“Oh, Chez Sono?” Aubrey perked up, then deflated again, because damn. He’d have liked to try it too. “My cousin loves that place. Although she’s more into the cocktails.”
Nate lifted an eyebrow.
Aubrey felt judged. “What?”
He lifted the other eyebrow.
Aubrey got it. “Oh, everything’s an innuendo with you.Cocktails. That’s what it takes? You weren’t going to jump onexpecting six inches, but cocktails—that gets you?”
Nate lifted one shoulder. “I’m gonna blame low blood sugar. It’s past dinnertime.”
Startled, Aubrey glanced at the bedside clock and found it had ticked over to past eight. Their shooting schedule meant he usually ate early. Nate probably did too. “Huh. Room service?”
For a second he thought Nate was going to agree, and he had a fleeting hot flash of what could happen afterward if he did. If Nate finally let Aubrey close to him. If he brushed the chip off his shoulder and just went with the flow. Aubrey knew they could get along—at the very least outside the bedroom, but maybe in bed too. Nate would be a demanding lover, he thought, but Aubrey could rise to that challenge. Hell, Aubrey would thrive on it.
And then Aloof Nate slipped back into place, and he shook his head. “Thanks, but I think I’m just going to eat in my room.”
Aubrey fought off a sigh. “Sure,” he said. “Hey, pass me the room service menu on your way out?” If he was going to wallow, he would do it in bed as God intended.
The door clicked softly open. Aubrey made a point not to watch Nate leave.
THE SNOWstarted coming down halfway through the first period, and Nate’s long experience of winter road trips told him not to count on timely air travel.
By the time he and Aubrey wrapped up the postgame interviews, he had three text messages on his phone.Flight delayed. Flight delayed. Flight canceled.
Nate called the hotel and managed to reserve a king room—apparently the last one the hotel had available, as the storm had knocked out power and heat in more than one neighborhood and all outbound flights were canceled.
Then, on a whim, he called Chez Sono, but even leveraging his “mildly famous, especially in Canada” name, they didn’t take reservations. Getting a cab seemed unlikely, given the forecast, but the restaurant was only a few blocks from the hotel. Maybe he could walk it.
By some miracle he did manage to get a cab back to the hotel. He’d just finished checking in again, and was turning to take his suitcase up to the room when he saw Aubrey at the desk two down from him.
A bellhop took Aubrey’s suitcase, and Aubrey turned toward the hotel bar but stopped when he saw Nate.
“You get the same message I did?” Nate asked.
“Yeah, no flight and now no hotel room. At least they’ll hold my bag, and I think I can buy enough overpriced cocktails down here that they’ll let me stretch out on a couch all night.”
“Probably,” Nate agreed. He had to bite his tongue because he nearly caught himself offering to share his room. Sometimes he had to squash his inborn Midwestern politeness before it caused him to do something stupid.
The bellhop passed, and Nate flagged him down to have his suitcase brought up. Maybe he wouldn’t go whole-hog crazy, but he could at least be friendly. “I was going to brave the snow and check out Chez Sono. They’re open but no reservations. You want to tag along?”
Aubrey paused, looked toward the hotel lobby, then looked outside. Snow beat fiercely against the windowpanes, swirling so thick Nate could barely make out the glow of streetlights. They’d had a matinee, so it was only six. “You think we can get a cab?”
A car drove slowly by, braked, kept going, and bumped gently into a parked vehicle.
Nate looked from the blinking lights and blaring alarms back to Aubrey. “Actually, I’m thinking about walking.”
“I’m game.” Aubrey grinned. “Maybe with our combined charm we can wrangle a table. Or maybe we’ll look so pathetic by then they’ll take pity.”
“Whatever gets us fed.” Nate held the door open for him, feeling something akin to camaraderie. Or maybe he was just that hungry.
They didn’t talk on the walk, between being bundled up and hustling along the sidewalk. Aubrey held his phone up, and the map app glowed like a beacon.
When they arrived, Chez Sono was bustling—Winnipeg wasn’t going to shut down over a little snow. The hostess gave them a ridiculous wait time before suggesting that they try for a spot at the bar. Aubrey took off as soon as she said that, leaving Nate to mutter, “Thanks” before following in his wake.
He had to admit it gave him a pretty good view. Aubrey’s suit was tailored to flatter his lean frame, showing off a slender waist and strong shoulders. He wasn’t the only one who noticed either. A high-top table of women turned their heads almost in unison as he passed.
“I can’t believe they’re slammed in this weather,” Aubrey commented, shaking his head. “This better be some restaurant.”
