Page 5 of Ethan

And now he could.

A minute later, Avery joined them, skating circles around both of them with his easy long strides. Backwards strides, even. Ethan wasn’t nearly as good as Avery at skating backwards. Not yet.

When Ethan complained about that, watching as Avery effortlessly flipped direction and skated right in front of Charlie, who was of course, pushing right towards the net their dad had set up on one end of the pond, Avery just shouted encouragement at him.

Charlie dodged around him, even though Ethan was yelling at him for the puck. Even though Avery wasn’t covering Ethanat all.

But Charlie was going to Charlie, and he shot it anyway, and it went in. Because he was Charlie.

“Won’t have to learn how to do that,” Avery said, ruffling his hair. “You’re gonna end up a forward, like Charlie.”

Ethan hoped so. He loved scoring goals. He wanted to do it all the time.

If only Charlie had let him score that one.

“He could still be a d-man,” Charlie said, as they took a break. “He’s gonna be taller than you.”

Ethan puffed up, proud at the thought that he could be.

“Gonna be taller than you too,” Avery said wryly.

Charlie made a face.

“We should do two-on-one,” Charlie said, picking up his stick and tapping it impatiently on the ice.

“Oh, yeah, you and Eth against me,” Avery teased.

“What,” Charlie squawked. “Are you kidding?”

“Hey, I can play,” Ethan interrupted, not wanting to get mad but it was so hard. Charlie never thought he was any good, and that was so frustrating. He could be good, too!

“’Course you can,” Avery soothed, patting Ethan on the head, smooshing his beanie down further onto his hair. “How about you and I take Charlie on? I bet between the two of us we could totally stop him from scoring.”

Ethan wasn’t sure about that. Charlie was annoyingly good. So good there were always coaches and other men hanging around, wanting to talk to him and Mom and Dad. Plus they didn’t have a goalie.

“I don’t know,” Ethan said skeptically.

“Come on,” Avery said, grinning at him. “We totally can.”

“Okay, we can try,” Ethan agreed.

“Good,” Avery said, patting him on the shoulder. “Take the wing, okay?”

Ethan nodded, excitement beginning to flood through him. Avery thought he could do it. Even against Charlie!

Charlie skated around to the other side of the pond, edges sharp and cutting into the ice as he gained speed.

“Watch his other side,” Avery called out to Ethan as he positioned himself and his stick between the goal and where Charlie was coming in fast.

Avery was skating backwards, trying to shove his stick in, using all the tricks he’d been spending the spring and summer teaching Ethan to slow down forwards and pick the puck out of their possession. Ethan wasn’t nearly as good as Avery at those yet, but Avery was so good at it. Charlie yelled at him once and then twice, getting frustrated, because he’d had to slow down as he crossed the midpoint of the ice.

“Stay,” Avery tossed over his shoulder. “He’s gonna come your way in a second.”

Ethan tensed.

“No, I’m not,” Charlie yelled. But Ethan knew his brother well enough to know when he was full of it, and sure enough, Charlie did one of those little spins he was so good at, changing direction, trying to move over from Avery’s coverage to come at the goal from Ethan’s angle.

“You got this,” Avery told him, chasing Charlie from behind.