10. Chapter 10 #2
“Um, maybe?” Ethan wasn’t going to out Hank without his permission though. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole team knowing how he felt before he’d even been able to tell Hank.
“It sucked Tuck got sent up to Syracuse,” Dom said. He tipped his glass back.
“I didn’t know you guy were friends.” Ethan hadn’t really even thought that Hank had friends, other than Bo, and Ethan suspected that was more of a mutual-tolerance kind of situation.
“Spent a year in Syracuse together,” Dom said.
“Ah.” That made sense, then. Goalies and d-men were similar in that everyone always wanted them to take more time to develop.
“Not sure I’d classify us as friends, though.
Good kid, Tuck, but he keeps to himself.
Isn’t not friendly but doesn’t make friends easy.
” Dom shot him another one of those looks.
Like he could see right through Ethan, and maybe with his super-special goalie powers, he could.
“Which was why I was surprised to see he was so close with you.”
“Yeah.” Ethan finished his beer. Didn’t want to ask for another one, but his throat felt dry. He cleared it, but that didn’t help.
Dom raised a dark eyebrow and then slid a water glass over. “Better?” he asked after Ethan took a long drink.
“Um, sure. Yeah.” Ethan hesitated. “I’m not sulking. It’s just not how this was supposed to go. We were supposed to be doing this together.”
“Right, I get it. Tuck got shafted by the trade shit,” Dom said.
Ethan’s heart nearly burst with a sudden pulse of anxiety. “What?” he demanded. Hank was going to be traded? It was obviously always a possibility, but Dom saying it? Out loud? He must’ve heard something, and Ethan wanted to die.
“No, no,” Dom said chuckling. He reached out and nudged Ethan’s shoulder.
“Stop freaking out. He’s not going anywhere.
I mean, Tuck got caught up in the trade shit, because Inverness wants to make Niko look more appealing.
” He paused, gave Ethan a meaningful look.
“Can’t imagine who he might be dangling Niko to. Maybe a West Coast team?”
Ethan followed the first part of what Dom was saying, but not the second. “A West Coast team?”
Dom rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Come on, Eth. You know what the big rumor is.”
And oh, duh, of course Ethan did. That same rumor dogged their steps, all three of them, every single offseason, and with Avery’s contract negotiations coming up, it had been even worse this year.
And not improving the situation, the way the Mavericks’ GM kept hounding his brother about making promises.
Making offhand comments to the media about he wasn’t sure if Avery was committed.
Avery had only ever been committed, and Ethan hated that everyone was doubting him now.
“I know what it is,” Ethan bit off. “Doesn’t make it true.”
Dom’s expression softened. “And here I thought Barney was prickly about it.”
“He’s not, I’m not, it’s just . . . we’re good. I mean, I miss him, sure, and in some future, it would be good, right, to all play together. We’ve not made a secret of that.”
“No, you haven’t,” Dom agreed.
“It’s just we’re not even thinking of that now. Avery’s not thinking of that now.”
“Listen, kid, I like you,” Dom said, “but don’t be naive, okay? You know what kind of attention, what kind of media circus Inverness would create if he pulled off the trade of the century and got you all on the same team?”
Ethan had some kind of idea.
“Just saying,” Dom said. “He’d be stupid to not even try. And Niko’s a perfect fucking trade piece, if he keeps going this way. It was the right call for Inverness to keep his options open, and it just sucks that Tuck got caught up in that.”
Ethan didn’t know what to say. He did hate it. At least though, nobody was talking about Hank being the trade bait instead.
“You’re gonna be good, and so is he,” Dom said, reaching over and patting him on the shoulder. “And when he comes back to town, make sure he takes you to that place I suggested. Good wine. Better food. Nice and quiet.”
Dom slid out of the booth then, saving Ethan asking if what he’d meant was romantic, though he was pretty sure he had.
Ethan pulled his phone out and nearly texted Hank that he’d just found out that the restaurant he’d been planning to take them to had been real first-date territory, but at the last moment, he switched over to his text convo with Avery, instead.
do you ever wish people would stop speculating about us playing together?
Avery’s first game of the season wasn’t until tomorrow, so Ethan wasn’t surprised when he texted back almost immediately.
is someone giving you shit about it?
Not surprisingly, Avery hadn’t answered the question. But even when he hadn’t, his answer was kind of obvious.
no, we were just talking about niko being trade bait.
Ethan didn’t give his brother a chance to answer that. tbh that seems like a real downgrade for the mavs.
