Page 182 of Cheap Shot

Luke pulled Sebastian closer. “Yeah, I’m gonna stick with the guy who’s anactualadult, thanks.”

“Hey!” Tanner protested. “I’m an adult.”

Everyone around them made noises of disagreement.

“You are achild,” Graham said with a laugh. “Your driver’s license might say you’re twenty-six, but you have the maturity of a toddler.”

Tanner made a sputtering noise and turned on his heel. “You allsuck. I’m gonna go drink with people who are nice to me.”

Laughter followed his retreat.

A while later, when Sebastian went in search of some water—because he was out of practice at drinking with hockey playersand really didn’t want a hangover tomorrow—he ran into Tanner at the bar.

He was waiting for a drink and doing something on his phone. Texting someone, it looked like. Sebastian wondered who it was. And then he wondered if the woman in front of him at the game had been right.

“Sooo … I have to ask,” Sebastian said, resting his elbows on the bar beside Tanner. “Are you and Rasmussen …”

Tanner quickly shut off his phone and blinked at him. “Are wewhat?”

“Fucking?”

A dull red flush spread up Tanner’s neck to and bloomed in his cheeks. “Umm …”

“Okayyy … that’s a yes.” Sebastian laughed. “Got it.”

Tanner’s gaze darted around the pub. “Shit, don’t tell Luke. He’ll fucking kill me.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” Sebastian said with a smile and wink.

No one would understand wanting privacy about a relationship more than Luke.

“Thanks.” Tanner looked relieved. “I mean, it’s sort of been a thing since like … Juniors, honestly.”

Sebastian lifted his eyebrows. “Really? Thewholetime?”

“No,” Tanner said with a laugh. “God no. Just here and there. I gave Leif a blowjob when we were like … sixteen and then we didn’t screw again until the summer skills camp last year inEvanston. And then we kinda hooked up at the North Atlantic Tournament.”

“Ohh,” Sebastian said. “But you hate him, right?”

Tanner made a face. “Ugh, totally. He’s a stuck-up prick who gets on my nerves. But he’s hot, you know?”

“I do know all about that,” Sebastian agreed, though he wouldn’t say he’d ever thought of Luke as a stuck-up prick. Just … an asshole.

“Yeah, but the thing with me and Leif, it’s not like you guys,” Tanner said. “It doesn’tmeananything.”

“Didn’t mean anything for Luke and me either,” Sebastian pointed out with a laugh. “Until it did.”

Tanner shuddered. “Trust me, there’s no way inhellI’m falling in love with that ice princess.”

“Mmm,” Sebastian said. “Well, good luck with that.”

There was a fine line between love and hate and Sebastian and Luke were living proof that it didn’t take much to tip from one side of it to the other.

Luke wasn’t surprised when people kept shoving drinks at him. He slugged them down, glad he’d have a little over a week before their first playoff game.

He didn’t recover from hangovers as quickly as he used to.

But tonight had been one of the most fun games he’d played in years and whatever happened in the postseason, he’d ended the regular season with a bang and that felt good.