Page 129 of Game Misconduct

“I have enough to not fuckhim!” Tanner protested.

Crawford shoved him. “Thanks, asshole.”

Tanner straightened, then shot him a disgusted look. “I’m just sayin’. Besides, fucking you would be like fucking mybrother. And I don’t even have a brother.”

“Agreed.” Crawford said with a shudder.

“Thisisexciting though,” Tanner said, his mood shifting as he realized what it meant for the team. “We’ve got another convert to the rainbow side! Welcome to the club, bay-bee!”

He made a little whoop-whoop noise and Jesse winked at him from across the room. Oh yeah, this was gonna befun.

“I’m not aconvert,” Crawford grumbled. “I’ve always been this way. I just didn’t tell you about my private life until I had to.”

“Sorry about that,” Connor said with a sympathetic look. “Didn’t mean to …”

“It was gonna come out eventually anyway,” Crawford said with a sigh. “Everyone at the pediatric ER probably figured it out already anyway last night. It’s fine.”

“So,” Jesse said brightly. “The good news is, you’re gonna bring Sebastian to O’Neill’s tonight, yeah?”

Crawford looked around at his teammates. “I dunno. Are you all gonna make it weird?”

Tanner and Jesse glanced at each other again, then back at him.

Tanner grinned. “Abso-fucking-lutely,”

“I mean, probably,” Jesse said with a small laugh.

Connor scowled at his boyfriend. “Jesse …”

“What?” Jesse said, grinning too. “C’mon. This is going to be fun. Oh, that reminds me, I should add you to the Queer in the NHL group chat, Crawford.”

“No thank you,” he said, hooking his thumbs in his base layers and pushing them to the floor. “And will you all clear out andgive me some space? I need to go shower. I’m sweating my balls off here.”

“Ugh, you’re grossandboring,” Tanner chirped as he stripped off too.

“I’m gonna get Sebastian’s number and send him a link to Charlie Monaghan’s app too!” Jesse called out as he walked away.

“What app?” Crawford asked, grabbing a towel off a nearby stack on his way to the showers. “What is he talking about?”

Connor followed him and Tanner was just a few steps behind.

“The SAPs app,” Connor explained. “It’s for spouses and partners of NHL players. Queer friendly and it includes a section for spouses of retired players. It’s pretty cool actually. Jesse and I are both members because … well …”

“Huh,” Luke said. “I dunno if Sebastian will be into that but …”

“Well, he’s welcome to join if he is.”

Tanner turned on the water and ducked under the stream. He couldn’t wait to tell Leif all about this tonight … although, no. He really couldn’t. Just because Crawford had told the team didn’t mean he was ready to tell everyone. And look, maybe he wasn’t the best at keeping secrets but this was the one thing he’d always tried really hard to be good about.

It hit him then that if the Harriers were meeting at O’Neill’s tonight, he might not even have time to talk to Leif tonight.

Tanner sighed and squirted some bodywash into his hand and began scrubbing. Well, hopefully Leif would understand.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Dunno if I can chat tonight

Leif stared at the message from Tanner again, sighed, and typed out a reply.Okay.