Page 136 of Cheap Shot

Jesse frowned and said something to him in Belarusian. Or Russian. Whatever the fuck language he and Kady spoke together. Luke sure couldn’t tell the difference.

They went back and forth a few times before Jesse nodded.

“Yep. Checks out in both languages. Kady and Mandy are poly. Jake and Kady aren’t romantically involved but they do hang out and play video games together, I guess? Everyone’s happy with this arrangement.”

“Huh,” Connor said.

The team all sat there staring blankly at each other for a few moments before Connor waggled his head as if shaking off whatever he’d been thinking, then turned to Tom. “Uh, anyway. You and Krista are poly, like, uh, Kady and Mandy, apparently?”

“Yeah. It’s … we’re happy, you know? It’s always gone well in the past but last season things got … complicated. We got involved with this woman and she turned … uh, I don’t like to use the word crazy. But, uh, it was bad. There were threats and we had to move houses and then the head office had to be told because it was escalating and … yeah. That’s why I requested a trade and we moved across the country. Krista took her kids to her parents’ place in Massachusetts, and I followed as soon as the trade went through.”

“And do the Harriers know about all this?” Connor asked with a frown. “Like, security, head office, all that?”

“Yeah. Gavin’s known since the beginning. I don’t thinkeveryoneknows about the poly stuff but all the important people do, including security.”

“You didn’t tellus,” Tanner said, looking offended.

“Dude, let people have some fuckin’ privacy, assbag,” Luke said, slugging him in the arm.

“You’re an assbag,” Tanner muttered, punching Luke in the thigh, but he did finally shut up.

“Look, I don’t mind telling you guys,” Tom admitted. “You’re cool. I just didn’t know how it would go over at first. And then it felt weird to just drop into conversation, you know?”

“So what the fuck happened today?” Anker asked with a frown. “You lookedspooked, man.”

“I stopped back at the hotel after meeting up with some guys from L.A. but when I left to come here, I would fuckingswearDarla—our ex—was following me.”

In unison, everyone’s heads swiveled around.

There was no one acting suspicious nearby, at least not that Luke could see at the moment, but he frowned anyway. “What are you going to do?” he asked.

Tom passed a hand over his short tightly curled hair and sighed. “I don’t fuckin’ know. Tell security and Gavin, I guess?”

“Yeah,” Connor said, his brow furrowed. “That’s good. But we’re not letting you go off on your own while we’re here, okay?”

When Tom merely nodded, Luke wondered exactly how off the rails this woman was. If she had Tom spooked like this, it must be pretty bad.

After that, Jesse coaxed Tom into ordering some tacos and they all sat around and shot the shit while he ate them. No matter how freaked out, no hockey player ever turned down good food when it was offered. And Tom did look more relaxed by the time he’d polished them off.

Luke resisted the urge to text Sebastian and tell him about what was going on.

He didn’t, partly because Tom’s personal life wasn’t his to share with anyone. And also because Tanner had been eyeing him suspiciously every time he pulled out his phone lately.

Luke supposed hehadbeen on it more often and now that he and Sebastian were texting rather than talking on the app, he couldn’t afford to have Tanner get nosy. The messages weren’t exactly hidden the way they’d been with previous hookups.

But Sebastian wasn’t a hookup anymore, was he?

What he was, what Lukewantedhim to be, was still up in the air. They hadn’t really had time to figure that all out.

The thing was, Luke had never really cared much about what anyone thought of him. He’d just done his thing and moved on. But Sebastianmatteredfor some fucking reason and at some point they were going to have to figure out what that meant.

But not right now. He’d deal with that shit once he got back to Boston.

Luke stood and everyone at the table looked at him.

“I’ve just gotta piss,” he said gruffly.

When Luke left the bathroom. He found Connor and Jesse deep in conversation, blocking his path.