Page 133 of Ethan

“We’d never think that,” Ethan said, trying for earnestness. Even though it was pretty much true; the whole team thought that.

“But hedoesn’t,” Silas finished emphatically. “I make the lineup decisions. Besides, Barney didn’t even suggest this one.”

“Because he knew I’d kill him,” Ethan muttered.

“Even better,” Silas said with a sharp nod. “Maybe everyone’ll finally believe that Charlie doesn’t run this team.”

“Max is the captain,” Ethan pointed out, but Silas just raised an eyebrow.

And okay,fair. Charlie pretty much ran Max, too. If Charlie asked Max to jump, he’d only ask how high.

“I think this is going to be a good change for you, Eth. I know you’ve worked hard on your faceoffs,butyou’re a great goal scorer. You’re going to like this, in the end. Especially the flexibility it gives you.”

“Okay,” Ethan said. Even though he didn’t think Silas was right at all.

He was acenter.

He’d prove it too, though he wasn’t going to do that today, obviously. He still wanted them to win the freaking game.

Si patted him on the shoulder and Ethan headed into the locker room.

Intermission was almost over when Max came over to him, since Si had clearly talked to him, too.

“You good with this?” Max asked, leaning in, bracing himself with a hand above Ethan’s stall.

“Would it matter if I wasn’t?”

Max’s expression went all concerned. “Of course it would matter. I’d talk to Silas about it, if you were really unhappy, but for this game . . .” He trailed off.

He didn’t need to finish his sentence for Ethan to understand. Max was the gentle type of captain. He’d make sure that you knew what you needed to do, but in such a specific way that you genuinely thought it wasyouridea.

“It’s cool, Cap,” Ethan said, giving him a nod. “I’m good.”

Max looked relieved. And Ethan didn’t always give him the kind of credit he should, but he kept his earnest dark eyes glued to Ethan and didn’t glance over, not once, towards where Charlie was no doubt monitoring this whole conversation.

Max was scrupulous like that; giving a shit about Ethan not just because he was Charlie’s brother, but because Max was the captain of this team and he just plaincared.

It was weird taking the ice for their first shift together, watching Max as he skated over to the faceoff circle. Gabby glanced over at him, giving him a little nod, and helikedGabby. He was a good guy and a better hockey player, perpetually skimmed over because he was one of the first Hispanic hockey players.

He was meant to be a wing, and played like it, in the top three of the team this year for points and second in goals.

With Max centering them, he and Gabby could probably make some good shit happen.

If he thought about it that way, instead of thinking of how heneededMax’s protection, then he hated itless.

It wasn’t a perfect first shift. He hadn’t played that much with either Max or Gabby—not even in practice, because he wasn’t even on the first team power play, which they were both on—but slowly, as the period went on and Ethan took one shift and then another, he began to see better how Gabby moved. How Max led them both.

On the bench, he shifted over to sitting next to Gabby, who tipped his iPad in his direction. “Hey,” he said, “look at this.”

Ethan wasn’t a big iPad guy during games. Unlike Charlie, who practically had it surgically attached to his hands whenever he wasn’t on the ice, Ethan thought he could usually get more out of watching the game than watching his last few shifts.

But he looked anyway, because he was new to their line, and he could use the familiarity.

Gabby repeated the play again, and Ethan saw it. If he’d gone the other way, he’d have had a good shot on goal.

“Shit,” he muttered. He’d felt good about going that other way, but he was thinking more about setting uphisguys for goals, not setting himself up for goals.

He was going to have to slightly adjust his thinking.