Page 123 of The Head Game

When Nico finally pulled away, his eyes were glowing.

Despite the pallor of his face and his shorn head and the pinkish-red scar across his scalp, he looked alive and August was once again grateful Nico had survived this.

He thought how close Nico had come to losing everything, even his life, and he held him a little tighter.

They were both facing uncertain futures and August was suddenly and fiercely glad that he and Nico were doing it together.

CHAPTER TWENTY

As August took a seat at the dining room table in front of Nico’s laptop and the meeting window loaded, fear tangled in his stomach until it felt like a Gordian knot.

“You’ve got this,” Nico said, patting his thigh. He sat to August’s left. He had a ring-shaped light set up behind the laptop—apparently, he used it for “content creation”—a phrase guaranteed to make August roll his eyes.

He’d always thought anyone who took social media seriously needed their … well, their head examined.

Jules had insisted it was a lot more complicated than August realized and Skylar had definitely shown him there was more to the people who did that for a career than August could have imagined.

This morning, Nico had pointed out that good lighting would highlight his scar and remind the person August was meeting with what they’d both gone through. He also suggested August flash the ring on his finger as much as possible by touching his face.

So maybe August was wrong.

Certainly Nico was far better at this than he would be and right now, August needed all of the help he could get.

When the video connected, a middle-aged man in a black polo appeared on the screen. He wore a little Hockey Is For Everyone button.

He gave them a small smile. “Hi, August. I’m Jon Reid. I’m your NHLOA rep.”

“Hi,” August croaked. He cleared his throat. “Nice to meet you.”

Jon glanced over at Nico with one eyebrow lifted and August shook his head to clear it. “I hope you don’t mind if he sits in but this is, uh, Nico Arents. My—my fiancé.”

Nico had been so right, August realized.

With the ring on his finger and the actual proposal done, it didn’t feel like a lie for August to say anymore.

It wasn’t real in the sense they were going to wind up married at the end of this, but Nico had proposed and August had said yes and the truth of that made it real enough August didn’t feel twisted up inside by calling him his fiancé.

Jon smiled and made a note on the pad of paper in front of him. “It’s very nice to meet you, Nico. I’m sorry to hear about your brain tumor. That’s a hell of a thing to go through.”

Nico gave him a tired smile. “Yeah, it’s not the most fun I’ve ever had, that’s for sure.”

“Well, I wish you the best on your recovery.”

“Thanks.” Nico leaned in, letting his shoulder press against August’s. “I’m lucky to have August here. I don’t know what I would have done without him. He’s been my rock.”

They made small talk for a little while longer before Jon cleared his throat. “August, I’m not going to lie. This is a very tough situation for you. The league is, frankly, pissed about this. Anything that brings the impartiality of officials into question is something they’re very adamant about avoiding. They will come down on you and they will come down hard.”

August swallowed and reached up to scratch his face. “I know.”

“I’m not saying this because I want to scare you but I want you to realize the gravity of the situation.”

August nodded. “I’m aware.”

“I want to do the best job I can advocating for you but I’m going to need some information from both of you.”

“Sure. Whatever you need,” Nico said easily.

“Were you involved during the previous season?”

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