Us by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
June 16-18
Can your favorite hockey players finish their first season together undefeated?
Five months in, NHL forward Ryan Wesley is having a record-breaking rookie season. He’s living his dream of playing pro hockey and coming home every night to the man he loves—Jamie Canning, his longtime best friend turned boyfriend. There’s just one problem: the most important relationship of his life is one he needs to keep hidden, or else face a media storm that will eclipse his success on the ice.
Jamie loves Wes. He really, truly does. But hiding sucks. It’s not the life Jamie envisioned for himself, and the strain of keeping their secret is taking its toll. It doesn’t help that his new job isn’t going as smoothly as he’d hoped, but he knows he can power through it as long as he has Wes. At least apartment 10B is their retreat, where they can always be themselves.
Or can they?
When Wes’s nosiest teammate moves in upstairs, the threads of their carefully woven lie begin to unravel. With the outside world determined to take its best shot at them, can Wes and Jamie develop major-league relationship skills on the fly?
Review : I loved this series it was cute and sexy Wes is starting being a hockey player as a rookie so him and Jamie have to hide there Relationship but Jamie is unhappy with it and Wes’s teammate blake moves in next door I love Blake he’s loud and funny . I love Wes and Jamie’s relationship they love each other . Jamie loves his Job except one bigoted guy . Then Jamie gets really sick and Wes and Jamie’s relationship is out and Jamie is depressed and Jamie and Wes are barley speaking and Jamie is sick of being babied and doesn’t want anyone’s help and he ends up going to California to spend time with his family and Wes is worried and he does an interview and the interviewer asks if he wants to get married and Wes said he would marry Jamie any day. And Jamie goes to Wes and he proposes I’m so happy for them and they I loved these books .
Quotes : I brought you a cappuccino.” “You make it difficult to hate you,” I mumble into the pillow. “That’s what everyone says.”
I care more that they want to charge me eight hundred bucks. So I wrote an email to both travel and PR telling them to bill Blake because his fat ass broke it. And you’ll never guess what they said.” He snickers. “The clubhouse will pay for it because they don’t want the hotel to have a record of a third dude in that room. You and I are fine by the PR department. But gossip of a threesome is more than they can handle.”
One by one, even after the main courses arrive, every single player leaves the room, returning in The Shirt. I keep drinking, getting happier and sloppier with every sip of wine. They even got one for Jamie. He’s the last to leave and return wearing citrusy green and a big smile. “Now we need the picture,” he says. “I’ve asked the waiter to take it.” And that’s how Canning and I came to have a big framed photo on our living room wall featuring the entire Toronto team dressed in very loud gingham. I swear the color rendered a little bolder in print than it looks in real life, because this photo is kind of blinding. But Jamie snickers whenever I suggest that. But there we are, two dozen grins stained red from the wine, waving at the camera like idiots. Blake is in the back row, his napkin tied around his head like a bandana. I have a hand on Jamie’s shoulder right in the center of the shot.
And I look…centered. It’s not a word I’ve ever used to describe myself before. But everything I ever wanted is in that photo—the man of my dreams, and my teammates. I’ve left my smug smile behind in favor of one that’s so shiny I hardly recognize myself. But it’s me up there for sure. It’s us. And it’s perfect.
The way I feel about Ryan Wesley…it’s something I thought existed only in the movies. He’s my other half. We complement each other in more ways than I can count. When he’s in the same room, I’m focused on him, and when he’s gone I walk around missing him. There’s an old quote my mother once painted on a ceramic platter. Love is friendship set on fire. I get it now.
get the feeling that Blake Riley could carry on an entire conversation with himself.
“I miss the tongue ring,” I tell him breathlessly. He’d taken out the piercing at the start of the season. I guess the team didn’t think it was safe. “Don’t you worry,” Wes teases. “I can still rock your world without it.”
Lucky? I’m about ten seconds from committing a murder. Except I know that giant body wouldn’t fit into the hallway chute
are we talking literal place? Are you at an S&M club right now? Did you join the circus?” I roll my eyes. “Yes, Jessica, we joined the circus. Wes trains seals and I ride the bears. We bunk with the bearded lady and the guy who swallows swords.” “Is that a gay euphemism? Swallowing swords?”
“Probably shouldna opened all those drawers,” Blake carries on, rubbing his chin. “Ya can’t unsee some of those toys. But everybody has to have his own kinda fun.
“I have a sex look?” I ask instead. “Yeah. Your eyes go a little out of focus, and your tongue hangs out a little.” I snort into his armpit. “Sounds sexy.”
It’s Jamie. I’d marry him in a hot second, and I’m sure he knows it.”
We are children. Overgrown, testosterone-filled children.
“Ring,” I croak. “You…I…” My mouth is like sandpaper. “In that interview, you said you wanted…” Deep breaths. “To get married some day. And I think that’s something we should do.”
we decide we want to have kids someday, there are ways for us to do that, babe. Adoption. Surrogates.” I lightly pinch his ass. “Stop acting like you’re dooming me to a life of childless misery.”
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