Page 107 of Cross Ice

“Getting there.”

“You want to grab a drink? Étienne and I are heading somewhere low-key. No cameras.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’d be good.”

We ended up at a quiet bar three blocks from our hotel, with Morelli, Savard, and me in a corner booth where nobody gave us a second look. Just three men having a beer after a game.

“How’s your guy handling it?” Savard asked.

“Not great. Clients dropping him. He’s barely leaving his apartment.” I turned my glass on the table. “He’s got a plan for rebuilding his professional presence. It’s a good plan. He’s executing it. And he’s still checking social media forty times a day and can’t stop.”

Morelli grimaced. “That part doesn’t respond to plans.”

“No.”

“It gets better,” Savard said. “But the first month is the worst. You can’t speed it up.”

“I’ve been trying to.”

“He’ll get there. Or he won’t.” Morelli shrugged. “Can’t force it. Can’t fix it for him.”

“I know.” I looked at my beer. “I keep forgetting.”

“It’s hard to watch someone you love paying a price for something you were both part of,” Savard said. Not unkindly. Just directly. “Even when neither of you meant for it to go this way.”

The word landed. Love. I hadn’t said it yet—not to Evan, not to myself out loud. But sitting in a bar in Denver with two men who’d navigated their own version of this, it didn’t feel like a revelation. It felt like something I’d known for a while and kept not looking at directly.

“Yeah,” I said. “It is.”

We talked for another hour—the league, the season, the slow shift in hockey culture. It felt good. Normal. Like I was just a player talking shop, not someone whose life was reconfiguring itself around a relationship he didn’t know how to protect.

My phone chimed.

Evan

Glad you got the win tonight.

Nico

Thanks. I’m out with Morelli and Savard. Getting a drink.

The three dots appeared and disappeared twice.

Evan

That’s good. Have fun.

Too neutral. Too careful. The same register as fine.

Nico

Tell me something honest.

A pause.

Evan

I watched the whole game. Made myself not check the tabs during the third period. First time.