Page 88 of Ethan

He looked over at her then. More because he wasn’t sure he could take any more secondhand embarrassment at whatever antics Max and Charlie were indulging in, all while pretending they were “just” friends.

He and Hank had never been this dumb.Never.

“Yeah,” Ethan said, trying to dredge up some enthusiasm.

Maybe what he was frustrated about wasn’t just Charlie and Max’s flirting, but the fact thathisguy wasn’t here, too, to meet his parents and to flirt with him over a pan of his mom’s famous yams. To stretch out with him after dinner on the couch, stuffed to the gills.

“Avery said you’d gotten close to a defenseman, but he wasn’t here? I thought he might be.”

“Avery shouldn’t be talking shit about stuff he doesn’t know about,” Ethan said righteously. Though it wasn’t like he wouldn’thavelovedit if Hank had been able to spend the holidays here, instead of in Syracuse.

“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow. “You’re not close?”

“No, no, we are.” Ethan hesitated. It wasn’t like his parents hadn’t been supportive when Charlie and then Avery had come out. Charlie had done it, almost defiantly, at eleven, declaring that he was never going to be into girls, not like that. Avery had waited a few more years, and his confession had been more Avery-like, quiet and sure. Confident, still, but in a very different way than Charlie.

His dad had grumbled a bit, when Avery had come out, but had been ultimately supportive, probably because at that point, he’d realized that it wasn’t the death knell for their careers that he’d worried about when Charlie had come out.

“What’s his name? Do you like him?” Charlotte asked.

“Hank. Hank Tucker. He’s from Toronto. Um. Yeah. I met him at dev camp a few years back and we talk a lot. He’s . . .he’s probably my best friend.” There wasn’t anyprobablyabout it, not any longer. “And yeah. I do like him. A lot. If he hadn’t gotten sent back to Syracuse, I think we would’ve . . .”

He didn’t say it, not explicitly, but she was his mom and shegotit, the way she usually did. Reaching out, she gave his arm a firm, reassuring squeeze. “He sounds great, honey. We could use a good d-man in the family.”

“We have Avery,” Ethan said, rolling his eyes.

“And I’m sure he could use some company, especially with . . .” Charlotte glanced up at where Max was now whipping the potatoes in the pot, biceps bunching under the sleeves of his T-shirt and if Charlie wasn’t fucking drooling, he was close enough. “Well. You know.”

“God, don’t I?” Ethan complained.

She laughed. “Be nice to your brother. He’s trying his best.”

“Is he though?”

“He’s got a lot of pressure on him,” she soothed. “You know that.”

“And now you sound just like Avery,” Ethan bitched.

“Maybe he got it from me,” she said, smiling. “You know . . . you know how your dad can be, about things.”

Ethan swallowed hard. He knew in a lot of ways Charlie protected him from all that. That he always had.

“Yeah.”

She patted him again. “Just be gentle with him, sometimes, okay? Because Charlie isn’t always gentle with himself.”

Ethan had gotten lucky, he supposed, if he was tallying things up. Their dad had gotten a taste of potential NHL success with Avery, but Charlie had always been the son that everything had ridden on. The one with the skills that could really push their family into the stratosphere. Then there’d been Ethan, who’d been born fourth and who’d been not anafterthought, not exactly, but there’d been way less pressure and way less focus.

He’d spent three years at Portland and it had been good. At the time he hadn’t been sure he should go to college after he’d done a stint in the US development program. But they’d made sure he went, unlike Charlie, who’d headed straight to the Bandits’ main roster after the draft. Eighteen and so fucking young.

Charlie had never explicitly said to Ethan he should go to college because he hadn’t. He’d never said he regretted the path he’d taken, but maybe he didn’t need to say it for Ethan to recognize that it was true.

“I’d be happy being gentle with him if he’d just take what is so obviouslyhis,” Ethan said.

He didn’t need to look pointedly at Max for his mom to get it. She laughed again. “You’re so much my most straightforward child. Did you just march up to Hank and tell him you liked him?”

Ethan made a face. “No. Not exactly.” Though kinda, yeah. He’d waited, at least at the very beginning, for Hank to come to him, to show him that he was in this, too, but after he’d been sure of it, he’d had no issue pushing them forward.

Had enjoyed it, even.