“Come on, man. Obviously it was good if you’re going back. Just tell me, is he a medal contender in something?”
“Yes.” Caleb was probably a shoo-in for the damn gold, in fact. Caleb had a far better chance to win something, anything, than Hawk’s team did. He knew they were going to struggle.
“Nice. American?”
“I am not playing twenty questions with you, bud.” Hawk did adore Luka, even if the man made him nuts. He was just too good-natured to stay mad at or evengetmad most days.
“You are no fun. I have to live vicariously since Marina couldn’t come with the kids, huh?”
“I’m hitting the showers.” Hawk went to his stall and started stripping off gear. He didn’t need Luka talking about his sex life in the locker room. Or at all.
“You good for supper, at least? Or are you meeting…” Luka went in low-voiced. “Mr. Right Now?”
He snorted, whacking Luka’s arm. “He has a team meeting dinner of some sort, so I’ll hit the dining hall with you, if you want.”
“Yeah, man. I’ll even stop nagging. We gotta stick together against these yahoos.” He waved a hand at a couple of guys from a rival team back home.
“You got it.” Hawk stripped down, wrapping a towel around his waist to head to the showers, fist-bumping Luka on the way by, almost apologetically.
He knew he wasn’t going to be the best company at supper.
He was too damn excited about seeing Caleb again tonight for dessert.
Caleb grabbeda box and filled it with two kinds of cheesecake, some cookies, and some sort of fried pastry, with goo in the middle, for two. The team dinner was pretty much over, and they were getting to take dessert back to their rooms. He wanted to impress Hawk with his selections, because the guy had said he had a bit of a sweet tooth…
“Caleb, my friend.” Josef Hynmek, a halfpipe guy from Poland, came to jostle his arm, and he almost dropped the second pastry. “We are going out of the village to find a beer. You should come with us. Is better for you than sugar.”
He stared at Josef for a second, hand hovering over the box he held. “Dude, beer is, like, all sugar.”
“Is all carb, but not so much sugar as that.”
“Cheesecake has protein,” he pointed out. Hynnie loved beer. Like,lovedit. So Caleb teased a lot.
“Yes, yes. You come with us?”
“Not tonight, man. I got plans.” He waved the box after he popped the last pastry in. “Good ones.”
Hynnie tilted his head. “Already so soon?” Then a wide smile split his face, his pale blue eyes twinkling. “Good for you, my friend.”
“Thanks, dude. We’ll hang in a few days, okay?”
“Yes, yes. Fine. When is just us snowboarders together, huh?”
“Yeah.” Caleb closed up the box. “Totally. We’ll have plenty of time to do that.” He winked, then headed out, eyes downcast so no one else tried to grab him and make him be social.
Normally, he was super-friendly with all the guys, but he had a hot date with Hawk. And Hawk’s pecs. His eight pack. And his ass… Caleb could write odes to that ass if he did poetry.
He made his way across the village to the tower the rendezvous room was in, humming under his breath. He had his earbuds in, so it looked like he had on music, but he was listening to make sure no one called out to him.
He didn’t want to be rude, but he could act like he hadn’t heard a damn thing.
He hit the elevators, hoping Hawk was right behind him. Caleb didn’t want to lose any time they might have together. He didn’t want to examine too closely how into this guy he was, because nothing was going to come of it, but there it was.
He got to the room, pleased to see the bedsheets had been changed on both beds, the covers neatly pulled up and the floor and bathroom scrubbed.
That was awesome. He’d billeted in some pretty awful places for competitions, but this was nice.
He set the dessert up on the table and pulled out some napkins and a couple of plastic plates. There were plenty of drink options, including a little coffee maker that would also yield hot water for tea, which was plentiful around the village.