“Yeah? You were looking a little panicky.”
Hawk snorted, a sound that had Caleb laughing along. “I was thinking how now I had to think of clever shit to say, and I have to tell you, this little chair makes me feel like a hulking mammoth.”
“You do seem to be having trouble containing everything.” Caleb studied Hawk carefully, noting every detail of that hard body encased in a soft, silvery gray pullover that looked like it might be cashmere. It made Hawk’s eyes really pop, and itoutlined those fucking amazing pecs in a way that was damn near indecent.
“You don’t have to be clever, Hawk.” Caleb wanted the guy to be comfortable, to be himself. “No small talk, remember? Hell, we can play twenty questions or never have I ever if we get bored or awkward.”
Hawk blinked at him, and Caleb would swear his cheeks went pink. “I suck at those games. I’ve mostly done hockey since I was like, twelve.”
“Yeah, but I’m inventive.” Caleb thought that trace of a blush was freaking adorable, especially on such a big, tough-looking guy. “I have been, uh, free-range for a long time.”
“I like that. ‘Free range’…” Hawk studied him in return, that gray gaze bright and searching. “So give me the capsule history of Caleb Lancaster.”
“Oh, okay.” That was kind of cool. He pondered what the pertinent points would be that were not in like, his X Games profile. “I was born and raised in Colorado. Mom and Dad weren’t athletic, but her brother was a downhiller, so I was literally on the slopes when I started walking.”
“That’s so cool. I bet you wiped out a lot.”
“Oh, my God. So much.” He waved a hand. “I sucked at taking tests so bad that by the time I was in third grade, I was homeschooled. But that gave me a lot of time to travel with them and to board. My uncle was so cool, but my mom is like a dance mom, kinda.”
“That’s wild. Seriously.” Hawk was just smiling, nodding, really seeming invested. That was rad too, because so much of his life was sound bites and video clips that were two minutes or shorter.
“Yeah. So I was competing by then, too, and I was really good at it. But it made me socially awkward, I guess.”
“I get that. I never had to work to make friends because I was on teams, you know?”
“Yeah. But I love traveling, and I’ve gotten to do so much of that…” He chewed his lower lip. “I love weird world music, Mexican food, fresh powder, surfing in the summer, and audiobooks about natural disasters.”
That had Hawk tilting his head. “Like hurricanes or?—”
“No, like freak storms on Mount Everest that strand climbers, or that weird blizzard in Russia that killed all those hikers.”
“That’s not morbid.” Hawk had leaned back while he talked, his whole body relaxing, his muscles unclenching.
“Nope,” Caleb agreed cheerfully. “It’s just a thing. Your turn.”
“Oh.” Hawk didn’t look freaked-out so much as blank. “Uh, my mom is from Maine. My dad is from Montreal. I grew up bouncing back and forth between the two places. I was in skates by three, on a team by five.”
“You were like, a world junior champ, right?”
“Yeah. As soon as it was obvious that I was really good at it, hockey was my life. I was homeschooled too.”
“See? Things in common.”
“Yeah.” Hawk paused, eyes moving as if he were scanning his memory. “So, yeah. I travel a lot. I like pretty much any music but opera, though I work out to EDM so I don’t have to worry about words distracting me. I love Thai food, poutine, and I have a sweet tooth as long as it’s not chocolate.”
Caleb put a hand over his heart. “No chocolate!”
“It coats my mouth. It’s just eh.”
“Oh, man.” He shook his head. “That’s unnatural.”
“I have been reliably informed before.” Hawk’s grin was so damn hot. Unguarded and happy. “I watch a lot of movies on planes, but I can’t do horror, and I read a lot. Mostly non-fiction. Biographies and history. When I do fiction, I like epics, you know? Big series I can sink my teeth into.”
“That shreds.” Caleb really liked this guy, which wasinteresting from an academic sort of standpoint, because a lot of people left him cold. Or at least neutral.
Their food came, and they laughed through chopsticks clumsiness and grilling at the table. The side dishes were super simple, just some greens and some shaved something he thought might be pickled daikon, along with a wee bowl of rice.
“This is amazing.” Hawk picked up another piece of grilled beef and added a tiny bit of salt before popping it into his mouth.