Page 96 of Bro Code

He should probably buy furniture. But did he even need it? He had everything he wanted already.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

THREE WEEKS LATER

Louis

The anthem stopped and the puck dropped. Louis went to work.

His fingers moved automatically, the job second nature by now. He hardly had to glance at his screens to add notes and timestamps, run tracking commands in real-time, know which players were probably flagging and needed to come off the ice. It was easy.

All systems stable, captain. Operating at warp speed.

Down on the ice, Riley stripped the puck from a Dallas player and sent it to Nic. Nic snapped it forward to Marks, Marks to Volcheck, and Louis’ eyes moved to the spot he already knew Riley would be. Sure enough, there he was, collecting the puck on his forehand.

They were up by one at the end of first period as Louis ran the upload command and sprinted down to the video room to check in with Coach Myers. The next time he ran down at the end of second period, they were up by two. They won the game six-three, and even Holly was smiling as she and Louis wrapped up. It was the last game before the holiday freeze, and there was no question that Riley would be staying in Montreal: he was crushing it.

When Louis was finished he went down to the tunnel and fought his way through the usual sea of press to get to the locker room. He arrived as Riley stepped out, showered, hair damp, smelling of cologne, and sexy as all hell in his post-game suit. Louis linked an arm through his, smiling benignly at the cameras flashing and microphones thrusting in their faces. The press had been trying to get a statement about the status of their relationship for weeks. Louis and Riley had decided they could have pictures. They weren’t entitled to anything else.

Riley’s phone lit up as they were getting into Louis’ car to head back to the house in Westmount, and he pulled it out and swiped it open, frowning. “Hey, Nic. What’s up?”

Louis put the keys in the ignition and Riley shook his head, putting a hand on his knee to stop him.

“Uh huh. Uh huh. Sure. Oh, now?” Riley looked at him across the car. Louis frowned and mouthed, What? “Uh…I don’t know, let me ask him.” Riley covered the phone. “They wanna go to a club. Are we interested?”

“Who’s they?”

“Nic and Liam.”

“Nic and Liam? Liam wants to go to a club.”

“Well, I’m assuming Nic wants to go to a club and Liam is putting up with whatever Nic wants.”

Louis grinned, gesturing for the phone. “Love it. But I’m choosing the spot.”

They found Nic and Liam outside Bar Pink, in suits, looking sharp, handsome, and a little nervous. Liam was fiddling with his cuff links and eyeing the line that snaked around the corner like this was more people than he’d bargained for. Riley touched him on the shoulder as they walked up. “Okay?”

“Sure about this?” said Louis. “We don’t have to go in.”

Liam put a hand in his pocket, retrieved a pair of ear plugs, put them in, and looked at Nic. Nic gave him a thumbs up. “All good?”

“All good,” Liam yelled, putting his thumbs up too.

“You don’t have to yell, Bear.” Nic laughed, taking his hand. “We can hear you.”

Louis watched them turn to walk to the end of the line, a smile stretching wide across his face. His heart was so full it hurt. He caught Nic by the arm and tugged him back, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Wait! Let’s take a picture before we go in.”

Nic shrugged and looked at Liam. Looking mildly skeptical, Liam allowed himself to be positioned with the rest of them in front of the neon Bar Pink sign, and Louis held the phone out landscape and snapped a selfie of the four of them. They crowded in to look at it.

“Nice,” said Nic.

“You should post it,” said Riley.

Louis looked up. “Can we do that?”

Riley frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Isn’t the NHL pretty strict about social media? Are they gonna have…something to say about four queer guys holding hands outside a bar?”