Meant it, too.
ha. sucking up to me. it’s just—the mavs think I’ll never be able to resist going east. they’d rather take someone now than get nothing when I leave.
Avery had never said when before. He’d only ever said if. Ethan stared at the screen. Wondered if it was just a word that Avery had used, and it meant nothing at all, or if Avery was trying to tell him something specific.
doesn’t mean you like it. I hate how they talk about it. like you aren’t loyal.
NHL’s a business, Eth. go tell Charlie to take you home. you gotta ice those bruises.
And like Avery had sent something very similar to Charlie, he popped up less than a minute later, right in front of Ethan.
“You ready to head home?” Charlie asked him.
“Yeah, sure,” Ethan said. He was still mentally chewing over what Avery had said. What he hadn’t said, too. “Is Max coming with us?”
“He’ll catch a ride later,” Charlie said, and Ethan wasn’t that sad about it, because he couldn’t ask Charlie what he wanted to with Max in the car.
He did text Hank, though, on my way home. call in twenty?
Hank sent back a thumbs-up, and, that settled, Ethan turned to Charlie, who was pulling out of the parking lot.
“Do you think Avery’s going to leave the Mavericks?” he asked.
Charlie jerked, gaze flying to Ethan before returning to the road. “What? Why do you ask?”
“Dom was telling me how Niko wasn’t just trade bait generally, but that he thought Inverness was using him as trade bait for Avery. And when I asked Avery—”
“You asked Avery?” Charlie interrupted.
“Well, it was weird. I’m so tired of everyone just assuming he wants to play here. Maybe he’s happy in LA.”
“Is anyone really happy in LA?” Charlie asked, which didn’t answer the question at all.
“Come on,” Ethan insisted. “Don’t treat me like I’m stupid or a kid. Is it getting serious? Are they really gonna trade him?”
Charlie didn’t say anything for a long moment, which again, his brothers were idiots if they believed that changing or avoiding the subject was not going to tell Ethan everything he needed to know.
“I don’t know,” Charlie finally said, tapping the wheel with impatient fingers as they stopped at a red light.
“The Mavs’ GM keeps pushing him to commit, and he won’t, which he shouldn’t.
He doesn’t want to waste his prime and maybe even his whole career playing for a team that’s not gonna make it. ”
“They could be better this year,” Ethan said optimistically, even though he could already tell that was probably more credit than the Mavs deserved.
“They keep doing this rebuilding shit, over and over again. Getting rid of good pieces and getting a bunch of mediocre crap in return. They did it to Hayes Montgomery, and now they’re probably gonna do it to Avery, too.
” Charlie glanced over at Ethan right as the red light changed the green.
“And if they do, he should come here. He should play with us, Eth. You know it.”
Ethan didn’t know what he’d expected. Sure, they’d always said it. Been saying it since they were kids. Since they were barely old enough to understand the NHL at all.
But he’d never expected it to happen. Even when he’d been drafted to the same team as Charlie, which had only fueled the rumor mill more, he’d still not ever really expected it.
“And you wouldn’t mind that.”
“Are you kidding? Avery’s a generational talent d-man. He’d bring another level to this team.”
Ethan didn’t think it was accidental that Charlie focused entirely on Avery-as-a-hockey-player, not on Avery-as-the-eldest-Barnes.
“Yeah, he would, but it would be a lot, you know? I’d love it.
He should be here, with us, but I don’t know .
. .” He shot Charlie a semi-concerned look.
How would Charlie handle that? He was used to being nearly the sole focus, and the good and bad that came with that.
Max was the captain, sure, and he was popular and a great player, but he wasn’t the lightning flash that Charlie was, and he wouldn’t ever be.
But Avery was a big fucking deal.
And all of them on the same team? Dom hadn’t been lying; it would be a fucking circus.
“Don’t know what?” Charlie prompted.
“Just . . . I kinda hope it doesn’t happen. That Avery stays with the Mavs.” Ethan looked out the window, lights flashing by. “Don’t tell him, okay? He’d probably think I didn’t want him here, and it’s not that—”
“No, I get it,” Charlie said, and there was a soft vulnerability to his voice that hadn’t been there before, which told Ethan he’d been right.
Charlie wasn’t sure he wanted it, either.
Not with everything Avery would bring with him.
“But think of how good it would be to have V not just in our same time zone, but our same city? It’s so good in the summers, and it’d be even better if it was all the time. ”
Ethan couldn’t disagree with that, either. It would be good.
Good, with an undercurrent of complex difficulty, and he kind of hoped that they wouldn’t ever have to deal with any of that.