Page 6 of Ethan

Ethan skated up and met Charlie only a few feet from the goal, watching his eyes the way Avery and his parents and his coaches had taught him.

They’ll always give themselves away,Mom had told him, once.

Even Charlie?Ethan had wondered, but Mom had just laughed.Even Charlie,she’d agreed.

Sure enough, Ethan saw Charlie’s eyes dart to the side, like he thought he could skate through the gap between Ethan and Avery. Shoot the puck in that way.

But instead of letting him, Ethan slid to the right, closing that lane and Charlie said a bad word under his breath.

Ethan only had a moment to mentally celebrate before Charlie dodged the other way, changing direction with the speed that Ethan was totally jealous of. A second later, he was winding up and the puck hit the back of the net.

This was Charlie so he made a big deal of the celly, throwing his arms in the air and waving his stick around like some kind of idiot.

Ethan rolled his eyes as Avery skated up to him. He tugged Ethan into his side, arm warm around him as he said, “Good job, Eth.”

“What? Hescored,” Ethan said scornfully.

“Yeah, but you made him work for it,” Avery said. “And that initial read? It was really good, Eth. You had him.”

“But he’s Charlie, so he found another way to score,” Ethan said, a little despondently.

“Yeah, he’s Charlie,” Avery agreed. They shared a look as Charlie continued to skate loops around the ice, cackling obnoxiously like he’d just won the freaking Stanley Cup.

“Come on,” Avery said, patting him. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Part of Ethan knew that Avery was taking it easy on him as he let Ethan basically skate in, unbothered, towards the net, but when he got close, Avery did start to press, flicking his stick and angling his body so Ethan wouldn’t have an easy shot at the net.

Ethan wasn’t Charlie. Not yet anyway. But he had watched his brother enough to make a decent attempt at Charlie’s spin move and he did it, wobbling only a little, and before Avery could be surprised or change his angle, Ethan shot the puck.

He’d been practicing a lot. When Avery and Charlie were busy doing things he wasn’t ready for, he’d been working on his shot. Over and over again in their garage, where their dad had set up a net and let him shoot as many pucks as Ethan wanted at it.

It was a good shot. Ethan felt awesome about it as it left his stick.

Even better as it hit the back of the net.

“Woooooo!” he yelled.

A second later, he felt Avery’s body slam into his and then the overeager puppy of Charlie join them, and it only took a second for them all to wobble before they fell to the ice, laughing.

“He almost did that better than you,” Avery joked, elbowing Charlie in the side. “He’s gonna be the best of all of us.”

“No way,” Charlie scoffed.

But Avery’s words made Ethan feel warm inside. So warm that even the frigid air didn’t feel quite so cold.

They changed it up, different plays, different formations. It felt like Charlie and Avery could skate forever, but at some point, Ethan got tired. Needed a break. Watched from the bench as Charlie and Avery laughed and played keep-away all up and down the ice.

“I don’t blame you. They’d wear me out, too.”

Ethan looked up at the voice and felt the warmth in him grow even more.

“Livvy!!!” he exclaimed, reaching back and throwing his arms around his big sister.

She wasn’t his full sister, but she was his sister in every way that counted. Livvy was his mom’s daughter, but not Dad’s daughter. Mom had had Olivia before she’d ever met Dad. And when she’d met Dad and they’d gotten married, he’d adopted her.

She was still their sister and would still play with them, even though she was old, even older than Avery. Livvy went toschool at Michigan and played hockey there and was better than Charlie. Better than Avery, even.

She settled down on the bench next to him, tugging him close. “They treating you good, Eth?”