Page 17 of Ethan

He didn’t know whether he should be comforted or frustrated by that fact.

“Yeah,” Hank agreed.

But Ethan didn’t look too upset about it as Max called for them to come get outfitted.

“Still,” Ethan said, after the employee had instructed them on how to put on the sensors and handed out their laser guns, “we wanna win.”

“Duh,” Hank said, and fist-bumped Ethan’s outstretched hand, then he did the same with Max, followed by Emil, Lars,and then finally Dom, who shot Ethan a skeptical look as he did it.

“What?” Ethan retorted. “Come, I know you wanna beat my brotherandPavel.”

Dom snorted. “Cool it, kid.”

“Dom’s all about that Zen attitude,” Emil said.

“Yeah,” Lars added, “for a goalie, he doesn’t care much about winning.”

“Not true. I just try to keep a level head about it,” Dom said.

“Well, I wanna win,” Ethan said stubbornly.

Max laughed, reaching over to ruffle his hair. “We’ll see what we can do for you.”

The laser tag employee went over the different sections and levels. Where they’d see the leaderboard. How they’d known when they were eliminated and needed to exit, and where those exits might be.

“Alright,” she said with a grin, “is everyone ready to play?”

“Where’s the other team?” Ethan asked.

She just chuckled under her breath. “You’ll find them; I promise.”

They followed in a line behind Max, even though Hank was pretty sure that Max, while a great hockey player who really wanted to win, was too much of an overall team player to have a truly killer instinct. Which they’d need, if they wanted to come out on top.

And sure enough, as Max led them deeper into the labyrinth of dark rooms, it was becoming clear that he was being overly cautious. Typical captain behavior—not wanting to lead them into a trap that might lose him a teammate.

“Come on,” Ethan hissed under his breath. “Max. We gotta go faster. Track their asses down.Pinthem, until they can’t get away.”

Max stopped, and the line of guys bumped into each other. Hank, who’d been following, tried to ignore the way it felt when Ethan’s body plastered against his and then didn’t move away, but stayed glued head to toe to Hank.

“I don’t want to lose anyone,” Max said, his dark brows drawing together in concern. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to split up.”

“Charlie’s gonna split up, for sure,” Ethan said. “Maybe a few of us should go ahead, do some scouting.”

“Are you sure?” Max sounded skeptical.

“Yeah,” Ethan said confidently. Hank was pretty sure he didn’t know jack shit about strategy, but then he didn’t protest when Ethan added, “I’m gonna bring Hank as backup.”

“You down with that?” Max asked Hank under his breath.

Hank shrugged. He wanted to win, sure, andyes, absolutely Ethan had been right and it would feel good to beat Willy at something, but he was not convinced this was the way.

Still, he wasn’t certain Max’s way was the better choice, either.

“Alright,” Max said.

“Come on,” Ethan said impatiently, wrapping a hand around Hank’s wrist and tugging him forward, out of the group.

With anyone else, Hank probably would’ve shaken them off immediately. Wouldn’t have been okay going off on their own in the first place. But something about Ethan’s boundless confidence and curiosity was addicting.