Chapter Five
Top comments:
anyone_can_play_hockey: We’re so proud of the Sea Lions and their continued efforts at inclusion!
jayyyyyyDEN: “political” smh. we’re people not talking points
SFCLions: Finally, someone says the quiet part out loud! The Sea Lions need to concentrate on team unity and winning cups, not on indoctrinating children!
(From “Sea Lions Start the Season Strong” by Olivia Starling, published in The San Francisco Herald, 10/15/2025)
“It is never too early to start thinking about Halloween costumes,” Howie intoned. “I’ve been planning since August.”
“Why?” Luca asked.
Chris groaned inwardly at his blank, bored tone. He did love having an Italian bro, but sometimes, picking fights about North American customs meant Chris had to play mediator.
“It’s NHL tradition.”
They were all in the weight room, getting in their training for the day, while Lindy, Phil, and Edwards handled the roster cuts before the opening of the regular season.
Howie couldn’t mask his disappointment about Tarashenko, one of the team’s Russian prospects, being sent back to the KHL for conditioning.
Howie barely knew the guy, but with Tarashenko gone, Howie remained the youngest on the team at twenty and, therefore, the rookie.
He made up for it by grandstanding about the importance of getting a good quality Halloween costume since wearing cheap polyester all night made him itch—a statement Chris found questionable because he’d seen Howie’s game-day suits.
He would never say so, though, not in public and not while Howie felt so touchy about being the team baby.
Luca, on the other hand, was touchy in general.
In a weird way, Chris liked that about him. He liked how hard it was to make him smile. It made Chris feel special every time he managed to do it.
He didn’t necessarily like how often he had to play peacemaker to make sure Luca didn’t alienate anyone too much.
“Halloween isn’t a big thing in Italy,” Chris explained to Howie.
Howie’s eyes went big and round. “Why not?”
Luca sighed and dropped the barbell into place, chest heaving as his biceps and shoulders strained. He wasn’t a big guy, but he was muscular. Sleek. Reminiscent of an otter, or a dolphin. Something graceful and beautiful. By comparison, Chris’s body reminded him of a hippo, big and unwieldy.
“Well, Kilian,” Luca began in his most bored and facetious tone. “Many years ago, all the people who were too intensely religious for Europe came to this continent and brought a bunch of superstitions with them.”
Chris frowned. “My dad always called Halloween a godless holiday and said real Catholics don’t celebrate it.”
Luca gave him an odd look. “Not to contradict myself, but All Hallow’s Eve—and All Saint’s Day on the first of November—are Catholic holidays. I simply did not dress up and beg for sweets. That part was invented in the Americas, and it did not catch on in Europe until I was too old to do it.”
Chris would have to look it up. As a kid, he’d thought Halloween sounded like a ton of fun, choosing a costume and going door-to-door to ask for candy.
His dad had forbidden it from the get-go, though, saying no God-fearing Catholic family would get dressed up as demons and witches.
His mom protested because Chris wanted to do it, and she wanted to make him happy, or maybe to make Chris’s father unhappy.
So, Chris backtracked and told them both it didn’t matter.
Fifteen years later, he had no intention of telling his dad he’d been wrong about Halloween because it would be an engraved invitation to argue. But he could tell Matty.
“Well, we’re in the Americas, and Halloween is definitely an NHL tradition, so you’d better get working on your costume.”
“We haven’t done a Halloween party the last couple years,” Chris said to keep Howie from getting his hopes up.
Tom wasn’t a captain who would throw a catered brunch, much less a costume party rager.
As for the alternates, well, the Magpies traded Jax to the team last year, and since he’d barely known any of them, he hadn’t thrown any parties.
Hayes had sent an invite to a Halloween club night about an hour before it started, and Phil had already hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas for anyone who couldn’t get home.
Now that Phil wasn’t an A anymore, would he still invite everyone over?
Who would do it if he didn’t? Jax and Hayes were the only active As.
If Hayes sent out an invite, half the team wouldn’t go.
Maybe Jax would step up this year. But Jax stepping up meant Tom would be involved, which probably meant no parties.
Or maybe a really awkward party. Chris couldn’t decide which would be worse for morale.
“What?” Howie looked crestfallen. “I thought… Last year, we were on the road, but this time around, we’ll be home, and we have a day off on the first. We have to do something.”
Luca looked set to tell him they didn’t have to do anything at all, thank you very much. Chris loved the guy, but it was a good thing he didn’t have kids. He would crush their hopes and dreams.
