Page 114 of Ethan

“Want to?” Hank chuckled under his breath, his chest rumbling with the sound. “Butwill? For you? Absolutely.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that,” Ethan said.

“I hope you do.”

For a minute, Ethan just lay there with that knowledge. It wasn’t like he’d ever felt alone; it was impossible for the youngest child of four toeverfeel alone. But even though there’d been brothers and a sister in his corner forever, it was different with Hank. Like they were both in Ethan’s bubble, together, and Ethan had never wanted anyone in there, with him before. That space, which had always felt precious and hard-won, was one he’d already ceded to Hank.

Given him without a second thought.

He fell asleep with that feeling, ripe and perfect andright, rolling through him like a wave, reminding him that no matter what happened, hewouldbe okay, because he and Hank were in this together.

Barney had been in a bad fucking mood when Hank had seen him before the game. He’d been quiet in the locker room, entirely focused on the task ahead of him and the team, though often before games Max could get him to loosen up and smile. Ethan always could, but Ethan was giving Barney a wider berth than normal today, probably because of whatever had gone down before Hank had come downstairs.

When the puck dropped against the Avs, it was like Barney found a new gear, a new well of determination.

He scored a hat trick in the first ten minutes of the game, overwhelming the goalie with a half dozen expertly aimed shots, half of them sliding underneath the goalie’s pads, his arm, and one of them going bar-down, hitting the back of the net in abreathtaking spell of skill that Hank didn’t feel was even fucking real.

In the first intermission, Hank sidled up to where Ethan was fixing the tape on his stick, leaning back in his stall with the relaxed demeanor of a guy whose team was up four to zero.

“You good?” Ethan asked, glancing up at him.

And yeah, Hank hadn’t been up very many games yet—this was only his second this season—but he’d tried to keep to his side of the room. Not linger by Ethan’s stall. They hadn’t told anyone on the team yet, though it was obvious that a lot of the guys suspected or had outright guessed the truth. Still, he was trying to be cautious.

“I’m good,” Hank said. “But Barney—”

Ethan just chuckled under his breath. “You know how he can get. You were up last year.”

Barneycoulddo that sometimes: take over a game with a dazzling display of skill that nobody else could touch.

But Hank, who’d been up for twenty-seven games the season before, had never seen Charlie on fire like he was tonight.

“Yeah, but—”

Ethan snorted under his breath. “He’s a wonder, my brother.” He said it softly, earnestly. “Guess it doesn’t even surprise me anymore.”

Hank thought it would be easy to just watch Charlie do incredible shit like that and take it at face value, but he couldn’t.

Are you sure he’s okay?he wanted to ask. But before he could, Ethan tilted his head towards Barney’s stall. Next to Max’s. Their heads were tipped together again—always, always,always—and the intensity that Hank had seen on Charlie’s face during the first period had relaxed, and he was smiling now.

“He’ll be okay,” Ethan said knowingly.

And sure enough, while he played great during the second and third, notching an assist on Max’s power play goal in the last ten minutes, that fire burning under his skin seemed to have abated.

Still, with a four-point night under his belt, there was no way Max wasn’t going to get everyone together.

“My place,” he yelled out in the locker room after the game ended. “Be there or be square.”

“Max,nobodysays that,” Charlie said, rolling his eyes affectionately at their captain.

“I do, and I mean it,” Max said. The glance he shot Charlie was so tender and intimate Hank had to look away.

He’d kind of been hoping to drag Ethan away—tomorrow they were finally leaving on a road trip and they might finally have some decent alone time—and sneak in a few moments, just the two of them, especially if Charlie went out with Max to celebrate, but now, they were all going to be expected to show up at Max’s.

“Damn my overachieving brother,” Ethan muttered as they headed out of the locker room, Charlie and Max ahead of them. Hank hadn’t realized how often Ethan and Charlie had been carpooling with Max, but now it was just assumed that he’d join them.

“Room in the car, isn’t there?” Max would say in that quiet, gentle way of his. Reassuring, even. Like whatever he and Ethan were up to, he approved of it, even if nobody was saying it out loud.

“I know,” Hank agreed with Ethan. “I was hoping for—”