Rebound (Seattle Steelheads #1)(19)

“Yeah?”

“Oh yeah. You want to know the one I will never live down?”

“Sure.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “So, my first year on the force, I was at my parents’ house for Christmas. Everybody was making cracks about my eyes being glazed because I ate too many doughnuts, telling me I had powdered sugar on my shirt so I’d look.” He rolled his eyes. “But then I was helping my mom with dessert, and she patted my cheek. Which she doesn’t usually do. I just figured she was happy that I was home for the holidays for a change, you know?”

“Oh God.” I smothered a laugh. “She didn’t.”

“She did.” Geoff sighed with mock exasperation. “Four different people said ‘hey, you’ve got powdered sugar on your face’ before I looked in a mirror.” He gestured at his cheek. “She’d left a damn handprint.”

“In powdered sugar?”

“In powdered sugar.”

I snorted. “Oh my God, your mom sounds awesome.”

“Uh-huh. That was the same year my sister thought it would be hilarious to wrap a box of Krispy Kremes and give them to me as a gift.”

I burst out laughing, which made me dizzy with relief. Were cops trained to do this or something? Geoff was here because my ex-boyfriend was threatening to show up despite a verbal warning from a cop, and not two minutes after we’d walked through the door, he had me laughing. He had this amazing ability to pull my focus away from Nathan and make the world feel something like normal again, and it was addictive as hell.

“I’ll keep the doughnut jokes to a minimum, I promise.” I turned to pour the coffee that had finished brewing. “I mean, I can get some if you want me—”

“Yeah, yeah. Jackass.”

I chuckled again and handed him a cup. I leaned against the counter, and he stayed beside the island as we carefully sipped the hot coffee. “So you didn’t have to bust out of work early for this, did you?”

Geoff shrugged. “It’s fine.” He grinned a little. “I just owe my partner coffee every day for the next two weeks for handling all our paperwork.”

I grimaced. “She doesn’t mind?”

“Not at all. Trust me—it’s all good.” He sobered, looking right in my eyes. “And under the circumstances, she’d have been pissed at me if I hadn’t gone.”

“Oh.” I shuddered. I hated every reminder of how serious this really was. Couldn’t we just go back to doughnut jokes and forget why Geoff was actually here? Of course we couldn’t, but a boy could dream.

Geoff studied me. “I know you probably don’t believe it, but you’re handling this pretty damn well.”

“You mean aside from climbing the walls and having the cops on speed dial?”

“You’re taking action.” He sipped his coffee, then set it beside him on the island. “You called me when he ignored my warning and you were concerned for your safety. No one’s asking you not to be scared.”

“Oh.” I looked into my own coffee, but suddenly didn’t need or want it, so I put it aside. “I guess I just feel weird not being able to handle this on my own. Like I’m…weak or something.”

“He beat the shit out of you,” Geoff said bluntly. “Asking for help to get someone like that out of your life is not weak. It’s smart.” He watched me for a second. “Is that part of why you didn’t get the protective order? Are you worried about how it might affect your image as an athlete?”

My teeth snapped together. Fuck, he was good. How come nobody else could read me like this guy could? “Kind of. Yeah.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Is it?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “You’re in the spotlight. Plus, you said yourself that being a gay athlete adds to the scrutiny.”

“Oh my God, it so does.” I groaned. “You know what’s seriously fucked up?”

Geoff’s eyebrows rose.

I laughed shakily. “When I started playing college hockey, there were actually people who thought I’d be too much of a wimp on the ice.”

“A wimp?” He furrowed his brow. “Have they seen you play?”

“They have now. But back then, everyone thought I’d basically be a figure skater with a stick. Which, I mean, half the skating coaches in the league are ex-figure skaters, and there’s another team that has a figure skater turned hockey player on their offense, but let’s not let logic interfere with a good homophobic insult.” I shook my head. “They were all convinced I must be a sissy, and I’d be too afraid to play effectively.”

Geoff snorted. “Yeah. Okay. I’m sure you’ve set them straight, so to speak.”

“Eh. Kinda. I mean, the first time I got ejected for fighting, they stopped with some of that shit, but it’s been an ongoing thing since the beginning, you know? They called me ice princess, the queen of college hockey, all of that. Sometimes they still do if someone checks me hard enough to put me on the ice. Everyone still has this idea that a gay guy can’t be tough enough for hockey.” I sagged against the counter and sighed. “And with all of that, my biggest fear the last couple of years has been someone finding out I’m terrified of my own boyfriend. I may not be a coward in the rink, but at home?”