Page 137 of Game Misconduct

Sebastian released a startled laugh. “Uhh, that wasn’t quite what I meant.”

“Am I wrong?” Tanner arched an eyebrow at him.

Sebastian shrugged. “I’m not saying that …”

“Okay, okay!” Connor’s voice rose over the crowd. “That’s enough harassing Luke and Sebastian. Everyone, grab a drink, grab some food, and let’s get down to business.”

Tanner’s mind wandered as Connor talked about what Brie and Harper needed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help, of course he did, but his brain was kinda whirling with everything going on.

He still couldn’t believe that Luke was dating Sebastian.

Fucking wild. Hell, he could barely wrap his brain around the idea that Crawford wasqueer. He had the most straight-dude energy of anyone Tanner had ever met.

He’d been fucking terrified to be paired with the dude at first, half convinced Crawford would deck him for saying the wrong thing. And sure, it hadn’t taken him long to realize that his bark was worse than his bite. Butstill.

The worst part was, he couldn’t even talk to Leif about it.

Crawford had said he didn’t have any plans to come out to the world and Sebastian seemed fine with that. Which meant that the only people who could know were the ones in the room now. So annoying.

Speaking of Leif … Tanner slid his phone out of his pocket to see if he had any messages from him. He’d been weirdly quiet all day.

Tanner had wondered if he’d been pissed about him canceling. Leif had said he wasn’t but after Tanner asked him what he liked to do with friends, he’d just disappeared.

And it was making Tanner wonder if Leif actually had many close friends. He didn’t really talk about hanging out with anyone.

Sure, he went out to team dinners and launch parties and shit. But that wasn’t the same as havingfriends.

As far as Tanner knew, Leif didn’t game with his roomies like Tanner did with Mickey and Rafe. He didn’t go out to dinner with Jesse and gossip about the team. He seemed happy enough and obviously there were people on the Harriers like Crawford who were kinda loners or whatever.

Then again,Tanner thought as he looked over at Sebastian, who was smiling at his boyfriend,even Crawford isn’t a total loner after all.

So why had Leif gone totally silent?

Tanner caught a glimpse of Mickey scowling at him, and he slipped his phone into his pocket and tuned back in to what Catherine was saying.

“ … organizing meals. If you want to make something, please let me know. If you think of any other ways you’d like to contribute, don’t hesitate to suggest them.”

“Umm,” Tanner said to Mickey when everyone was done talking. “So what did I miss?”

Mickey sighed but rattled off some things that had been suggested.

Tanner wasn’t handy, so he couldn’t help with any of the things they were planning to do to fix up the house Harper and Brie lived in.

He couldn’t cook, so making meals was out of the question, although he did chip in some money for a grocery fund.

But one of them was to hang out with Harper while she was resting and recovering and Tanner jumped on that one.Perfect.Entertain a little kid? Yeah, he was great at that.

He also texted his mom to see if she had any of his sisters’ things that she wanted to get rid of. She responded, promising to pull together some items and drop them off to him, and he thanked her.

After that, he grabbed another drink, hung out with the team for a while, then snuck out.

On the sidewalk, he wandered to where he could get a decent signal, requested a ride, then pulled up his texts with Leif.

U sure ur not mad at me??he sent.

Leif responded a few minutes later.No. Why would I be mad?

U nvr texted back!