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A young student and parent, with cell phone at the ready, approached them. “Excuse me, Mr. Carter.”

“Yes?” Caleb looked down at the boy who’d spoken.

“I’m Heath, and this is my dad. We’ve been doing some Facebook Live posts to show people what to expect when they get here. Can we talk to you?”

Caleb looked over to Grant and raised his eyebrow. “Do I have an interview scheduled?”

He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. “Nothing on the calendar, but I think for this young man, we can fit him in.”

“I think you’re right.” Caleb looked to Heath and smiled warmly.

Grant stepped out from behind the table. “Take it easy on him with the questions, okay?”

He nodded vigorously.

“I’m going to leave you with the media,” Aaron said. “I’ve still got some setup to do.”

“We’ll catch up later,” Caleb said before Aaron headed off for a group of students at the third-grade table. He turned his full attention to Heath. “So, what do you want to know?”

Caleb spoke with Heath for several minutes while his dad recorded. When Heath went to find his next subject, his dad stayed behind and told Caleb that Heath was a fourth grader who wanted to be a reporter when he grew up, and that he had taken it upon himself to interview people about the evening.

Once Heath called his dad away for another interview, Caleb and Grant worked on arranging the table so people could easily navigate around it for photo ops.

When had Aaron become so cute and adorable? He hadn’t been like that in high school. Geeky-cute, sure, with his thick glasses and wiry-thin look. The intervening years had been good to him. He was lean but muscular. Maybe he worked out, because he certainly wasn’t a beanpole anymore. The new glasses and beard really made Caleb take notice.

It’d been more than a year since Caleb had dated anyone, and more than five since he’d been in a serious relationship. He struggled to maintain something since he traveled nearly half of the season, which could stretch to more than eight months if the team went to the playoffs. Even if something serious were to start in the off-season, all too soon he’d have to seriously focus on his game.

Would it be different to date someone who lived in his hometown? He didn’t get here often, but it’d be a reason to make sure he returned more regularly. His family would love that, and so would he, really. He loved playing for New York, but the longer he’d been there, the more he wondered if the big city was really for him.

Caleb shoved those thoughts aside when some other parents came up to thank him for helping the school. He’d have plenty of time to consider the possibilities later.

Chapter Three

AARON returned to his students to help them finish their booth setup.

Even though Pam had mentioned that Caleb would be making a special appearance at their small-town event, it hadn’t prepared him to see Caleb for the first time in years, standing in the gym. It was good talking to him again after so long. What had surprised him was the visceral reaction he had to being close to Pam’s kid brother like that.

One thing was for certain. Caleb Carter was no longer a kid.

What the hell was happening? Just standing close to Caleb had left Aaron unsettled. Examining those pictures, Aaron felt the heat coming off Caleb, not to mention the occasional bumps he had gotten as Caleb reached around to point at the images.

The candid picture captured the real Caleb—and it was sexy as hell too. Caleb’s sweaty face, a lock of blond hair peeking out from the helmet, showed the effort and intensity of the game. The subtle five o’clock shadow got Aaron’s full attention and drew him in. He wanted to see the photo come to life.

Thankfully Heath, intrepid fourth-grade reporter, had come up and broken the moment before Aaron’s body could noticeably react—no blushing, no sweaty palms, and thank God, no tent in his jeans. That would’ve been the worst.

Caleb looked amazing. Aaron had a pretty good idea about the physique underneath that oversized team jersey he was wearing. Caleb packed solid muscle from all the training he did. It’d been true in high school—he’d seen Caleb shirtless a couple times by accident—and it still had to be that way since he was a pro athlete.

He couldn’t think about that. After what had happened during his time in California, he’d had enough of jocks to last him a lifetime.

“Wow. It is true!” An unmistakably loud voice from the next table caught Aaron’s attention. Hunter James was the tallest boy in Aaron’s class. His height and take-charge attitude made him the de facto alpha male among his group of friends—or at least, Aaron supposed, as alpha as a third grader could be.

Hunter pointed across the gym at Caleb. Josie and Terry, teammates of Hunter’s on one of the city’s youth hockey teams, looked where he indicated.

Aaron suppressed a chuckle. The kids—in particular these three who were teammates—had been in a state of disbelief since Pam announced two days ago that Caleb would be here. It didn’t matter that he’d been seen around town; many students were still sure he’d find something better to do on a Friday night than turn up at the carnival.

“It’s true. It really is him,” Aaron said.

“And that’s his stick?” Terry asked as Grant passed by carrying a hockey stick.