Page 118 of Brace and Chase

“I said. Fuck. Off. Before I come out there. Leave Lou alone,” I shout again.

“Wh-what?” dickwad stutters and rears back. “You know Lou?” he demands, like he has any right to demand any fucking thing from me.

“That’s none of your business, asshole.”

For some reason my words seem to give him the impression that he has the upper hand here. He stands taller, pulls his shoulders back, and tilts up his chin like an asshole.

“It is my business since he’s my boyfriend.”

I scoff at the same time Lou screams, “No, I’m not. I’m not your anything, dickwad.” I smile a little at how in sync we are, and enjoy very much when I see Finn standing behind the asshole.

“Definitely not his boyfriend,” Finn says, with Beau behind him looking as angry as I feel.

The stupid fuck takes a step toward Finn, and I tense my legs in case I really do need to get over there. No one’s touching a hair on Finn’s head. Not on my watch.

But my intervention seems to be unnecessary because two security guards appear behind the twins and take the asshole away.

I smile at Lou when he looks at me, still a bit pale but less scared than he looked before, and I wink for good measure then get back to my warmup rituals.

The game is fun,not easy, but the Chicago players definitely have some healthy respect for Charlie, enough that they don’t block him as hard so Spiderman and Milkman both get assists from him and we win the game.

No one bats an eye when both of us say our goodbyes and let them know we’ll see them the day after tomorrow.

They’ve all come to expect and accept without question that we spend every second together. That’s definitely made the whole hiding thing easier.

Even if Bear’s looks have been getting a little toosearching since the fight in LA. Even if I have maybe been avoiding spending time alone with him. It hasn’t been that hard.

Charlie and I go to the visiting team’s family room, which is tiny in every arena since it rarely gets used, and we find Charlie’s brothers and Lou there.

I’m taken off guard when Finn launches himself at me as soon as I walk through the door. I look around to see Lou’s amused smirk and then Charlie’s as well.

“Thank you,” is all Finn tells me.

I don’t quite know what to say or how to react but Lou buys me some time.

“Aww,” he croons. Then he seems to get himself under control. “Yes, Santa. Thank you for your intervention.” I nod at him and make sure he’s okay now, not scared or distressed in any way. When I’m satisfied, I turn to Charlie and tell him with a raised eyebrow that I’m ready to head home.

“Yes,” he answers my silent plea. “Should we go?” he asks the rest of the guys. “We have a flight tomorrow night and I want to spend as much time as possible at home.”

“You can stay at my place,” Beau shouts kind of desperately, but since Charlie has kept me up to date with his situation, I don’t blame him. Charlie nods at him, I shrug, and Finn claps his hands.

“Let’s hit the road, then.”

It takes us a bit over an hour to get to the town—Crushville—and I manage not to let my thoughts on thetown’s name come out when we pass the sign welcoming us. No need to offend anyone before we even get there.

“We’re going to my mom’s place first,” Charlie tells me, speaking softly in the back of the car. Poor Lou’s squished between us, but he’ll soon get to stretch his legs.

Speaking of Lou... He’s looking out the windshield with a dreamy expression, and even sighs wistfully when we drive down what Charlie tells me is Main Street. Looks like a normal street to me, but okay.

I guess it does have a lot of businesses on the sidewalks, all lit up, and it looks clean and well taken care of.

That’s nice.

I see a bar advertising that they make their own vodka, andthatgets my attention. But after one turn and two tiny blocks, Beau’s parking the car in the driveway of an idyllic looking home.

Charlie told me how he bought his mom the house with his first paycheck from the NHL, and I see now that they chose the warmest looking one.

If I weren’t standing in front of it and seeing it with my own two eyes, I’d think it was fake, made for a movie, or something someone imagined.

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