Page 139 of Game Misconduct

“What are you talking about?”

“Show. Me. The. Dog.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you just say that? I did take a few pictures of Emmie actually. Hang on.”

The phone tilted and Tanner got a sudden, up-the-nose, highly unflattering view of Leif. It was nice that he didn’tawayslook perfect. “There. I texted them.”

“Cool.” Tanner grabbed his phone and probably gave Leif an equally terrible view of himself as he flipped through the pictures. “Aww, she’s a cuuuutie.” He squinted at the screen then flipped back to Leif. “Wait, is thatIan Salter’sdog?”

“What the fuck?” Leif said. “How the fuck would you know that? Did you sleep with him too?”

Tanner laughed. “Oh my God,no. I hardly know him, except when we play against you guys.”

“Since when has not knowing someone ever stopped you?”

Tanner stuck out his tongue. “Salter has a social media account for Emmie, right? I’m pretty sure I follow it.”

“Oh damn it,” Leif muttered. “I didn’t think about that.”

“I won’ttellanyone.”

“Won’t you?”

“If the guy’s not out, he’s not out. I’m not gonna fuck that up for him,” Tanner assured him. “Anyway, so you hung out with him and his cute dog today?”

“Yeah.” Leif settled back against the headboard. “We walked the dog, had dinner, watched some basketball …”

“Since when doyouwatch basketball?” Tanner asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Since tonight, I guess? I don’t know. It was fun. It’s not hockey and the squeaky shoe and ball noises are annoying as fuck, but …”

Tanner narrowed his eyes. “Are yousureSalter wasn’t trying to date you? Cause that all sounds pretty cozy to me.”

Leif snorted. “No.”

Tanner scowled. “No, you’re not sure?”

“I am sure you’re crazy. Salty isn’t trying to date me.” Leif scoffed at the idea. “We just hung out. That’s all. Why do you care anyway? We were both going to keep seeing other people.”

Tanner opened his mouth, then closed it. “Uhh, you’re right, I did.”

Neither of them had slept with anyone else lately but they totallycould. No one had ever accused Tanner of being clingy before, but maybe he was acting that way now.

Leif had always been different from everyone else he’d been with.Always.

So maybe Tanner was the one being weird right now.

“Sorry,” Tanner added in a small voice. “I won’t … it’s cool. You can totally do whatever you like.”

“Oh.” Leif frowned. “Yeah, okay.”

“I mean, it’s not like we’re together or anything,” Tanner said with a laugh though nothing felt very funny. “Right?”

“Right.” Leif glanced away.

“Oh, dude, speaking of together, you’re not going tobelievethis,” Tanner said before he remembered that he wasn’t supposed to say anything about Crawford and Vintage Jersey Guy. Fuck!

“Believe what?” Leif asked with a frown.