Hawk chuckled. Idaho Springs wasn’t quite halfway between Denver and Vail, probably just off I-70. It was kind of a weird little town that was growing but it still wasn’t huge. It had a bunch of hot springs, but it was more of a winter-sports-dude place than a resort. “Beau Jos’s, of course,” he said, referencing a pizza place that was kind of famous for its Colorado pie.
Caleb hooted. “Yeah, I’ve heard that crazy big crust they have with honey on it is so good.”
Hawk shook his head. “I was always there for the salad wagon.”
“You are so weird with your super healthy diet.”
“I can’t help it. You can take the boy out of hockey, but you can’t take the hockey out of the boy.” Hawk waved. “That’s the kitchen. That’s the dining area. This is the living room. That’s the loft.” He indicated everything with sweeps of his arm. “Any questions?”
“Hold up. I’m still on Idaho Springs. I mean, Beau Jo’s is fabulous from what I hear, but you can get that at Aurora so why Idaho Springs?”
Hawk felt his cheeks heat up a little bit. “Okay I like real estate, and I was looking at some point for a house in one of the smaller towns, not here in Denver. I checked all sorts of places: Glenwood, Carbondale, even Aspen, Vail. All that kind of stuff, but Idaho Springs was quirky and small, and I found this house.”
He’d fallen in love with this weird, crooked house that sort of faded back into side of the mountain and had a huge misshapen barn and really bad interior fixtures,and it had been incredibly cheap for Colorado. Like ridiculously cheap, so he’d snapped it up.
“I’m still fixing it up but it’s this bizarre clapboard, crooked house with a huge barn, and I love it.”
Caleb beamed at him. “That is so cool. I would love to see that. Fuck, my condo in Vail is just in one of those awful high-rise things. Did I tell you about this?”
“I think you mentioned it once upon a time.”
“It’s horrible. It’s completely faceless and nameless and bland, but it was in my price range, and it was what I needed at the time because, really, I wasn’t spending any time at home.” Caleb rolled his ass over to the couch and then sat, putting his foot out against the floor.
Hawk slid an ottoman to him, and Caleb lifted his foot to prop it up on top. It was very soft and pillowy, and Caleb moaned for him with pleasure.
“Oh, that’s almost better than sex.”
Snorting, he went to the fridge to grab them both a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water to share. He thought Caleb needed the electrolytes. “Yeah, and this place is great, but it is sort of an industrial loft, right? I wanted something with character, that I could work on and get my hands dirty.”
“I’m all over it. I want to see.”
“Let’s get you through your first check-up appointment, and then I’ll have to work a couple weeks, but after that I’ll have some more time off because the team will be taking a pretty hefty road trip, and I won’t be going along.”
“It’s a deal.” Caleb stared up at the ceiling, probably looking at the lights. He didn’t know. “Is it weird that I’m hungry?”
“Baby, all you’ve done for the last two days is sleep and eat soup. Of course you’re hungry.”
“Yeah. Can we get food delivery?”
“Sure.” Hawk shrugged, grabbing his phone where he’d left it on the counter. “We can literally get anything from Thai to Mediterranean to steak.”
“Hmmm.”
Hawk opened the food delivery service on his phone in order to show it to Caleb. “Here, you pick.”
Caleb immediately started scrolling faster than he ever could. “Is there anything you hate?”
“Nah. I’m more fond of Southern Indian stuff like dosas than I am the heavier breads, and Russian food isn’t my jam.”
When Caleb blinked at him over the phone for a moment, Hawk shrugged. “I had a roommate when I was a rookie who was Russian. I remember some wild shit.”
“Huh.” Caleb grinned and shook his head, going back to the phone. “You’re way more adventurous than me. I was thinking something like pizza or subs. Anything super yummy that doesn’t taste like hospital food.”
“Ah.” He held out his hand for the phone. “If you want that I have a local pizza place that delivers. We can get both pizza and subs from them.”
“Cool-cool.” Caleb slumped back against the couch.
“Just tell me what you like on your pizza or what kind of sub you like and I’ll make an order.”