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Gavin went even redder, all the way to his collar. If Zach pushed it aside, he thought that flush might go all the way down.

“As long as it’s not a doghouse kind of thing,” Gavin said.

“Would that change your mind?” Zach wondered.

Gavin chuckled. “No? Probably not?”

“You don’t sound too sure about that.” Zach shouldn’t be delighted about this—they were supposed to be professionals, supposed to be keeping their personal relationship away from the rink—but it was hard not to be.

Not when he was so wildly in love it was difficult for him to keep his feelings partitioned away from the work they did here.

“Let’s not test it,” Gavin said, ducking his head, but not enough for Zach to miss his fond smile .

“Sure thing, boss,” Zach joked, enjoying the way the color on Gavin’s cheeks deepened again.

Zach texted Mal to meet him at Koffee Klatch before practice and to bring Elliott.

Funny , Mal texted back, I don’t think I could’ve kept him away.

And that was true. In the last few months, Mal and Elliott had become like a matched set, rarely seen without each other.

Zach pushed down a spike of guilt that he should’ve done more to convince Gavin this wasn’t a good idea.

Maybe it was a good idea. Maybe shaking up things would help break everyone out of this weird scoring malaise they’d been in since the beginning of the year.

He was at the coffee shop five minutes early, but Mal was already sitting there, Elliott at the counter, chatting with someone by the espresso machine.

“Hey,” Mal said, as Zach slid into a chair opposite him. “What’s up?”

He looked a little apprehensive, but then this was Malcolm, and a little apprehensive was pretty par for the course for him.

“I just wanted to give you a heads-up about something Coach is changing,” Zach said gently.

Mal sighed heavily. “We’re trying , I swear to God, and if you’d let us, we’d be at the rink— ”

“No,” Zach interrupted him. “I get that you’re trying, and Coach gets that you are. But sometimes things need to be shook up.”

“Shook up how?”

Zach looked up and Elliott was standing there, a frown on his face and an enormous iced coffee in his hand.

“You’re not drinking that,” Mal said bluntly to Elliott. “You’re gonna be hyper for fucking forever if you do.”

“I need a pick-me-up before practice,” Elliott said blithely, sitting down, kitty corner to Mal and tucking his legs under Mal’s chair.

Zach didn’t look but he was pretty sure Elliott had hooked his ankle around Mal’s.

“Uh, well, shook up like . . .” Zach hesitated again.

“You’re moving me back down to the second line.” Elliott said it bluntly, flatly.

“Actually, no,” Zach said.

“I told you.” Mal elbowed Elliott gently. “You’re too good. Coach B would never do that to you.”

“We are moving Mal to the second power play team,” Zach said, finally getting it out.

Elliott digested this information, not looking particularly put out, but not pleased either. “Permanently or temporarily?”

“Temporarily, of course,” Zach said hurriedly. “And I want to make it clear, of course I support this decision, because Coach B is my coach too, but I don’t necessarily think it’s the right call. You two play the best hockey when you’re together.”

“We know,” Elliott said smugly .

“Yeah, if you know, how come we’re not then?

” Malcolm complained, shooting Elliott a look that Zach couldn’t quite interpret.

There was affection, sure, and the kind of bone-deep certainty you felt when you knew you loved and were loved in return, but it was also tinged with frustration and something else.

Resignation?

“It’s just for the power play, Mal,” Elliott said, reassuring him.

Mal made a face.

Zach wasn’t sure he’d expected this.

“We moved you specifically, Mal, because we think the second power play team needs some additional leadership.”

“Yeah, ’cause Ethan can’t lead his way out of a paper bag,” Elliott groused.

Zach wanted to disagree with that assessment, but if it wasn’t true, they wouldn’t be moving Mal.

“It’s ’cause I’m playing like shit, right?” Mal said heavily.

“Actually you’re not at all. We’re just . . .” Zach cleared his throat. “Trying to spread some of the wealth around. Hope it sparks some goals for everyone.”

