Page 62 of Game Misconduct

Leif made a face.

“I know,” Tanner said. “But live a little.”

“Ilivejust fine,” Leif pointed out. “Better, in fact, without crumbs in my bed.”

But he allowed himself to be dragged over and settled on the bed in front of where Tanner had set up his laptop. “What are we doing exactly?”

“We’re gonna watch movies and you’re gonna eat your feelings. I’m just gonna stuff my face. Okay?”

“Okay,” Leif agreed with a sigh because he didn’t have it in him to argue.

Tanner brought plates over to the bed, then crawled into the nest he’d created, nearly upending the hummus. Leif caught it just in time.

“Whoops. Sorry.” Tanner flipped onto his side to look at him. “You probably hate this, don’t you?”

“A little bit,” Leif agreed.

“I just thought it would be … you know,cozy,” Tanner said. “My mom and I used to do this after my dad left and we were feeling sad.”

“Huh,” Leif said. He could tell Tanner was trying to be nice, so he took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this.”

The movie Tanner had picked was stupid and Leif’s stomach ached by the time they’d finished mowing through the food but after Tanner cleared their plates and settled back against his chest so they could watch the movie spooned together under the covers, Leif had to admit, it was rather nice.

“Are you still sad?” Tanner asked when the movie was over and he’d rolled onto his side to face Leif.

The room was dark now except for the glow of the laptop screen so Leif couldn’t see his face very well.

Leif took a moment to check in with his body like his dad had taught him when he was little.

It usually took a few days for the sharp ache under Leif’s ribs from a big loss to fade but to his surprise, it felt dull already, like something he could only notice when he really focused on it.

“Not as sad as I was,” he admitted. “This was … nice.”

“It never fails,” Tanner whispered, reaching out to take his hand. He didn’t hold it, just idly played with Leif’s fingers.

Leif settled his cheek against his arm, just looking at what little he could see of Tanner’s face. “Thanks,” he said, equally quiet, surprised by how much he meant it.

“You’re welcome.” Tanner yawned. “Ugh. I should probably go before I pass out on you though.”

“Or … you could stay,” Leif offered. Fuck it, he wasn’t going to be practicing or playing tomorrow anyway. What did it matter?

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Leif wrapped an arm around Tanner’s waist and pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around him. “I think I’d like that tonight.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tanner’s head was still spinning a little as he got out of the shower.

He’d been drunk last night. Like … drunky, drunk, drunk. He hadn’t puked—which was probably why he was still feeling it this morning—but he’d had funnnnnnnnn.

And why not? He’d scored the game-tying goal for Team USA yesterday. It had been a 12:30 pm game against Team Canada that had gone into overtime. And yeah, they’d ultimately lost the game, but every single one of them on Team USA had played well, the final goal from Nico Arents for Team Canada had been a weird, lucky bounce,andthey had Webby in net.

He was hard to beat.

Losing sucked, but they’d done their very best, and as Dustin Fowler had reminded them, there was always next year.

Or at least they were all hoping this tournament happened again next year. Or that the league would allow them to play in the Olympics again.