Page 98 of Game Misconduct

Unfortunately, it hadn’t bled. The Rockets really could have used a double minor right now. Especially because they weren’t maintaining zone possession well at all.

Leif settled into position, staring across the faceoff dot at Graham Pennington.

He grimaced, watching intently as Erik Wyatt, Mickey Krause, and Rafe Moon lined up too. Thankfully, Tanner wasn’t out for the PK. There was no fear of distraction.

The puck dropped and it was a clean win from Leif, off his stick to Ian Salter, and he was tearing up the ice. Moon got a stick out and drove the play back toward the Rockets’ net. He fired it in but Poole batted it away.

The play continued and Ian raced toward the Harriers’ net, only to get bodied by Moon and Krause swooped in to retrieve the puck. He fired it toward Erik Wyatt who deftly skated between Salter and Palmer, then chipped it toward the net.

Poole batted it out of the air and smothered it, but Leif chewed on his mouthguard. Damn, the Harriers’ rookie was playing well.

A few more plays up and down the ice and then Leif was heading back to the bench, Nicky coming off it to take his place. He watched intently as Nicky tore up the ice on a breakaway, absolutely destroying any attempts by Krause and Moon to backcheck.

He held his breath as Nicky fired but Jesse Webber poked it away with his stick and the play continued.

The Rockets were unsuccessful on the power play and by the time Luke Crawford was out of the box and the Harriers were at full strength, Leif was back out on the ice.

The Harriers swept in, Tanner racing to get behind the Harriers’ net and fire the puck to Crawford. Crawford passed it to O’Shea, who’d been hanging out near the blue line. He drove hard into the neutral zone, Henriksen and Pennington swooping in as well. O’Shea passed the puck to Henriksen, who fired it at the goal.

But Poole was solid, blocking the puck, and immediately deflecting it toward Leif.

Leif deftly slipped around Crawford—he was big and mean but not terribly fast—and took another shot at the net.

Jesse blocked it and the Harriers regained possession, Crawford sweeping it back across the blue line and into the Rockets’ defensive zone.

So it was going to be like this all game, huh?

The second period ended without a goal either and Tanner muttered, “I fucking hate this team,” to Crawford as they headed down the tunnel to the locker room.

“Seriously.” Luke sighed. “Fuck them all.”

“Didn’t think you were into that,” Tanner teased, elbowing him in the ribs.

Luke made a face and shoved him back. “I’ll leave the man-whoring to you, thanks.”

Tanner grinned. The only person he was going to be getting naked with tonight was Leif and he was definitely looking forward to it.

As they trooped into the locker room and guys took care of their needs—for Tanner that meant hydration and refueling—he felt another zing of anticipation go through him. He’d been buzzing about their meetup for days, even if Leif had been annoying as hell about planning it.

After a bunch of back-and-forth about where they were staying, he’d mapped it all out down to the second of when they were supposed to arrive and leave. Tanner had finally started nodding and saying “mm-hhm” and “that sounds good” just to get him to move on.

Who cared about that shit? What he wanted to know was what kind of fun stuff they were going to get up to.

But Leif was boring and practical. Of course, even Tanner could admit that, sometimes, it came in handy. If he was the one in charge, he’d completely forget to reserve a place for them at all.

He checked his phone. There was no message from Leif but he hadn’t really expected it.

He’d been ignoring Tanner all game. Like if he didn’t look Tanner in the eye, he could pretend that they weren’t fucking on the reg now.

Okay, maybe not on the reg, exactly, since it was more like mutual masturbation, but that totally counted in Tanner’s mind.

Either way, he found it funny that Leif was being a big baby about it.

“Clayton!”

Tanner jerked in surprise at the sound of his name.

“Yeah?” he said, straightening to look at Connor.