“The one-letter thing is mine.”
“Fair.” Jaxon stands there, trying to think of a nickname; meanwhile, Declan looks done with both of us. “D-Man?”
“Eh.” I shrug. “Dex?”
“Too close to Jax.”
“Are you guys done?” Declan tosses the controller onto the table. “Because I was kicking Zeke’s ass at this game and would like to get back to it.”
“Does it not bother you that you don’t have a nickname?” I ask.
“I never call you Z, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone not refer to you as Zeke, so I think people referring to me bymy nameis okay.”
“You don’t have to be so mean about it.” I pout. “I just wanted you to have anickname.”
“Brinley calls him Goober.” Jax smiles. “We could all start calling him that.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
Idon’t know how you do it,” I say, tugging on my skates. We’re all scattered around the locker room, preparing for tonight’s game.
“Do what?” Declan pulls his socks up over his shin pads. Then he mimics me, grabbing his left skate and pulling it on.
“Keeping your relationship with Ember a secret from Cam,” I whisper. “I’ve almost spilled the beans six different times by accident.”
“You’ve known for three days.” He stops to stare at me.
“Yeah, and three of those slip-ups were in practice yesterday.” I pull my shoulder pads over my head.
“Ember will tell him when she’s ready,” Declan responds. “But I think she's worried after what happened with Tanner.”
“Worried Cam will beat the shit out of you?” I ask. “Because I wouldn’t blame him. He firmly believes in ourno dating each other’s siblingspact that we made.”
“Trust me, I’ve thought about what will happen to me when Cam finds out, and every situation ends with me on a gurney.”
“Forget about what will happen to you,” I begin. “What will happen to this team. Remember the tension on the team when Jere came back and knocked O’Connell back to his previous positionon the line? O’Connell fucking moved schools. I don’t know what we’d do if we lost you or Bowman because you’re fuc—”
The locker room door opens, and Cam enters, still wearing his regular clothes. Coach walks behind him as if they’re finishing a conversation, probably about why Cam’s late.
“Alright, boys,” Coach says, patting Cam on the back as he heads to get ready. “Tonight should be an easy one, but that doesn’t mean there should be any slacking out there. We don’t wanna let fucking ego be the reason our win streak ends tonight, got it?”
“Yes, Coach!” The words bounce off the locker room walls, and with a nod, he’s out of the room.
“Coach busting your balls over being late?” I ask, and Cam shakes his head.
“Nope. Coach knew I was gonna be late.”
“Coach must really like you. He busted Declan’s balls when he was late to the first game.”
“In all fairness, I barely got on the ice before the game started.” Declan laughs. “I’m surprised he let me play. Coach is a pretty understanding guy when you have a valid reason.”
“He made me walk back to the hotel after one of our games in Indiana last year,” I argue.
“Yeah, because you were half an hour late to the bus because you were having sex in some girl's car, and we all wanted to go to sleep.”
“I’d argue that getting laid is a very valid reason to get to the bus late. And I dominated that night. I felt like I deserved it.”
Cam laughs, something I don’t hear often from him, especially around me, due to our little scuffle when I asked about Ember coming to our game.