Page 75 of Ethan

“Well, get used to it,” Charlie said and not surprising, while he didn’t love the media who were always giving him shit for not meeting the sky-high expectations everyone had of him, hedidseem to love Tina. Probably because she fucking doted on his brother, who was a first overall pick and handsome andcould, if you didn’t know him too well, actually be charismatic and charming.

“Can you please not be annoying for five seconds?” Ethan asked as they headed down the hallway towards the locker room.

He caught the hurt flash across Charlie’s face and regretted it. Maybehewasn’t nervous, even though thiswashis first regular season game, but clearly Charlie was. All that pressure, coming to rest on his shoulders.

Ethan didn’t apologize, because Charlie would only brush him off, but hediddo something else. Something nice.

“Where’s Max?” Ethan asked, even though he would normally rather pry his fingernails with a dull implement than see his brother wax rhapsodic about their captain.

“Oh, doing some media with Tina, before the game. He had to get here early. And he knew that they were gonna want to get just the two of us.” Charlie hesitated. “Max and I carpooled a lot last year, and usually, they were getting pics of the two of us together. Tina thinks it’ll be good to change it up some.”

Privately, Ethan was pretty sure Tina had also probably added some variation of,if you don’t want everyone to think you’re fucking, stop gazing at each other like you’re Romeo and Juliet and stop going everywhere together, like you’ll die if you’re apart for even thirty fucking seconds.

Tina might’ve even made it blunter, because that was Tina.

“Right,” Ethan said. “You know, we can keep carpooling with Max, I don’t mind.”

He kindadidmind, but he’d already hurt Charlie’s feelings once today, and as frustrating as his brother was, he loved him.

“I know,” Charlie said, sliding a look over at him. Like he wanted to say something else but wasn’t.

Ethan had a feeling he knew what it was, and he wished he could give Charlie kudos for holding his tongue, but that would have defeated the purpose.

Because he, too, had imagined in a diverging reality where he might have ended up carpooling in with Hank instead, leavingBarney to do what he really wanted to do, which was to plaster himself to Max twenty-four seven.

“Just throwing that out there,” Ethan said. “I really wouldn’t mind.”

“I’m sure it’ll happen,” Charlie said.

“I just know you like your routine,” Ethan said, aware, even as he’d been trying to ignore it, how much Charlie had been forced to adjust his routine because Ethan was here now. He’d thought it would be better to not bring it up, to avoid making Charlie evenmoreanxious, and then there was his own weird share of guilt about it.

“Oh, you’re being nice about it now?” Charlie asked archly as he swiped his keycard, letting them into the locker room.

They were early—see Charlie’s aforementioned love of routine—and there were only a handful of guys in the room yet.

Max was not one of them.

“Well, yeah, I wasn’t going to say you’re downright fanatical about it, though you can be,” Ethan retorted.

Charlie rolled his eyes. “You’re such a fucking giver, Eth.” He flopped down onto the bench in front of his stall, but then before he could get settled, the locker room door opened again, and Max walked in.

Ethan had been about to pull his phone out, to check to see if Hank had responded to his selfie, but something soft and vulnerable in Max’s face as he caught sight of Charlie stopped him.

Even though Charlie was three stalls away, he still heard Charlie’s sharp intake of breath.

And sure, yeah, Ethan was kind of obsessed with Hank and the way he looked, but he wasn’t stupid. Maxwasa good-looking guy, too. Tall and broad, with well-muscled shoulders. What Livvy would’ve teased wasDisney Prince Hair, and those big soulful brown eyes.

Ethan wasn’t attracted to him, but heknewCharlie was. Even if he hadn’t had to listen to Charlie rant about that one night three summers ago, drunk and clearly crushing so fucking hard, he’d have known. Charlie just wasn’t that subtle about it, not when Ethan had spent the last twenty years being one of Charlie’s best friends.

From the way Max was gazing over at Charlie, clearly whatever Charlie had finally chosen to wear was Max Meier–approved, too.

Ethan sighed and pulled out his phone as Max made a beeline for Charlie like they were two magnets who’d already been apart for too long.

“You look good,” Max said in that soft, sweet voice. He could be a hard-ass—Ethan had heard it on the ice plenty over the last few weeks—but he never was with Charlie.

“Oh. Um. Yeah.” Charlie gazed up at Max like he was the only air he needed to breathe for the rest of his life.

Ethan opened his convo with Avery.you sure we can’t do anything about this charlie max situation,he sent before switching back to his thread with Hank.