Page 140 of Game Misconduct

“So weirdly enough, one of my teammates came out today too,” Tanner said. “I can’t say which one, but my mind istotallyblown.”

“Yeah?” Leif asked.

“Yeah. I am being so good and not outing them,” Tanner said. “But we met his boyfriend tonight and Isowish I could tell you who he is.”

“Look,” Leif said abruptly. “I think—it’s getting late. I should wrap this up.”

“Oh.” Tanner frowned. “You don’t want to get off tonight?”

“Not tonight,” Leif said. “I don’t feel great.”

“Aww, I’m sorry, Princess.” Tanner frowned at him.

“It’s fine. Just been a long, weird day.”

“You had fun hanging out with Salter though?”

“Yeah. We sit together on the plane and stuff, but it was nice getting to know him better one-on-one.”

“Good,” Tanner said. “You should have more queer friends on your team.”

Leif gave him a faint smile.

“Talk tomorrow?” Tanner asked hopefully.

“Probably not. We’ve got a game and it’s the start of a back-to-back for us.”

“Ugh.” Tanner made a face. “Well, you’re gonna be in Boston again soon, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Leif said.

“So that’s something.”

“It’s something,” Leif agreed although his face looked weird. Not the sour-lemon face. Just sort of … sad.

Tanner wanted to say something to make him smile but he wasn’t sure what would do it. “Well, good night,” he said instead.

“Night.” Leif gave him a tight little smile and then he was gone.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Before Leif could blink, the Rockets were headed back to Boston. Leif wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

Things had been kinda weird since the day he hung out with Salty. Not because Ian was being weird but because Tanner was. And … maybe because Leif had been avoiding him a little bit.

He just didn’t know what to say. For a second he’d thought that Tanner wasjealousof him and Salty so Leif had thought maybe it was a good time to talk about his feelings.

But then Tanner had acted like he didn’t care. They’d agreed not to be exclusive or whatever, so … that was that, Leif guessed. He’d gotten his hopes up for nothing.

It was easier to focus on the end of the season and pushing to get into the playoffs and … there was always something else he should be doing. Brand deals to consider and interviews to do and merch to sign.

It didn’t help that both of their schedules were crazy. For a while they’d been mostly synced up, playing on the same nights and having the same nights off more often than not.

But then the Rockets had back-to-back games and went on a road trip and their schedules didn’t mesh anymore. Video chats were now mostly late-night texts that sometimes didn’t get answered until the next day and … well, it was just easier.

But there was no avoiding the fact that Tanner kept texting about plans for when the Rockets were in Boston. So Leif booked the same apartment and figured he’d deal with Tanner after the game.

Of course, that night justhadto be the celebration for Luke Crawford’s thousandth game. And yes, it was a big deal. Less than five percent of players in the league ever made it to a thousand games. Even if Leif didn’t like the guy, he had to admit, it was impressive.