Page 48 of Bro Code

Another text from Chloé on the way to the hotel. Manman needed more tests to determine exactly how far the cancer had spread. It wasn’t even a question of whether it had or not. It was only a question of how badly.

He told her to do whatever was needed. He would pay for it. She wanted to know if he could come to Guadeloupe to help her deal with it. He told her he’d think about it.

It turned out that a week in California gave him and Riley the perfect cover to start working together. With the usual schedule disrupted, and the suits thousands of miles away in Montreal, they had more freedom.

The team took a chartered flight from San Jose to Anaheim, and Riley scheduled another solo skate in the afternoon before their game. Louis joined him and sat in the bleachers, gathering data.

He could have sat there for hours, watching Riley run drills. He loved watching him skate.

Alone on the ice, Riley was a machine. Strong and powerful. A very different player from the one Louis saw in games, or even practices. The data reflected it. And the more he gathered and the clearer the picture became, the more Louis realized he had no other word for what was screwing up Riley’s performance than: Fear.

Riley was scared.

It was easiest to see in the proximity data. He was flinching. Any time a defenseman got too close, or a winger came up suddenly in his peripherals – even a noise in the crowd. It was such a tiny movement Riley maybe wasn’t even aware of it: a microscopic tightening of his grip, a spike in his heart rate, a hundred-millisecond freeze.

That wasn’t what Louis had been expecting to see – he’d assumed it was something like mental exhaustion, or stress. Burnout from the media pressure and trading to a new team. That would have been easier, honestly. That seemed like the kind of thing you could address with rest, time off, food.

Fear was…tricky. Louis had no idea what you did with that.

The day after the Anaheim game, Riley scheduled another solo skate. He and Louis met in the empty arena, and Louis sat in the row behind the bench as they both booted up.

“How did last night feel?” he asked.

Riley jostled his shoulders in a kind of casual shrug as he bent to tie a skate. “Not great.”

“Yeah.” Louis tapped in his password. He was trying to figure out how to ask what he wanted to ask without tipping Riley off about what he was digging for. “Not as good as San Jose, huh?”

The game against San Jose had gone decently. The game against Anaheim had been worse.

“Right.” Riley sighed and pulled on his other skate.

“Why do you think that is?” said Louis.

“I don’t know. Good building. Nice vibe.”

“It’s where you grew up, right?” Louis asked. Riley sent a suspicious look over his shoulder and he added, “I may have snooped your Wikipedia.”

Riley held him in his suspicious look a moment longer, then went back to his skates. “Yeah, it is. I guess I just like it there.”

“You think maybe that’s because it’s like…” Louis shrugged, clearing his throat. “A safe space?”

Riley laughed. “What?”

“You’re not so nervous, being there, maybe? Because it feels like home.”

“Uh…sure? I guess so?”

“Kind of interesting,” said Louis. “Don’t you think?” Riley shrugged and he continued with, “You remember that game in Tampa? When that guy Okafor put you into the boards.”

He glanced up to catch Riley nod once, stiffly. “Yah.”

Louis went back to the laptop. “Was that all that was? Or did something happen?”

Riley didn’t answer right away. He finished lacing up his skates, then sat up. He picked up his helmet and put it in his lap. “He told me, Watch your back because we’re not all friendly to guys like you here. Like…gay guys, I assume.”

A cold shock snapped through Louis that he hadn’t felt in years. He looked up. “What?”

“Yeah.”