Page 130 of Ethan

Ethan liked to joke that he was the tallest of the three, but it wasnota joke. It was the plain, honest truth.

“So glad you’re here,” Hank heard Ethan tell Avery. “So fucking glad.”

Hank wasn’t sure that Ethan noticed the barest pause before Avery pulled back and said, with his whole chest, “Me too.”

But Hank noticed. Didn’t think it wasbad, even. As much as Charlie, and to a lesser extent, Ethan, had been panicking over what a big adjustment this would be for them, it was going to be an even bigger adjustment for Avery.

Not just a new team and a new city, but a whole new coast. New coaching system. Everything mostly different—anda little bit the same—from what he’d spent the last three years doing.

Not an eternity, but long enough.

“Hey,” Ethan said, turning towards Hank, “come meet my boyfriend.”

“Tucker,” Avery said, his gaze sweeping over him briefly but completely. He held out a hand and Hank shook it.

None of this surprised him. Avery was a little tougher to read, generally, than Charlie or Ethan. More closed off. Quieter.

But on the ice, he was a demon.

Hank could admit that he was pretty fucking glad Avery was going to be in a Bandits sweater going forward, not someone he was going to have to figure out how to play against.

“Good to meet you.” Avery’s voice was quieter, too. Pitched lower.

But seeing him and Ethan next to each other, nobody would ever doubt they were brothers.

Behind him, the door opened and he only had a split second to move out of the way before Charlie was shooting in, throwing himself into Avery’s arms.

“Bro,” Charlie crowed, “I cannot fucking believe you’re here.”

Like he’d never angsted out about the trade. Like he’d never had a complete cleaning meltdown this morning.

Max came up next to him, and he and Hank exchanged a rueful glance. “Well,” he said, taking in the two of them, and then thethreeof them as they pulled Ethan in, too.

“Welcome to the Barnes circus?” Hank asked, raising an eyebrow.

Max huffed out a breath. “Yeah, no kidding. It’s going to be fucking insane tonight. You ready for this?”

“Can you evenbeready for all this?”

Tina, the head of PR for the Bandits, had just showed up and was directing one of her minions to take pictures of the three-brother embrace, muttering the whole time about what a sensation it was going to be, all three of them on one team together.

“Fair,” Max agreed with a slight chuckle. “Well, let’s go get prepped for the storm.”

And Max wasn’t wrong. Neither was Hank.

The first game was a cross between a circus and a storm. Tina was everywhere she could be, and if it wasn’t her, it was one of her assistants, filming fucking everything, even in places where they wouldn’t normally be allowed, like the locker room before the game.

“Fucking ridiculous,” Danny muttered as he walked by Hank’s stall, glancing over to where Tina was hosting practically an entire photoshoot with Avery putting on his gear and his Bandits jersey for the first time.

“At least if we have to deal with all this, he’s a good fucking player,” Jonesy said.

Danny rolled his eyes.

“You just don’t like it when anyone takes all the attention away from you,” Dom pointed out dryly. He stretched out his legs. Getting warm even though it was Pavs’ turn in goal tonight.

“Annoying,” Danny retorted.

“You’reannoying,” Ethan said, stopping in front of Hank, who glanced up at him.