Page 175 of Game Misconduct

Something came flying through the air from where Crawford sat and Tanner smiled, batting it away. It was a pen, because for some dumb reason he always thought that braining Tanner withone was a good idea. Like anyone on the team needed to be any more banged up than they already were.

Half the guys in the room had ice packs on some part of their body or the other and the air smelled like a weird mix of cologne and icy-hot.

Tanner made it over to the bed without stepping on Erik, then snuggled in between Jesse and Graham. Jesse slung a friendly arm over his shoulder. On his other side, Connor looked over at them and gave them a faint, tired smile.

Tanner was really glad Connor finally knew that Tanner was no threat. Tanner didn’t want Jesse and he hadn’t in a long time. He just wanted his pretty-faced Viking-named Norwegian man.

But they’d have their time together eventually and for now, all Tanner wanted to do was sink into the nice feelings of being surrounded by his boys.

By his team.

For a moment, Tanner closed his eyes and just soaked it all in. He had no idea how long any of this would last and he didn’t want to miss out on a single second of it.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Still, Tanner had to fight to keep from throwing himself into Leif’s arms when he saw him in the family lounge a couple of weeks later.

They’d just won game three against the L.A. Suns.

The games against Florida hadn’t been easy—winning the Conference Finals wasalwayshard—but they’d had the better team and despite Connor’s shoulder clearly hanging on by a thread, they’d managed to pull out the win.

No one haddaredtouch the Prince of Wales Trophy.

None of them were doing anything that could risk jinxing this run they were on.

Everyone was looking pretty rough by now. Connor’s and Luke’s beards made them both look like deranged mountain men and the rest of them were just sort of …scruffy.

Tanner was actually sort of impressed with how much facial hair he’d managed to grow this season. His beard was still alittle weird because it always came in heaviest on his upper lip, chin, and cheeks and there were weird naked patches where they didn’t quite connect.

But Leif seemed into it, so there was that.

Leif and Silje had flown into Boston yesterday, and Tanner had been busy with team stuff, so he hadn’t been able to sneak away for even a minute to see him, but they’d video chatted.

Leif seemed lighter now. A little less sad, and Tanner was relieved.

He glanced around, looking for his family, and his mom—who’d been talking to Jesse’s parents.

“You were so good tonight, baby!” Stephanie said when she spotted him and Tanner walked over to his mom. He hugged her, lifting her up off her feet, and she laughed.

“Tanner! Tanner!” Mia and Olivia chorused as they ran over, and he grinned and let go of his mom to grab his sisters. He hugged them and ruffled their hair and hugged Jeff, and tried not to steal little glances at Leif who was talking to his own parents.

Everyone assumed he was there to support Aksel, but Tanner knew the truth.

Leif’s glance flicked over at him. He didn’t smile or anything—he had that resting ice princess face thing going—but Tanner still shivered.

Damn, it was going to be so fucking hot when they could finally be alone together in person. Hopefully no had noticed him eye-fucking Leif, since he knew he had no poker face whatsoever.

He glanced around the room. It wasn’t super full.

The SAPs had watched the game from their assigned seats in the lower bowl and were probably still on their way down to the lounge.

“Hi, Tanner!” someone said and he looked down to see Harper. For a kid who’d been through heart surgery recently, she looked great.

“Oh, hey!” he said with a big grin.

“Where’s Mr. Luke?” she asked. “Is he hurt?”

Her big eyes were filled with worry and Tanner held out his arms to see if she wanted to be picked up. She nodded and he hefted her onto his hip, even though literally every muscle in his body was screaming at him right now.