Page 171 of Game Misconduct

“God, can youimaginethough?” Nicky said, staring into the distance like he was already picturing Tanner on the roster.

“It might take a while,” Leif pointed out. “Or Racine might not even go for it.”

At least he wasn’t the type to get petty about queer players, since he was queer himself. Surely he’d understand them wanting to play for the same team.

“Sure, that could happen. But if there’s even achance…” Nicky shook his head. “Anyway, I guess that actually brings me to my point. Why I invited you guys here.”

“It’s not just to hang out and drink in a queer bar with queer guys?” Ian asked, looking a little disappointed.

Nicky laughed. “Well, partly. But not theonlyreason. I wanted to talk about how things went for us in the postseason.”

The pieces finally clicked into place for Leif. Ahh, okay. This was another postmortem.

Ian made a face. “Terribly.”

“Well, yes,” Nicky agreed with a smile. “But my thought was how we could do betternextseason. I think a huge issue is team cohesion.”

“Agreed.” Ian took another sip of his drink.

“Yeah, Tanner actually said something really smart about that before the second round started,” Leif said.

Nicky frowned. “What did he say?”

“That forced team bonding is bullshit, and no coach can make a team come together by making us all stay together in a hotel during the playoffs.”

Nicky’s frown deepened. “Hey. How much do you talk to Tanner about the team? Because?—”

“Not like that,” Leif said hastily, cutting him off. “I didn’t tell himanythingthe Harriers couldn’t learn from the media.”

“Okay.” Nicky relaxed. “It just hit me that they seemed like they knew all of our plays, especially Poole’s injury causing weakness on his left side and?—”

Leif shook his head. Roman was being evaluated and might need surgery this summer. “Wasn’t me. I didn’t say a thing. Not to Tannerorto my dad. Must’ve just been good tape review.”

Nicky grimaced. “Shit. I’m sorry I insinuated that you would leak anything or?—”

“It’shockey,” Leif said, horrified that Nicky would even question it. Jesus, of course that came first. He tried not to let it sting that his captain had thought the worst of him. “You should know I wouldn’t.”

“The truth is, I don’tknowyou.” He glanced at Salty. “Or Ian or half the guys on the fucking team. I haven’tbeenhere. I was only captain for a couple of seasons before I went out with the concussions and because of what I was dealing with, I wasn’t around nearly as much as I would’ve liked to be.”

Leif nodded, understanding now.

“So I want to work on that, and I want the three of us to worktogetherto make it happen. Do you have any ideas of how we can do that?”

“Get the homophobes off the team,” Ian muttered.

Nicky snorted. “I wish it was that easy. Oh, I do have some good news though. Pittman is gone.”

Leif and Ian both gaped at him.

Nicky nodded. “The announcement will go out tomorrow. They’ve already started the search for a replacement.”

“That’s something,” Leif said with a relieved sigh. Of course, it depended on who they hired. But hopefully the new ownershipand new general manager would steer the ship in a different direction. Abetterdirection.

Pittman wasn’t a terrible coach, but he was kinda old-school. Led with an iron fist and all that and he didn’t much like giving the few good prospects they had a real shot, but favored the older, more established players.

And look how well that had worked out for them.

“Your dad’s name came up in conversation, actually,” Nicky said, playing with his mocktail glass. “How would you feel about playing for him?”