Page 170 of Game Misconduct

Nicky laughed. “Well, you know my friend Sebastian?”

“The one dating Luke Crawford?” Leif asked. Weirdly, after Crawford’s coming out, Leif had found out that the flowers he’dordered for his mom’s birthday had come from Sebastian’s SoHo flower shop.

Small world, Leif supposed. Although now the hockey stick and puck in the logo made sense.

“Yes,” Nicky said. “Sebastian Breckon. We grew up in New York together and we have a small group of friends in the area who we meet up with here semi-regularly. Well, we did before Seb moved to Boston, anyway. Now it’s just when he’s in town visiting. But he’s the one who discovered this place initially.”

Nicky glanced around. “It’s nice. Good drinks, decent bar food, queer friendly.”

“So did he move to Boston to be with Crawford?” Ian asked before taking a sip of his drink.

“No.” Nicky smiled. “No, his sister has a sick kid and?—”

“Oh, right, right,” Ian said. “The Harriers did the Make-A-Wish thing earlier this season.”

Leif looked at him and Ian shrugged. “I’m a sucker for kids and watch every video the league posts. Sue me.”

Nicky chuckled. “So anyway, he moved to Boston to help his sister and open a new shop location.”

“Yeah, but how did he go from yelling at Crawford in the box to uh, whatever it is they have going on?” Ian asked.

With a shrug, Nicky took a sip of his mocktail. “Hookup app.”

“No way,” Leif said. “Really?”

“Really.”

Ian made a face. “I can’t imagine fucking some dude who’s been chirping me in the stands.”

“I donotget it either,” Nicky said with a sigh. “If Seb’s happy, I’m happy for him, but …”

“How does a person have sex with someone they can’t stand?” Ian asked.

Leif focused intently on his drink and didn’t meet anyone’s gaze. Hecouldanswer that one, but he didn’t want to out him and Tanner. Although, maybe Tanner wouldn’t mind if he told these guys? Leif knew they could keep a secret.

He slipped his phone out and texted Tanner.Do you mind if I tell two teammates about us? I’ll swear them to secrecy.

Tanner replied almost immediately with a thumbs-up.

Leif smiled and sent a heart back. He realized the table had gone suspiciously silent and he tapped thePowerbutton to shut off his screen, then set his phone on the table beside his drink. When he looked up, both of his teammates were staring at him.

“Leif,” Nicky said slowly. “Is there something you want to tell us?”

“Uhh.” Leif rubbed his neck. “Well, you see …”

His teammates both stared open-mouthed at Leif as he told them about his relationship with Tanner and their hopes for the future. He finished with, “So, you know, sometimes hate sex is just … hot. And sometimes you don’t hate someone as much as you maybe thought you did.”

Salty was still staring at him, open-mouthed, gaping like a goldfish, but Nicky leaned in, speaking in a low, urgent tone. “Dude. You mean there’s a chance we could get Tanner Clayton?”

Leif glanced around but although the bar was starting to fill up, no one was paying them any attention. “Yeah, maybe. I can’t promise anything. It’ll depend on if Racine is even willing to trade him. It’s gonna take a lot too. I don’t even know if we have the assets.”

“Yeah, but that could behuge,” Nicky said. “God knows we need the fucking help on the blue line.”

Ian made a face.

“Sorry,” Nicky said with a grimace. “Not to knock your contributions, but …”

“No, I get it.” Ian waved a hand and sighed. “I can’t hold it together all on my own. We saw how well that fucking worked in the playoffs.”