CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Later that afternoon, Tanner opened the door to the cute little two-story house in Belmont, Massachusetts, where his family lived, and bellowed, “Mommmmmmm! I’m home!”
“Hi, baby,” Stephanie Forester said happily as she came around the corner. She was dressed in a pretty floral top with jeans and a long sweater over top. Her eyes crinkled as she beamed at him.
Tanner wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight. “Hi! I missed youuu.”
She rocked him back and forth for a moment. “I missed you too, baby.”
He pulled back, but only far enough to kiss her cheeks.
His mom had turned fifty earlier this year, but she didn’t look it.
Her wavy hair was as brown as his—maybe she dyed it, he wasn’t sure—and she still had gorgeous skin.
It was soft under his lips, and she smelled like she always did, sort of sweet and flowery.
He sighed, glad to be home. Literally, life could not get better for him right now.
“I watched every game in the tournament. You did so good!” his mom said when he finally pulled back.
“Aww thanks!” He kicked off his winter boots and hung up his coat. “It was fun.”
“How was practice this morning?” she asked, turning to go into the kitchen.
He trailed behind her, taking a seat at the kitchen island. “Good. It’s nice to be back.”
He shared a couple of stories from this morning—scoring on Jesse and making him swear, Luke accidentally checking one of the call-ups into the boards hard enough he had to get looked over by the trainers, Coach Hoyt threatening to send Tanner back down to Concord over his scuffle with Luke—while she passed over a glass of ice and a can of Coke, then leaned against the counter with her coffee.
“I’m so glad they drafted you,” she said, smiling widely. “You seem so happy to be playing in Boston.”
“It’s the best,” Tanner said with a little wiggle as he cracked open the can and poured the fizzing liquid into the glass. Perfect. Nothing beat a nice crispy Coke. And his mom even had the good ice. “So, how are you doing? How’s work?”
“Not bad.” She told him about her job where she worked as a receptionist for an eye doctor.
“How’s Jeff?” Tanner asked when she was done.
Her smile widened. “Great. He’s sorry he’ll miss you tonight.”
“Travel game?” Tanner asked because his stepdad still coached a Junior hockey team.
“Travel game.”
“I’ll text him,” Tanner said, then winced. “Uhh, I’ll try to remember, anyway.”
“I hear you,” she said with a sigh. “These days it’s like I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached.”
“Yeah, I always feel like that,” he said with a laugh.
“I swear it’s just getting worse the older I get.” She shook her head.
“The guys at the tourney were giving me shit about having ADHD.” He took a sip of Coke.
She chuckled too. “I’ll be honest, I was very surprised when the experts said you didn’t have it. I wondered if they’d gotten something wrong but you seemed so much happier once you were in hockey. So much more settled. We thought you were just a rambunctious kid who needed more physical outlets.”
“Yeah, it helps,” Tanner agreed.
“You had fun playing at the tourney?”
“Hell yeah.” He beamed. “It was awesome, honestly.”
“Yeah?”
“I mean, I know we lost and all that but, like, I feel like I played really well.”
“You did. Jeff was really impressed with your game-tying goal in the semifinal. He was bragging to all of his buddies about it.”
Dude, his stepdad was the fucking best. “And it was a great experience. I got to hang out with a ton of the guys in the Out in the NHL chat, and it was just really cool.”
And then there was Leif.
“By the way, what did you say to Leif Rasmussen after you knocked him out of the semifinal?” his mom asked, because she had the weirdest ability to read his mind. “I’ve been wondering about that.”
“Uhh. Something I shouldn’t have.”
“Baby …” She gave him a look.
“I know. But I apologized!” He took a sip of Coke, the bubbles tickling his nose.
Frowning, she studied his face. “And he accepted it without punching you in the face?”
Tanner grinned. “Eventually.”
“Well, I’m glad you two managed to behave. I’m always glad when you two can get along.”
“Mmm,” Tanner said, taking a sip of his Coke because if he said anything else he’d get himself in trouble.
“Tan …”
“What?” He looked up at his mom and widened his eyes. Not that the innocent look ever worked on her but …
“What did you do?” She set her mug down and crossed her arms.
“Umm, why do you think I did something?” he asked, making another attempt at an innocent look.
She laughed. “Because I know you.”
“Leif and me, we, uh, wekindahookedupatthetourney,” he mumbled against the rim of his glass before he took another sip.
“I’m sorry, did you say that you two hooked up?”
“Mayyybee.” He shifted on the stool, hooking his ankles around the bars so he didn’t start bouncing his knee.
