Max’s common sense interjected to change the subject, please, before Max accidentally proposed in public after all.
Grady cleared his throat as though he’d heard Max’s silent plea for help. “So,” he said, “what’s good here?”
BY THEtime lunch ended, Grady was wondering if he’d been rude to come all the way out to New Brunswick and meet Max’s trainer before they said hello to his parents. Maybe, but it was too late to fix that now. At least Grady had met them already and had seen them just a couple of weeks ago.
He made a note to buy Linda flowers anyway. Moms liked that stuff, right? They were supposed to go over there for Max’s birthday party tomorrow. Moms should definitely get flowers on the anniversary of the day they birthed a child. Grady made a note to check out the offerings while they were in town and figure something out.
But before he could do any of that, he had to meet Todd.
Most summers, Grady trained with Jess and her friend Carla. Jess was more than qualified to kick his ass most ways, and Carla had the education to keep them both from hurting themselves. He checked in with the team’s trainers and nutritionists too, usually, just to keep everyone on the same page.
But Max had this guy Todd, who handled Max, a couple of the elite women’s league players, and a few guys who played in Europe. As much as Grady loved his sister, she wasn’t the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, so he was willing to give Todd a chance. Grady could always find someone else in New Brunswick to train with if he hated him.
And at first, that was exactly what he thought would happen. He and Max walked into the gym and someone wolf-whistled. Grady’s back went all the way up even before the short little blond—don’t think twink, don’t think twink—guy swept Max into a bridal carry.
Grady reminded himself for the hundredth time that they did not have hockey in jail.
“Mad Max!” The man Grady assumed was Todd swung Max around a couple times before depositing him on his feet. “The hometown hero returns. I hear there’s gonna be a parade.”
Fuck, who was Grady going to stand with for that? Max’s family would probably be, like, in it with him. But he couldn’t just not go.
Maybe Gru could be his date.
“Hey, any excuse, right?” Max clapped him on the back and then angled his body toward Grady.
Which meant he caught the full force of Grady’s sour face before Grady had a chance to school his expression.
Max cleared his throat and rubbed the side of his nose, but it didn’t do much to hide his smirk at catching Grady being salty. “Todd, I told you about my boyfriend, Grady. Grady, Todd. Try not to break his fingers, please.”
Todd laughed and extended his hand. “Good to meet you. Max has told me a lot about you.”
Thatthrew Grady for such a loop that he shook hands on autopilot without any macho posturing. Max was blushing, which meant he’d told this guynicethings.
Grady could probably chill out a little. “He says you’re the best trainer on the East Coast,” he admitted grudgingly.
Todd snorted. “I’m the only trainer on the East Coast who knows how to handle him.”
That was probably more likely.
“Anyway, c’mon into my office. We’ll figure out our goals and build a schedule and go from there.”
FOR THEweek or so after their first lunch out, Grady got a few looks around town—nothing threatening or hostile, more curious. It took him most of that time to realize people weren’t interested in him because he was an NHL player, they were interested because he was Max’s boyfriend. He expected to feel weird about that—he’d worked hard for his career and he was proud of it, and shouldn’t it kind of sting that it didn’t matter?
It didn’t. Actually Grady found it refreshing… and maybe further confirmation that he really did want to be Max Lockhart’s husband.
He still had to figure out how to bring that up. Every time he tried to work out a strategy in his head, it felt wrong. Common sense said he should broach the subject in a general, sort ofwhere do you see yourself in five years?kind of a thing. Maybe not five years. Grady would lose his mind if he had to wait five years.
But a talk like that didn’t leave a lot of room for romance. Max appreciated romance. Max had watchedPride & Prejudicethree times in the past two months. At this point Grady could quote it almost verbatim.
At least, he thought ruefully, that meant he knew hownotto propose. Starting with a list of reasons he used to hate Max was off the table. Dinner at a fancy restaurant was cliché.
The night before Max’s birthday, when Max had passed out facedown on the mattress next to him, Grady traced his fingers over Larry the Lobster and entertained the idea of taking Max to a tattoo parlor and asking the artist to draw a ring on it.
Okay, so that wasn’t really romantic either, but at least it was a gesture Max would appreciate. Content that he was finally on the right track, Grady fell asleep.
Morning came soon enough.
“Why are you moving?” Grady grumbled, attempting to pull Max closer.
