Page 149 of Ethan

Avery chuckled. “You think my brother falls for a guy and I don’t look him up? But really, it’s more than that. A lot more. I had a feeling this trade would go down this year and I wanted to know who they’d put me with.”

“Jonesy, obviously,” Hank said.

But Avery only shrugged. Took another long drink of water. Shot Hank a conspiratorial grin. “Would you freak out even more if I told you I actually wanted you and not Jonesy from the beginning?”

Hank’s jaw dropped. “Because I’m Ethan’s—”

Avery just interrupted him with a flat look. “You think I’d pick out a d-partner because of who my brother’s fucking?”

He felt even dumber then. Out of his depth and confused.

“Anyone ever tell you that you think too much?” Avery asked, tone softening.

“All the fucking time.”

“Then quit it,” Avery said, shooting him one of the trademark Barnes quicksilver grins and then skating off.

After practice, he and Ethan headed to lunch and Hank was picking at his sandwich probably too obviously, when Ethan pinned him with one of those looks. Hank had always assumed they were Ethan-branded, but now he was beginning to realize he’d gotten them from someplace else first. That someplace else being his eldest brother.

“What’s up with you?” Ethan asked.

“Nothing,” Hank said.Your brothers are all fucking intimidating. And not just because I know they’d rightfully kick my ass if I screwed up with you.

“That’s bullshit,” Ethan said, blinking hard at him. “Did my vision get worse in the last twenty-four hours?”

“No?”

“Then do you really think I’d miss that you were running drills with Avery? MybrotherAvery?”

“It’s just . . . it’s not a big deal,” Hank said weakly. Except it was, which was why he was still freaking out about it.

“It kinda seems like a big deal,” Ethan pointed out. “We should talk about it.”

“What is there to say? He and Jonesy aren’t clicking, everyone can see it, and who else are they gonna put with him? Willy maybe, but his knee isn’t getting better anytime soon.”

“Dude, you were theobviouschoice. Not Jonesy, really, and definitely not Willy, even if his knee wasn’t fucked,” Ethan said flatly. “How do you not see that?”

Hank put down his sandwich. Couldn’t quite force himself to meet Ethan’s eyes. “I don’t know,” he finally admitted quietly.

“When I said we should talk about it, you know I didn’t mean let’s talk about the fucking awesome possibility that you two could be d-partners and tear it up, because I think that’s pretty obvious—”

“It is?” Hank couldn’t help but interrupt.

Ethan put downhissandwich, which clearly meant something dire was about to go down. “I’d tell you to stop being so self-deprecating, but I don’t think that’s it. And you’ve never been necessarily cocky, but when I met you for the first time, there was just this . . . quiet confidence about you. It was so fucking sexy. I thought, I willneverbe cool enough for that guy.”

“Me?” Hank squawked.

“You.And now it’s like . . . you’ve forgotten that. You’regood, Tuck. I know how much it sucked, being sent back to Syracuse all those times.”

“It did.” Ithad. And now that Hank was thinking about it, thinking back to that guy who’d met Ethan a year and a half ago, it was easier to see what had changed. He had been sure. Sure that he’d make the Bandits’ roster, maybe not at the beginning ofthat season, but the next one? He’d had an almost naive sense of rightness about that thought. Knew he could do it and knew he’d deserve it.

When had the going up and down started to chip away at that confidence? Hank didn’t know and wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to put his finger on exactly when it started, but he could look back and see now that ithad. And he hadn’t even noticed it, not until this situation with Avery and Ethan bluntly pointing it out to him.

“Do you know the first time anyone ever said your name to me?” Ethan asked softly.

Hank shook his head.

“It was Charlie. We were sitting around the firepit and I hadn’t even been drafted to the Bandits yet, but it was after the combine, and people were starting to talk.” Ethan made a face. “Okay, they’d been talking for awhile, but it was the first time the rumors really started to heat up, because the Bandits had the eighth pick, and that was about where a lot of experts ranked me in the draft class. Charlie didn’t want to get ahead of himself—Ididn’t want to get ahead of both of us—but one night, he’d had one too many beers and started talking about the team. Not just Max, though obviously that was a popular subject, but the other guys on the team too. Danny and Jonesy and Dom and Gabby and all these guys that he wanted me to play with. But then he talked about the up-and-comers too. The guys I’d be rookies with, maybe. And he said, there’s this offensive d-man who I think is gonna be just as good as Avery, if not better.” Ethan looked so earnest Hank’s heart was melting, and he knew what he was going to say before he even said it. “That guy was you, Hank.”