Page 84 of Game Misconduct

“You’re hopeless, Clayton.” Leif sighed.

“All part of my charm.” Tanner winked. “Anyway, whatever. If you don’t want to meet up in the off-season, that’s cool. The idea just popped into my head. I thought it might be fun.”

“It …maybe,” Leif said. “I don’t know what my schedule is going to be like yet.”

“Neither do I,” Tanner said. “I mean, I might be too busy with Cup parties anyway.”

Leif grimaced. “I can’t believe you’re tempting fate that way.”

“I didn’t saywhoseCup parties,” Tanner pointed out. “But the Harriers are doing pretty well. God, I fucking hope you guys make it to the playoffs. It’ll be so fun to destroy you.”

The Harriers were currently in first position in the division while the Rockets were flirting with a wild card spot.

“Destroy us?” Leif looked amused. “You have to bekiddingme. Nicky’s coming back and?—”

“Shit, really?” Tanner said, sitting upright. That was news to him.

Leif cursed. “Fuck! I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. It’s not public yet.”

“I can keep a secret.”

“No youcan’t. Earlier, you blabbed about August Manning returning next fall.”

“Fuck, you’re right.” Tanner grinned at him. “Whoops.”

“Nicky’ll be doing a press conference soon to announce it,” Leif said. “But for right now, you can’t tell anyone. Swear to me you’ll keep your mouth shut about it, and I’ll agree to plan something for the off-season with you?”

“I can be bribed,” Tanner said. “Fun! Okay, so I’m thinking we, like, rent a little place for a week or whatever and just fuck the whole time.”

“Um, I do need to train this summer, you know?”

“Fine, fuckandtrain,” Tanner said impatiently. “It’ll be awesome. And we can do the club thing sometime. There are gay clubs in Norway, right?”

“Of course,” Leif huffed. “But I am kind of a big deal there, you know? I could get recognized.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Norway,” Tanner said with a laugh.

“I mean, it’s not a huge hockey country,” Leif said grudgingly. “It would be a bigger deal if I was a professional skier, probably. But between Dad’s fame and …”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re gonna get mobbed by rabid fans wherever we go.”

“I didn’t say that! I’m just saying if we’re trying to fly under the radar, it might be better if went somewhere else. Like Italy.”

“Cool, Italy’s great.” Tanner waved a dismissive hand. “We’ll fuck, train, and carbo load with pasta. I need to get my weight up this off-season anyway. They’re already worried about how much I’ve lost so far.”

Leif grimaced. “Same.”

Neither of them were guys who bulked up easily. “So yeah, Italy. It’s a plan,” Tanner said.

“France would also work. Monte Carlo is nice too and?—”

Tanner groaned. “I literally do not care where we go. I just want to go to a club and dance and make you try to pick me up. If you’re bad at it, I’ll go home with someone else.”

Leif let out this annoyed little growl that made Tanner laugh and he cheered internally. Yeah, this was gonna be ablast.

Somehow, they kept talking even after Leif told Tanner he needed to go shower and tried to hang up.

“So take me with you into the bathroom,” Tanner said with a shrug.