CHAPTER FORTY
“Well, I think that’s it,” Jesse said with a sigh. He set the last box on the floor in Tanner’s new room.
“Thanks for coming with,” Tanner said with a grin. “That was awesome.”
“Happy to help,” Jesse said, slinging an arm around him in a quick hug before he dropped onto the bed and pulled out his phone.
Once the trade had gone through—faster than any of them had expected—Leif had offered to drive to Boston to help Tanner pack and move but he had a photo shoot for one of his brand deals scheduled for today.
He’d offered to reschedule it but, honestly, Tanner had really wanted to spend his last few days with the boys.
It was the last time they’d all be together the same way.
Still, he’d been a little surprised when Jesse had offered to help him actually move to New York. Connor would’ve come too, but because of his shoulder rehab, he couldn’t drive or lift boxes.
Thankfully, Tanner had gotten rid of a lot of random shit he didn’t really use, and he and Jesse, Mickey, and Rafe had managed to stuff it all into Tanner’s SUV with enough room for Jesse to fit in the passenger seat.
It had been weird leaving his old apartment, but, well, everything was changing.
Mickey and Rafe were taking over Tanner’s lease until they found a new place.
Crawford had officially retired from the NHL.
He was going to be taking over O’Neill’s, and Jesse had thrown an epic going-away party at O’Neill’s last night. The party had been both for Tanner and because Liam was retiring too and would officially be signing the bar over to Crawford in a few weeks.
Some of the speeches at the party had made Tanner cry, but Jesse had done what he did best and it wasn’t long before everyone was dancing, singing, and drinking.
The perfect way to end Tanner’s career in Boston.
The drive down to New York today had been a blast with Jesse riding shotgun. They had the tunes cranked, some top-notch snacks to munch on, and had made good time getting into Manhattan.
Although Tanner was still confused by why Connor had made Jesse promise not to get detained at the border. He was bad at knowing where shit was on a map—half the time he thought Boston was south of New York—but even he knew they hadn’t gone anywhere near the Canadian border today.
Jesse tugged at Tanner’s shirt, and he collapsed onto the bed too, squirming until he could put his head on Jesse’s shoulder. They were both gross and sweaty, but it was nice anyway.
“Well, this is a pretty sweet place,” Jesse said. It sounded like he was grinning. “You happy?”
“Yeah.” Tanner beamed back. “Like … stupid happy. I feel good about all of it. The trade. Moving in with Leif. I’m gonna miss you guys, but this feels like the right choice, you know?
“Good,” Jesse said, patting his thigh. “Hey, I’m gonna let Connor know I’ll stick around for another hour or so to help you finish unpacking, then head for the train station after.”
“Sounds good.”
Jesse grabbed his phone and stood, walking out of the room.
Tanner sighed happily and sprawled out with a contented sigh, even though he knew it was dangerous to get horizontal. He could totally end up stuck here. Oh well, Jesse would get him moving when he came back.
Tanner was pretty psyched to get his shit set up.
Leif’s Tribeca condo was fucking gorgeous, and Leif had given him a whole room to himself. They would sleep in the main bedroom together, but Tanner could do whatever he wanted with the second one.
He already had a comfy new bed that he was getting sweat all over—oops—and he was gonna set up a gaming area in here. It’d be nice to have a place to do his own thing when Leif needed peace and quiet.
“You don’t mind?” Tanner had asked, because it meant Leif had to move his desk into the open plan living/dining/kitchen area.
“If it means the mess stays in here and isn’t spread out everywhere else? Yes,” Leif had said, dropping a kiss on his lips.
Which … fair. It was a relief for Tanner to know he wasn’t going to feel like he had to be perfectly neat and tidy everywhere. And this was way less stressful for Leif. Win-win.
“Okay,” Jesse said, coming back in. “You’ve got me for another hour before I head out.”
“Okay,” Tanner said, holding out his hand so Jesse would drag him to his feet. “Let’s get this shit done.”
It definitely wasn’t done by the time Jesse needed to leave to catch his train, but Tanner hugged him hard anyway. “Gonna miss you,” he admitted, surprised by how watery eyed he was getting.
“Gonna miss you too. But I have a good feeling about your future in New York,” Jesse said.
Tanner smiled. “Me too.”
Half an hour later, Tanner had his head stuffed in the media console, trying to untangle the mess of cords for his gaming system.
While he’d packed in Boston, he’d started listening to a couple of Rockets podcasts, trying to get a feel for what the vibes around the team were. The one he liked best was called Liftoff, which was hosted by a guy who went by Mac and another guy named Richie Robles.
