29. Tyler
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
tyler
The Fire–Police charity game is technically for charity and realistically for bragging rights, which everybody involved understands and pretends not to.
Eight years of firefighters and cops treating one Saturday a year like legally sanctioned combat has turned the whole thing into its own ecosystem—everybody talks shit, everybody plays harder than they claim they’re going to, and then afterward everybody drinks together like none of it happened.
I come off after a hard shift, breathing hard and grinning a little, pulling one glove off with my teeth while Coop watches me as if I’ve suddenly become interesting.
“You’re awfully chipper today.”
“We’re up.”
“You almost smiled while checking Reyes into the boards.”
“That didn’t happen.”
“Bullshit,” He nudges my shoulder with his elbow. “I saw it with my own two eyes.”
“If your sight’s so good, check the scoreboard,” I say, pointing toward center ice.
The whistle cuts him off before he can keep interrogating me. Mack buries Gallagher into the glass on the next shift hard enough to wake up both benches, strips the puck away, and casually starts the breakout like he didn’t just knock a few years off the poor guy’s life.
Marco watches him skate back by.
“Aggressive.”
Mack shrugs.
“He was in the way.”
“We’re already up three,” Marco points out.
“Then he should play better defense.”
“Your logic concerns me.”
Mack shrugs like Marco’s the unreasonable one.
“Worked, didn’t it?”
Marco turns to me.
“Scoreboard,” I shrug.
Mack drops onto the bench a few seats down, peeling off his gloves while he catches his breath as Coop and Marco hop over the boards on the line change. I glance back toward the stands. A little girl pounds on the glass every time her dad skates past, her mother laughing beside her.
Mack follows my gaze.
“She would’ve liked today.”
He doesn’t ask who.
“Yeah,” he says. “She would’ve.”
The horn sounds for the half before either of us says anything else.
By the time the Zamboni doors roll open, Coop’s already squeezing himself between us.
“We talking about Darcy? What I miss?”
“Nothing,” we say at the same time.
I hear it the second it leaves our mouths. Mack closes his eyes for half a second as Coop’s face lights up.
“So where is she?”
I answer before I think about it.
“Down at the harbor with Bex.”
Ryan’s head lifts first at that.
“You know that why?”
I blink.
“Because she texted us.”
“Group chat,” Mack adds.
“They sent us pictures.”
Trick doesn’t even look up from retaping his stick.
“You mean pics that weren’t nudes?”
Mack’s jaw flexes.
“Watch it.”
Trick shrugs still not looking up.
“Interesting.”
He smooths the tape with his thumb and goes back to work.
“It’s interesting that she’s showing Bex around Boston?” I lean back.
“No.” Coop points. “It’s interesting that you suddenly know her every move.”
“We do not.”
“And?” Mack tips his chin.
“Since when do you keep tabs on your hook ups?” Ryan looks between us with a brow raised.
“We talk,” Mack says too quickly.
“We’ve always talked.” I add, which is probably unhelpful to whatever point we’re trying to make.
Ryan shakes his head.
“No. You’ve always coordinated.”
He starts counting on his fingers.
“’You home?’”
“’You off work yet?”
“Last night was fun. See you around.”
He looks back at me expectantly.
“This is different.”
“Can we get to whatever point you’re trying to make?”
Ryan’s eyes slide to Coop.
“What you two are describing sounds an awful lot like boyfriend behavior.”
“That’s not—”
“Bullshit—
Ryan ignores us both.
“You text.”
“We’ve established this…” Mack looks up from beneath his brow.
“You know where she is.”
“Mostly,” I cross my arms not liking where this is going.
“You know what she’s doing.”
“When she tells us.”
“She’s suddenly included in all of your plans.”
“She’s fun to be around.”
Coop raises his hand.
“I agree with that.”
“Thank you,” I raise both hands.
“You guys share meals.”
“I like to cook, she likes to eat.”
Just answer this then,” Trick interrupts shaking his head. “When was the last time you slept with someone who wasn’t Darcy?”
Mack and I glance at each other sideways.
Coop claps us both on the back.
“Oh, this is beautiful.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
Ryan doesn’t miss a beat.
“No? So you want to?”
“Want to what?”
“Hookup with someone else.”
“That’s not happening,” Mack says firmly.
Coop points triumphantly.
“THANK YOU.”
Ryan nods slowly.
“Right. Tell me again how you two don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Hate to break it to you boys, but he’s right,” Trick flashes a smile. “You’re in a relationship.”
Holy fuck…do we have a girlfriend?
Neither of us says anything. We just stare at each other like two idiots who showed up late to their own party. Marco stands and grabs his helmet as the halftime clock runs down.
“I’ve got one question.”
He waits until we’re both looking at him.
“Would it actually be so bad? If you were dating Darcy?”
I feel the answer in my chest and swallow it back before I say something stupid. Because the problem has never been Darcy. It’s everything that comes after admitting she isn’t temporary anymore.
Coach calls the next line, and I thank Christ that in a second no one’s waiting for the answer anymore.
The third period disappears in a blur after that.
Coop buries the game-winner with less than two minutes left, then spends the final horn celebrating like he’d just won the Stanley Cup instead of a charity game. The cops promise revenge next year. The firefighters promise they’ll need better players first. Business as usual.
The parking lot slowly empties as gear bags get tossed into trucks and everybody lingers around pretending they aren’t completely wiped out. Reyes yells something about beer from across the lot, and I point him toward the Bell where half the teams will inevitably end up before the night’s over.
Ryan’s the first one out, unlocking his blacked-out Ram while his eyes stay glued to his phone.
Marco hangs back near the entrance talking to a couple guys from Engine 12 while Trick comes out a minute later with his bag slung over one shoulder, looking a hell of a lot more relaxed than he did before puck drop.
Coop jogs over still riding the high of scoring the winner.
“That was epic,” he says, grinning. “Tell me somebody got that on video.”
“You tapped in a rebound,” Mack says.
“I tapped in the game-winning goal.”
“Important distinction,” I nod.
“Damn right it is.” He points between us. “You boys coming to celebrate?”
“We’ll catch up,” Mack says.
“Wicked. See you there.”
He heads toward his truck still talking to himself about the goal.
I shake my head, laughing under my breath as Mack and I climb into my Wrangler.
The drive home settles into the kind of silence that only happens after hockey, comfortable enough that neither of us feels any need to fill it while traffic inches us through a string of red lights.
My phone buzzes in the cupholder as we’re stopped at one on Dorchester.
Darcy.
Another picture loads before I even open the text fully—Darcy and Bex stand near the waterfront, both half turned into the wind.
Bex’s hand is frozen halfway through what was clearly a dramatic point, while Darcy’s laughing too hard to look at the camera, hair blowing across her face with the harbor flashing silver behind them.
I stare at it long enough the light almost changes.
She looks happy. And Christ, I love that.
Darcy
Bex says hi. She also says she better get more pancakes before she leaves.
Darcy
Miss you guys.
I read the last line twice before I glance over.
Mack’s already looking at his own phone, elbow against the window, thumb resting still against the screen like he forgot he was holding it there.
Something in my chest pulls tight. Mack exhales quietly through his nose, almost a laugh.
“She misses us,” I say.
“Mm.”
I type a reply and hit send.
The light changes, and I ease the truck forward while Mack looks back down at the photo for another second before locking his phone and setting it in his lap.
I catch myself smiling like an idiot again.
At some point soon, I’m going to have to say the honest thing out loud. Probably to Mack first, then to her. Then we’re all gonna have to figure out what comes after that together.
But for once, I’m not sitting here hoping it slows down.
I just want to get home faster.