“Right,” Mal said morosely.

“You’re not moving him off my line, are you?” Elliott demanded.

“No, no, of course not.” Zach would absolutely go to bat for that, if Gavin ever seriously suggested it.

“You’d better not,” Elliott said.

That was more in line with what Zach had expected from this conversation—Elliott alternately sulking and making demands.

Not Mal looking like someone had just kicked his puppy.

He’d actually expected Malcolm to understand.

“It’s not meant to be a punishment,” Zach said as gently as he thought Mal could stomach, laying a hand on his arm.

“Right,” Mal said. “Hey—I gotta—I gotta go.”

He was up in a flash, and out the door before Zach could even hope to stop him.

Elliott’s stare grew heavier.

“You’re not going after him?” Zach asked.

“I know where he’s going, and I’ll catch up with him,” Elliott said. “You really aren’t punishing him?”

Zach choke-laughed. “No. No . God, we’re just trying to bring some steady leadership to the second team.”

“Move me instead,” Elliott demanded then, and there it was, the demand that Zach had expected. Though not what he’d expected. He’d fully anticipated that Elliott would throw a fit and demand they not do it at all. Not that they move him instead of Malcolm.

“But—” Zach wasn’t sure how to say, with any kind of tact, that Elliott was definitely not the steadying force that Mal was, but he never even got a chance because Elliott interrupted him first.

“I can be that same presence that you want Mal to be,” Elliott insisted stubbornly.

Zach probably looked faintly dubious at this assertion before he blanked his reaction, because Elliott’s jaw jutted out even farther.

“I can ,” he said. “Maybe I’m not scoring, but I will . I know I will, I just need . . .”

“Yeah, you will,” Zach reassured. “Of course you will. ”

“Just move me, okay? Not him.”

“You’d be okay moving to the second power play team?” To some extent, every guy on the team had some kind of ego; Elliott’s was healthier than most, and almost entirely deserved. He couldn’t imagine a situation where Elliott would choose to move.

“Yeah,” Elliott said, without hesitation. “If it was me or him, yeah.”

Zach sighed. “Ell, it’s got to be Malcolm.”

“Seriously?” Elliott made a face, and Zach nodded.

“It’s just, he takes these things so personally. He wouldn’t want anyone to know, but you’re Zachy, so maybe it’s okay. But he’s sensitive, you know? He wants so badly to be good, to live up to his expectations. Not even everyone else’s, but his own.”

Zach understood, maybe better than Elliott imagined he did.

“I get it, I felt that way too, once,” Zach murmured.

But that didn’t stop Elliott. “Even if you didn’t mean it that way, to make it a punishment or make him feel lesser, he’s gonna, and I just . . .” Elliott’s lips clamped together. “I would take that for him, if I could.”

Zach understood that, too. He’d never minded carrying some of Gavin’s burdens, had even invited it more than once. Tried to deal with crap and keep it off Gavin’s plate, so he wouldn’t be bothered.

“I really do get it,” Zach said. “But this is the way it’s gonna have to go.”

Elliott shrugged. “I had to try.”

He’d known, of course, that Elliott and Mal had some serious feelings for each other—it was difficult to miss these days, honestly— but he’d not expected to come face to face with the pure selflessness of their love today.

“You love him,” Zach said.

Elliott gave a single nod. “Yeah, I do.”

“Then help me remind him that he’s a great fucking hockey player, okay?”

“How are you gonna do that?” Elliott wanted to know.

“By giving him a task to accomplish.”

Elliott groaned. “You’re gonna challenge him to get the second power play in line.”

“Yep.”

“You’re gonna create a monster. Even more of a monster,” Elliott warned him.

“Yeah. Well, you’re gonna have your hands full, too. Conrad is moving to your team.”

“Fuck. Well, it could’ve been worse,” Elliott said with resignation.