Page 73 of Game Misconduct

She flushed. One time she’d been a bit tipsy and admitted she found him attractive. Jeff had laughed—clearly not worried about his wife’s little crush—but Tanner had been teasing her about it ever since.

His mom had also admitted that Silje Vang was the sort of woman who’d made her question her own sexuality. Apparently, it was genetic to find Norwegian people hot or something.

Now, she cleared his throat. “Aksel Rasmussen is nice looking, yes. And so is Leif. He was blessed by his parents’ genetics.”

“And I got lucky enough to look likeyou,” he said with his most charming smile.

She smiled back. “Yes, you did. Thankfully.”

Tanner had always been glad he looked like her and not his piece-of-shit father. All the crap Leif had said last summer had been true. Christopher Clayton had fucked around and ran offwith some younger woman and a bunch of their money, and Tanner and his mom had been stuck trying to deal with all the crap after.

“I’ll be careful,” Tanner said. “Honestly. I don’t want to behim.”

She winced, knowing who he was talking about without him having to say anything more. “You aren’t. You’re already a much better person than he ever was. I’m just reminding you of what’s at stake. That’s all.”

“I know. I?—”

The door crashed open and Tanner grinned at the excited shrieks. He rose to his feet and turned in time to see his sisters race down the hall and skid into the kitchen.

“Tanner, Tanner, Tanner!” they shouted, and barreled into him with the strength of two NHL defenseman. “You’re here!”

Mia and Olivia were technically his half-sisters, since Jeff was their dad. But Tanner had never thought of them as anything but his baby sisters.

He’d been seventeen when the twins were born and although he’d been busy with hockey and gone a lot, being drafted by the Harriers had kept him closer to where he’d grown up than he’d ever dared to hope for. He’d been able to see the girls a lot, especially in the summers, and he still often took them to the water park in the off-season.

Now, they talked a mile a minute, shoving their dark curly hair off their faces as they told him about school and the bus ride home and …

“Hey why areyouhome today?” Tanner asked, glancing up at his mom, confused. “It’s a weekday. Don’t you have work?”

She laughed. “That just occurred to you now?”

He shrugged.

“I had a dentist appointment at noon and asked my boss for the time off yesterday when you said you’d come by today.”

“Oh, cool.” He turned back to his sisters. “Guess who brought presents?”

His mom muttered something about him spoiling them, but it was drowned out by their excited shrieks that threatened to burst his eardrums.

Tanner grinned. Seriously, there was no way life could get better than this.

After dinner, Leif took one last look around his open-plan Manhattan condo and mentally checked off items on his evening to-do list.

The dishwasher already hummed quietly in the background and the counters were spotless. He’d cooked for himself tonight, but most of the time it was easier to be sure he stuck to his nutrition plan by eating the meals prepared by the team chef. Besides, he had fewer dishes to deal with that way.

A cleaning person came in once a week to do actual scrubbing, but he liked to keep his space neat and tidy, so he walked around his apartment now, making sure everything was in place and he was prepared for the following day.

The building was located right where Tribeca, SoHo, and Chinatown all came together and had incredible architecture.The two-bedroom condo itself had dramatic arched windows, nine-foot ceilings, and exposed brick.

The team’s practice facility was northeast of the city in Westchester County. A lot of the players—especially the married ones with kids—lived out that way. There were only a handful of guys who lived in the city itself. But Leif had grown up in Manhattan and the idea of moving to the suburbs as a young, queer, single man had seemed crazy.

But, he admitted with a wry smile to himself as he caught a glimpse of the city lights through the windows, even on an NHL salary, Tribeca wasn’t exactly a cheap place to live. Guys on entry level contracts certainly couldn’t have afforded this place.

But Leif had never had to worry about that, had he? He’d bought the condo his rookie season and never looked back.

As Leif took a seat on the sectional in his living room, he wondered what Tanner’s place was like. Leif knew he lived in Boston, near the HCI training center. And he shared an apartment with Rafael Moon and Mickey Krause.

Leif pulled out his phone, checked a few emails, cleaned up a few notifications, then pulled up his text chat with Tanner. He hesitated. Tanner had reacted to his last comment with a laughing emoji but he’d been quiet all day otherwise. Quieter than usual. Not that they really had aroutineyet. It had only been a few days since they got back from the tournament. But they’d talked every day so far.