fisher headed to pick up a book and crash in the armchair again. Jasmine was curled on her dog bed, napping, but she got up to greet them both, too.

Matty liked that Kevin knelt to scratch her head and greet her personally.

After their rounds of greetings, Chris nodded at Kevin. “You working him too hard?” he told Matty, shaking his head. “Shame. Give the newbie a season.”

“Nah, he can take it,” Matty smiled, and when he elbowed Kevin, Kevin looked pleased at the praise. “He’s gonna be a force to reckon with. Okay, nachos.”

“Oooh, yes, please,” Fisher smirked.

“Not for you, loser,” Matty laughed. “I made you all pizza yesterday. You seriously ate your way through all of that?”

The three guys gave him guilty looks.

Kevin snorted with laughter. “Sometimes I’m glad my household’s pretty small.”

Matty and Kevin grabbed beers from the fridge, and Kevin sat at the counter while Matty got their nachos ready. They didn’t say much yet, listening in on the conversation in the living room—some gossip about the Zamboni driver at the local rink, and the running inside joke that he was actually an alien trying to infiltrate Canada from the least suspicious possible position.

Then, conversation turned to their weekend getaway.

“So are we doing this cabin thing or not?” CJ asked, crinkling his beer can and tossing it in the bin near the kitchen doorway.

Matty poked his head out. “Not at my parents’ cabin, that’s a hell of a long way away. Let’s get a cabin closer.”

“Yeah,” Chris agreed. “Not like we can’t afford it, splitting it a bunch of ways for just a weekend.”

Matty glanced at Kevin, who was looking away like he didn’t want to intrude or invite himself along. Idiot, of course he was getting invited. He elbowed Kevin. “Hey, you’re coming, too, right?”

Kevin looked surprised. “Yeah? I mean, yeah, thanks. Sure,” he nodded, his shoulders sinking in relief.

Hans wasn’t Matty’s favorite player—something had always been up with him, but Matty had never been able to figure out where his gut instinct came from. Still, he had nothing personally against the guy, so he shrugged. “You bringing Hans, too?” It seemed like a good idea to befriend Kevin’s friends, too, no matter what this weird thing turned out to be between them.

“I’ll ask him,” Kevin smiled, then nodded. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Hey, you wanna choose the next movie? They all have horrible taste.”

CJ groaned and Chris threw the remote at Matty’s head, so he snatched it out of the air and smacked Chris’s arm with it before handing it to Kevin.

As they settled down to shoot the shit while superhero movies played in the background, Matty relaxed and sprawled along the floor by the coffee table, watching Kevin relax equally.

This wasn’t the intimate kind of getting-to-know-you he half-wanted with Kevin, but they had to establish a lot of things first. For now, that had to stay a kinda kinky, embarrassing fantasy.

Kevin finally told them he had to head out and shop for groceries, and Matty saw him to the door. Very aware of his roommates so close by, Matty reached out for an enthusiastic back-clap and handshake before waving goodbye.

The room seemed a little duller without Kevin in it. The moment Matty sat down again, Fisher looked at him. “God, it’s about time you socialized with someone other than us. You were becoming a hermit.”

Matty snorted. “Was not, shut up.”

“You sort of were,” CJ smirked. “But he’s a cool kid. Reminds me a little of Cam. I can see how they got along well.”

“Yeah,” Matty agreed. “He wants me to visit, too. I’ll have to try to get back this summer before the preseason starts.”

“Shhh, it’s just getting to the good bit.”

Kissing, of course, with the obligatory hot woman. Matty rolled his eyes at the movie, but his buddies were into it, so he didn’t comment. They all expected that kind of commentary from him anyway.

Though he often spoke too suddenly and loudly, he also called out a little more shit than guys wanted to hear, so he tried to keep it toned down around the guys he knew were cool.

He couldn’t resist sneaking in one comment. “Of course she’s gonna be kidnapped next scene so he can swoop in and save her. Princess Peach there.”

“Shhh,” CJ kicked him.

“Losers,” Matty laughed, getting up in the middle of the kissing scene. He gathered empty beer cans to drop into the recycling by the kitchen doorway on the way to get another beer. If they were swapping looks behind his back, he didn’t wanna know.