“Tanner Vernon Clayton.” She straightened, letting her arms drop. “Why? You know that didn’t end well last time!”
“It went better this time!” he protested, wincing that he’d been full named.
He knew it was bad when she busted out the Vernon.
He’d been named after her turnip farmer grandpa or something.
He was ‘Tan’ when she was feeling soft and ‘Tanner Vernon Clayton’ when she was tempted to smack him upside the head to knock some sense into him.
His mom shot him a skeptical, unimpressed look. Yeah, she was definitely thinking about smacking him upside the head.
“It did! I mean he stayed in Chicago after the Nordic team got knocked out so we could keep hooking up. Like, what more do you want?”
She frowned, her expression turning thoughtful now. “Oh, this is more than hooking up then.”
“What?” Tanner laughed, confused. “No. What are you talking about? It’s nothing serious.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Of course I am. We’re just … having fun, you know?” But then he thought about the movie night after Leif had lost and when Tanner had come back to the hotel drunk, and the way Leif had packed Tanner’s bag before he left.
Okay, maybe he’d only done that last one because he was weird and uptight. But still. Tanner felt a funny little lurch in his stomach.
“Are you going to keep seeing each other?”
“When our teams play each other, yeah.”
“But not outside of that?”
“No.” They hadn’t really talked about anything else, just left it with what they’d agreed to during the tourney.
“Are you still talking?”
“We text sometimes, yeah.” He shrugged. Not a lot but it had only been a few days. “It doesn’t mean anything though.”
“Are you sure it doesn’t?”
“No, I mean yes. I’m sure. It’s just … fun.” He shrugged. “You know I’m not ready to settle down right now.”
“And that’s fine. I have no problem with you being involved with multiple people as long as you’re being careful—”
“I am!”
“Just remember there’s more than one way to be careful.”
“Yeah, condoms and PrEP. Testing regularly. I know.” They’d always been pretty open about stuff, and she’d wanted to make sure he wasn’t out there doing anything he’d regret later. She was a smart lady.
She gave him a look. “I mean emotionally careful.”
“It’s not emotional!” Tanner said with a laugh. “With Leif and me it’s just … I think we’re finally friends.”
“Who have sex.”
“Who have sex,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna fall in love with the guy.”
“Is that true for both of you?”
He frowned. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
She hesitated. “I think sometimes you don’t realize how you make people feel. How … attached they get at times. Do you remember the friendships you had growing up? When you got busy and distracted and didn’t realize you left your friends feeling ghosted when you moved on to the next thing?”
He winced. “Yeah.”
“Just be careful here. Don’t do that to Leif, however unintentionally.”
“I’ll be careful!”
“Good.”
His phone buzzed on the counter and he glanced at it, wincing again when he saw that it was from Leif. Well shit.
His mom probably couldn’t see his screen from where she was but she must have seen the look on his face because she raised an eyebrow at him.
He sighed and repeated, “I’ll be careful. I swear.”
“And remember how difficult it was when you played together for the Furies after the last time things went sideways between you two.”
“I remember. But we’re not on the same team now,” he pointed out.
“No, but his father is your coach.”
“I mean, sort of. He’s on the coaching staff but he’s a forward and …”
“He’s on the coaching staff,” she repeated. “Do I think Aksel Rasmussen is the kind of guy to let personal feelings get in the way of doing his job? No. I think he’s an upstanding man—”
“And hot.”
She flushed. One time she’d been a bit tipsy and admitted she found him attractive. Jeff had laughed—clearly not worried about his wife’s little crush—but Tanner had been teasing her about it ever since.
His mom had also admitted that Silje Vang was the sort of woman who’d made her question her own sexuality. Apparently, it was genetic to find Norwegian people hot or something.
Now, she cleared his throat. “Aksel Rasmussen is nice looking, yes. And so is Leif. He was blessed by his parents’ genetics.”
“And I got lucky enough to look like you,” he said with his most charming smile.
She smiled back. “Yes, you did. Thankfully.”
Tanner had always been glad he looked like her and not his piece-of-shit father.
All the crap Leif had said last summer had been true.
Christopher Clayton had fucked around and ran off with some younger woman and a bunch of their money, and Tanner and his mom had been stuck trying to deal with all the crap after.
“I’ll be careful,” Tanner said. “Honestly. I don’t want to be him.”
She winced, knowing who he was talking about without him having to say anything more. “You aren’t. You’re already a much better person than he ever was. I’m just reminding you of what’s at stake. That’s all.”
“I know. I—”
The door crashed open and Tanner grinned at the excited shrieks. He rose to his feet and turned in time to see his sisters race down the hall and skid into the kitchen.