“Maybe we can host something?”
Luca’s face morphed from arrogant to fearful. “In our apartment? But—”
“No way. Your place is way too small. No offense, but—”
“Hey,” Chris protested. He loved their cozy-without-being-cramped, light-without-being-too-modern apartment. Sure, it would be cool to have a little extra space for a guest room or an office, but otherwise, it was perfect.
“No, no, he is correct,” Luca interjected.
“You just don’t want to have people over.”
“Also correct.”
“Well, we can’t go to Howie’s.” Chris glared at Howie. He had yet to move out of his one-bedroom shithole.
Howie set down his weights and stretched. “I have an apartment viewing lined up, dude. It’s hard with the schedule.”
“One apartment viewing?” Chris shook his head in consternation. “This is why you do house-hunting over the summer.”
“I didn’t want to leave home.”
Chris thought guiltily about the open tab on his phone of apartment listings in Montreal. He loved his family, and he loved going home over the summer, but sometimes it was a little much living with them after being on his own all year.
Howie didn’t seem to have the same problem, but his family owned a farm in Victoria with plenty of space. Lucky bastard.
“Anyway, why can’t we— Jax! Tom!” Howie called as soon as he spotted them entering the weight room.
Jax held the door for Tom.
The sweetness of the gesture made envy pang in Chris’s gut.
He picked up his weights again and returned to his deadlifts, looking at the wall to avoid seeing anything else too cute for comfort. He’d already finished his reps, but a few more wouldn’t hurt.
“What’s up, rookie?”
“Jax,” Tom said reproachfully. “He’s not a rookie anymore.”
Howie glowed. The hero worship thing he had going for Tom was a little embarrassing.
Oh God, Chris hoped it was hero worship and not a crush. A messy love triangle was the last thing their team needed. Sweat dripped down his forehead into his eyes both from the lifting and the awful thought.
“We were talking about how it’s nearly Halloween,” Howie said, “and that we should have a big team party.”
Jax perked up. “I like what I’m hearing. Tell me more.”
“Didn’t you move into a new place? Can we do it there?”
Panic surged through Chris. The new place Jax and Tom had moved into together was the worst possible option for a team party.
They both lived there. Everyone would figure it out.
No way could they remain hidden, with everyone clomping through their space.
And what about the bathroom they shared, with two toothbrushes set next to each other, cuddled up together all day, waiting for Tom and Jax to use them before they curled up in bed side by side and cuddled themselves, like a real couple, like—
His arms shaking, Chris let the barbell fall to the floor with a crash. Next to him, Luca flinched.
“Sorry,” Chris said. “Bit off a little more than I could chew. I don’t think we should ask Jax, Howie. He just moved in, and it’s probably all still boxes and—”
“Eh, we’re pretty unpacked,” Jax said easily. “What do you think, Tom?”
“Do you think Artemis will be okay with so many people?”
Now Tom was asking Jax if their dog—the dog they owned and took care of together as joint pet parents, as a couple because they were a couple—would be okay. How had no one else noticed? Chris stood frozen, rooted to the spot, waiting for Luca or Howie to call them out.
“Are you kidding? She loves people. It will be the best night of her life.”
“But it’s Halloween. People always have chocolate, and she could—”
“We’ll keep her out of the kitchen. It’ll be fine.”
“Wait.” Luca looked between Jax and Tom. “I thought we were speaking about Jax’s house?”
“Yeah, with Tom.” Casually as could be, Jax strolled over to the rowing machine and settled down. Tom tossed him a towel from the bag containing their shared gear, and Jax draped it over the back of his seat before beginning his routine.
Luca’s eyes narrowed. “You bought a house. Together.”
“Uh-huh.” Jax began his reps on the rowing machine. “What do you say, Tom? Halloween party?”
“Sure,” Tom said. “But only if Howie does the planning.”
In one masterful move, he distracted everyone so the whole problem of him and Jax getting figured out vanished. Chris would be impressed if he hadn’t created a much bigger problem on Halloween with his distraction technique.
“Oh my God,” Howie said reverently. “I have been waiting for this moment my whole life. I will not disappoint you. Oh man, I need to get decorations. When can I come over and set up? Can we have bobbing for apples? Ooh, does anyone know how to make those cookies shaped like eyeballs?”
“How about you pull up a seat”—Jax jerked his chin at the butterfly machine across from him—“and we hash out a few details? Tom was going to take Breezy and Luca to lunch to chat about the power play anyway.”
“Was I?”