Page 176 of Game Misconduct

“Mr. Luke is just fine,” Tanner said firmly. “He’s just being slow and lazy.”

Harper giggled.

It was mostly the truth. Tanner would swear that Luke was about ready to permanently move into the training room for the rest of the playoffs at this point, but he hadn’t injured anything that kept him out of the game.

Tom had gotten pretty banged up in the game though and was still being looked after too.

“Where’s your mom and Uncle Seb?” Tanner asked.

“They’re with the—the pretty jacket ladies.”

Tanner laughed. The SAP jacketswerepretty epic this season. Mandy, Krista, and Jesse had collaborated on them and they’d turned out great.

Jesse had made ones for himself, Connor, Mickey, and Rafe too, though they were playing and had no opportunity to wear them.

“I don’t care,” Jesse had said stubbornly. “WedeserveSAP jackets. We’re cheering for our men to win too, right?”

Tanner had high-fived him and laughed when Connor rolled his eyes at them.

Sebastian, Dakota, and Thad had them too. Dakota and Thad had worn their jackets as much as they could, but it was really only Sebastian up in the stands with the female SAPs. Thankfully, he had a great sense of humor about it.

Tanner had wished he could get a jacket for Leif, even if he’d scoff and refuse to wear it.

“Tanner!” Harper said, booping him on the nose to get his attention. “Let me down. I wanna go play with Evie and Maura!”

“Okay.” He lowered her to the ground. “Hey, did you meet my sisters?”

“Yes. Miss Catherine intro—intro?—”

“Introduced?” Tanner guessed.

“In-tro-dushed us.”

Meh, close enough, Tanner decided, then said, “Good! I hope they’re being nice to you.”

“So nice! ’Livia gave me a bracelet. See?” Harper thrust out her arm to show it off.

“Ooh, pretty,” Tanner said, showing her the ones he wore. His sisters had made them for him a couple of years ago, and he only took them off when he was playing.

“Nice,” Harper said. “Bye!”

Tanner laughed as she walked away, clearly done with him. A moment later, the doors swung open and Tom stepped inside.

“Hey. How are you doing?” Tanner asked with a frown.

“Sore as fuck.” Tom grimaced, pointing to the brace on his knee. “I’ll survive though. Just a sprain.”

“Good.”

Tom had gone down weirdly in the third period and hadn’t returned before the game ended.

Tom chuckled. “Krista’s probably gonna murder me though. She sent a text saying she was on her way down to find me and chew me out.”

“For what?” Tanner asked with a laugh. “What did you she think was going to happen when she married a hockey player? Besides, you’ve hadworse.”

Tom shrugged. “Never gets easier, I guess.”

Tanner thought of the way he’d felt when he’d seen Leif lying on the ice after taking a puck to the elbow and winced, nodding. “Yeah, I guess not.”