Page 141 of Brace and Chase

“And?” he asks, impatient.

“I’ll tell you later. We have to tell the team now,” I remind him, and step into the elevator.

“No, tell me now.”

I sigh like it’s a big sacrifice.

“She wants me to get out while I’m at the top and not when I can’t use my head anymore because I’ve taken toomany hits. I also called Max,” I tell him while we’re alone. “Where’s Silas, by the way?”

“Nikolay, what the fuck.” He grabs my arm and pulls me out of the elevator as soon as the doors open, then he shoves me into an empty PT room. “You talked to your brother?” he demands, crossing his arms.

“Yeah,” I whisper, smiling and feeling wonder at the fact that I did.

“How did it go?” He whispers the question though there’s no one around.

“It went well,” I admit and sigh. “He doesn’t have a problem with me having a boyfriend, which is good. And he was interviewing for a legal firm?” I tell him like it’s a question because I still don’t understand that. “I have no clue what’s going on there, but I had to be quick. I did tell him we’d talk soon, though.”

“That’s awesome,” Charlie tells me, and he walks over, opens his arms, and I fall into them. “I’m so proud of you,” he whispers right by my ear.

“Thanks,” I mumble, feeling more of the tension drain away as he holds me. “We really need to hurry, though. The game is in two hours and we have to give the guys time to get back into focus after we tell them, and we still don’t know exactly when they’re posting the fucking pictures.”

“Yeah,” he says in a sigh and steps back. “Let’s go, then.”

Neither of us walks slowly on our way to the lockerroom. It’s like we’ve both decided it’s time, and a tiny part of me—very, very tiny—is actually excited.

I do a quick head count when we walk in, and realize every player in the team is here. It’s a wonder none of them are in the bathroom, or stuffing their faces in our break room or the gym.

“Hey,” I shout to get them to shut up and listen.

With their attention firmly on me, though, I suddenly forget how I wanted to tell them, and well...

“So, Charlie and I are bumping uglies.”

There’s only silence and Charlie drops his head, covers his face with his hands, and groans. Loudly. I take their reaction to mean they don’t know what I’m talking about, so of course I say the next ridiculous thing that I can come up with.

“You know,” I drawl. “I am riding the bone express, I am polishing his pole, we are doing the horizontal tango, we are mattress dancing, we are—” Charlie slaps his hand over my mouth, thank God.

“Okay, that’s enough.” I might be thankful that he shut me up, but I’m not going to tell him that, or let him get away with it. “Ew,” he shouts and pulls his hand back. “Did you seriously just lick me?” he asks, looking offended, though I know he’s not.

“You love it when I lick you,” I say suggestively and wag my eyebrows at him.

“Oh my God,” comes my best friend’s deep voice from the other side of the room. Everyone stops looking at thetrain wreck of Charlie and me and swings around to look at our goalie.

He’s standing there with a huge smile, and just like I did over a year ago when the whole team walked into a visitor’s locker room and we found Drew on Bear’s lap, he throws his arms up and shouts, “Santa’s got a boyfriend!”

“Wait,” Eagle calls out in the midst of all the cheers and laughter. “Is that why you hated him? Has this been going on for a long time?”

“No.” I shake my head once. “Let us all forget I ever hated him.” I raise my hands, palms out to them.

“Are you getting married?” Benny asks, excitement brimming out of him. The locker room explodes before either of us can answer, but I nod slowly.

“Yeah, someday.”

“No, we’re not,” Charlie speaks at the same time.

We both turn to each other at the same time, frowning.

“What do you mean, no?” I demand.

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