Page 57 of Man Advantage

One thing became apparent the instant he was on the screen—the smile he’d put on during his call with the boys had been doing alotof heavy lifting. Now that he wasn’t trying to pretend everything was okay, the fatigue really came through.

“Hey,” I said. “I wanted to ask without the boys around—are you okay?”

Trev sighed and wiped a hand over his face, letting even more exhaustion come through. “Yeah. It was just a rough fucking night.”

“So I noticed.”

He grunted. “Bet Zach and Zane noticed too.”

I acknowledged that with a subtle nod but added, “They’re absolutely sure your next game will be better, though.”

His smile was halfhearted at best. “Glad they still have faith in me.”

“Of course they do.” I paused. “What’s going on, though? Just an off night, or…?”

Trev stared at something off-camera for a moment. Then he deflated a little more. “What’s going on is that playing on the same team as my ex’s new boyfriend fucking sucks.” Trev sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “And the fact that he’s a dick about it…” He trailed off, waving his hand. “I don’t know what to do.”

I winced. “That really sucks. Doesn’t anyone do anything?”

He gestured dismissively. “My teammates got on his ass about it. I’m sure he’ll cut back a little around other people, but any chance he gets, he smirks at me and just gives me these looks…” Trev rolled his eyes and growled something the phone didn’t pick up. “I’m so sick of his bullshit.”

“What about your coaches, though? I’m surprised they let that kind of crap slide.”

Trev pursed his lips. “I think they know. They definitely know I’m… off my game. But I’m not sure I actually want to bring it up to them.”

“Why not? Because of everything you said about it affecting other queer players?”

“That, and also because at the end of the day, if they want to separate us…” His shoulders slumped. “If they want to separate us, they’ll have a much easier time unloading me than him.”

I stared at him. “What? But… I mean, you’re on the second line and your stats are way better. Why would they keep him?”

Trev exhaled as if this whole line of conversation exhausted him. “The short version is that I signed my extension while we were low on cap space. In theory, I could probably be pulling another million, maybe even a million and a half every year.”

I whistled. “Damn.”

“Eh.” He shrugged as if $1.5 million wasn’t that big of a deal. “Then Chats came onboard. The thing is, we’d just lost one of our most expensive players to free agency and the second most expensive had retired. Our GM had cap space burning a hole in his pocket, and that was when there were still some concerns that Martin wouldn’t come back after his hip surgery.” He blew out a breath and rolled his eyes. “So instead of chasing down some top-notch players or signing players he could use for trades, he signed Chats forwaymore than he’s worth.”

“Ooh, so it was like a perfect storm.”

“Yep. An injured captain, a stupid GM, and a cocky bottom six forward who was happy to relieve the team of valuable cap space.”

“Your GM sounds like a dumbass.”

“He was. Oh God, he was. Fortunately, they fired him last season.” Trev rolled his eyes. “Shame they didn’t drop the axe before he traded a future Hall-of-Fame goalie, let a generational talent defenseman walk during free agency, and signed Chats to a six-year deal.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

“Right?” Trev scratched the back of his head, then let his hand fall into his lap. “So if shit really hits the fan and they want to separate us, it’s going to be a lot easier to offload the cheap top six forward with a year left on his contract than the overpriced bottom six with four years left.”

“That sounds…” I made a face. “Would they really do that? I mean, can’t they like fire him or something?”

“They can terminate his contract for cause, but I don’t think they’d go that far with this. Not unless it gets really out of hand and starts disrupting the locker room.”

I inclined my head. “It isn’t doing that already?”

He made a noncommittal noise. “We’re a couple of grown-ass adults. I doubt the club is interested in policing something like this. They’re probably just quietly hoping we’ll unfuck it ourselves without anyone having to intervene.”

“Do you think that’s doable?”

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