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Probably like 5, he replied eventually. Gabe didn’t love change, and despite the fact that his dad was obviously world champion parent material, Dante knew he had deep-seated unresolved maternal abandonment angst.But he’ll pretend it’s a 2.

Gabe’s dad replied with a sad-face emoji.

Poor dude just wanted to introduce the two most important people in his life to each other and, like, do the happy families thing. But the stakes were high and there was plenty of chance for disaster. Dante got it.

It wasn’t like they didn’t have room, though. Dante’s parents would be cool if they had to cede their guesthouse suite to the new couple and their plus one and take one of the guest rooms in the main house. The main trick would be getting Gabe to think the invite was his idea so he wouldn’t freak out.

Let me handle it, Dante replied, and he braced himself to do a little spousal manipulation.

Gabe was still suffering when they got home, though he camouflaged it well. Someone who didn’t know him like Dante did might attribute the shorter strides to the snowy conditions; another few inches had fallen during skate. Dante would have to get the blower out again.

But first, husband maintenance.

They peeled off their gear and hung it up. Usually lunch was the next order of business, but today Dante caught Gabe around the waist and arrested him with a kiss.

He knew by the slight nasal sigh that Gabe realized he’d been caught, but he let Dante kiss him anyway. They both knew how to play to their strengths. Handling Gabe’s old-man pain was becoming one of Dante’s, but he figured he had a few years to work on it before it became a full-time gig.

“Hip again?” he asked when the kiss broke.

Gabe grimaced. “I’ll ice it. It’ll be fine.”

He should’ve seen a trainer or a massage therapist, but they’d instituted a no-bringing-work-home rule years ago, so Dante let it slide instead of saying so. “I’ll help you stretch it first, if you want,” he said with a lecherous eyebrow waggle.

The grimace turned into a warm, wry look, because Dante knew his husband well. “You just want to get me on my back,” Gabe accused.

“Yes, because you hate having me between your legsso much.” Dante swatted the good hip. “Come on. Gym.”

“It’s Gabe, actually.”

The dad jokes were a new thing. “Hilarious.”

The team therapist had given them a printout of stretches before Gabe’s hip surgery two years ago. Dante had taped it to the mirror in their home gym, but he’d long since stopped needing it as a reference. It took time and a roller, but eventually the tension drained from Gabe’s face and he released a telltale sigh.

Dante didn’t waste time moving his hand from Gabe’s calf to the inside of his thigh.

Gabe raised his head, blond curls in a wild halo, and met his eyes. “I knew you had an ulterior motive.”

Dante pulled his leg hairs. “Do you want a blow job or not?”

After that Gabe just laughed and let him run the show for a while.

A pleasant interlude later, Dante lay flopped next to Gabe on the mat. “I have the best ideas.”

Gabe snorted against his shoulder. “Don’t hurt yourself patting your own back.”

“I’m not that old yet.” Dante squawked when Gabe pinched his side. “Come on, you walked into that.”

“Limped into it, more like,” Gabe grumbled, but there was a smile in his voice as he sat up. “Lunch?”

“Yes, please.”

When they’d heated up their prepped meals and were sitting across from each other at the kitchen table, Dante sensed his opening. “You talk to your dad lately?” he asked between bites of pasta.

“Yesterday. Why?”

Dante had seen many a video clip of hockey players “acting.” He had occasionally been asked to be one of them. It was always painful. He definitely didn’t have enough talent to go for a second career when he hung up his skates. So he stuck to the truth… or most of it. “Just thinking about Christmas. Do you think Talia will invite him to spend the holidays with her?”

He could tell by the way Gabe paused midchew that this had not occurred to him. Finally he swallowed and said, “Why don’t we tell him to invite her here instead?” in such a perfect impression of a person without mommy issues that it left Dante gaping.