Richie was an old, crusty dude who had never played hockey but had worked as a scout and Mac was a former college hockey player named Beauregard Major McCann III. It was literally the most hilarious name Tanner could imagine, and he didn’t blame the guy for going by Mac instead.
It would’ve been better if Rich’s name had something to do with cheese though, because a mac and cheese podcast would’ve rocked. That had sent Tanner down a rabbit hole—turned out there were several podcasts with that name already—but he was pretty into Liftoff so far.
And sure, Leif had warned him that it was a bad idea to listen to one about his own team and that he’d probably hear something he didn’t like about himself. But so far, the guys seemed pretty into the trade.
They’d called him ‘worth the price’, which was great.
Mac suuure fucking seemed to hate Nicky Calhoun though, which Tanner found kinda funny.
Rich might be super old and crusty, but Mac was hot for a dude in his early forties, with thick dark hair and sharp, intense features. But today, he was on a fucking tear about Nicky to his co-host.
Tanner was laughing about one comment when his phone buzzed.
He nearly brained himself on the underside of the media console as he shimmied out and grabbed the phone where he’d left it on the floor. Tanner paused the podcast so he could read the text. Itwasn’t from Leif like he’d expected, but a message from Nicky.
Hey, I’m near your building. Wanted to drop off a welcome to New York/moving gift. You around?
Tanner sent a thumbs-up emoji. Meet u there or u wanna cum up?
I can come up. Can you call the desk to okay it?
After Tanner called down, he stood, straightened his sweaty clothes, and glanced in a mirror. Yeah, his hair was a fucking wreck. He dug one of the brand-new Rockets caps from the box the media department had sent over and jammed it over the mess.
Whatever, he’d take a shower later anyway. With Leif, if he could talk him into it.
Tanner dicked around on his phone until Nicky got there and when he opened the door, Nicky was holding a crate so big it blocked his face.
“Dude,” Tanner said, opening the door.
“I might have gone a little bit overboard,” Nicky said, carrying the crate in and setting it on the counter with a thump. “But I am really excited to have you on the team.”
“I’m excited to be here!”
“You’re looking good by the way,” Nicky said.
Tanner winked. “Hell yeah I am.”
Nicky laughed. “I meant the hat, but sure.”
“So can I open it or do I need to wait for Leif?” Tanner asked, already tugging at the ribbon that tied the crinkly, clear plastic shut.
“You can open it. It’s for you.”
Tanner inspected what was in the crate. Some of it was boring stuff like olive oil and sea salt and vanilla and shit. Leif was trying to teach him to cook but Tanner mostly liked distracting him, which usually ended up with Tanner on his knees and Leif’s cock in his mouth. So that part was fun.
The chopping and stirring bit wasn’t as exciting.
“I wasn’t sure what to get you,” Nicky said. “I mean I don’t know what you like, or what your diet is like, so I went for kind of a broad approach with New York-based small batch artisan stuff.”
“No, this is great,” Tanner said. “Leif will be super into the cooking stuff, and I’m hyped for the snacks. These cookies look great.”
There was a bag of round cookies that were iced half white, half black.
“A New York classic,” Nicky said. “And kosher deli pickles, of course.”
“Crawford would love these,” Tanner said, inspecting the jar. “He has a pickle and peanut butter sandwich before every game.”
Nicky made a face. “I knew something was wrong with that guy.”
Tanner laughed and reached for his phone to take a picture of the crate to send to Leif. Also, he was going to send one to Connor and ask him why he’d never gotten a welcome basket from him. He needed to level the fuck up. “Seriously, thank you. This is awesome.”
“I mean it, we’re excited to have you here.”
“I am too,” Tanner said, typing out the message to Connor, then sending another to Leif. “We’re doing the tour of the practice facility tomorrow, yeah?”
“Yes,” Nicky said. “It’ll be pretty empty but you can get a feel for the space at least.”
“Awesome.”
“And we—meaning Leif, Ian, and I—would love your help coming up with ideas for team bonding.”
“Sure,” Tanner said, trying to focus on the text message and Nicky at the same time.
Seriously, the ADHD testing really needed to happen soon. He and Leif both had appointments scheduled but Tanner’s wasn’t until later in the summer.
“Um, I have a few ideas about bonding. Let me pull them up. One sec.” He was closing out of his messages and switching to his notes app when Mac’s voice filled the air.
“I’m sorry, but after that playoff performance, do we really think that Nicky Calhoun is the best choice for captain?”
Tanner winced. “Uhh, shit. Um, sorry. Hang on.”
“Who else do they have?” Rich asked.
“Leif Rasmussen! He’s proven that he’s perfectly capable of—”
“How has he proven that any more than Calhoun has?”