Page 16 of Forbidden Hockey

I fix the chain around my neck and spin my hat so that it faces forward. “You got this,” I tell the guy in the mirror.

Hunter’s not home from work yet, so I start on dinner, keeping my hands busy. Fuck. I don’t need to be this nervousabout it. The worst he can say is no, but I guess this time it’s real important he doesn’t say no.

The door opens. His boots trample over the threshold, kicking off the dirt.

“Oh, you are home,” he says. “I know I told you to mow the lawn by today, and you kept saying, ‘I’ll do it by Friday, Hunter’. Guess what, it’s Friday, lawn’s as long as river reeds.”

Shit. I forgot about that. He’s also exaggerating, but I hear what he’s saying. “I’ll do it right now,” I tell him. I’ll have to abandon dinner, but everything’s chopped and ready to go.

“You will.”

I wash my hands of the chicken I was massacring. “Before I get started on that,” I take a breath, “I need to ask you something.”

He kicks off his boots, arching a brow into his forehead. “Something bad happen?”

“Not bad. Dash is moving out of his dad’s place and into the Alderchucks’. They have a place in Kitsilano with extra bedrooms.”

Hunter joins me in the kitchen and leans against the counter. He usually cleans up a little before he leaves work, but he’s still wearing the clothes he’s sweated in all day. I’m delaying his shower, and I know how much he loves his shower, but he gives me his full attention.

“What’s an Alderchuck?”

I laugh. “You know them. You’ve met them.”

“I’ve met them, but I don’t know them.”

“Anyway, Dash is moving in with them, and so I was thinking I would too … if you’re okay with it,” I tack on. In my heroic move to be an adult about this, I didn’t think about the fact that it would leave Hunter by himself. But now I’m thinking about it. Am I an asshole for leaving him?

He crosses his arms over his chest. “Sorry, I don’t think I follow.”

I lose my hat, swiping it off my head, running my free hand through my short hair. God, he’s intimidating when that hard stare pins me in place, his coiled muscles restrained as if they’re prepped for danger.

“I don’t think Dash is ready for this, but he says he and his dad are about ready to kill each other in such a small space. Travis was the one who arranged the room with Stacey and Casey. I thought I’d … help … I guess.” I’m losing my nerve, courage wavering, ready to say we should forget the whole thing.

“Are you saying you don’t trust Travis’s ability to gauge his own son’s wellness?”

Well, when he puts it like that …

“No. I-I think that they’re in a tough situation and he’s choosing the lesser of two evils.” There, that’s good. I think. That’s a good point, right?

“There’s gotta be more to it,” Hunter says. “With Dash’s new hockey salary and what Travis pulls in from the restaurant, I bet they could rent a place together. Travis is attempting to give his son independence in a monitored sort of environment. I mean, it’s smart—Dash will be gone for months. He wants to see that he’ll be okay before he goes.”

I huff. Yeah, okay. That sounds way more like Travis, and now I just feel like a young idiot. This went fucking badly. I duck my head. “Yeah, well, I’ll get to that lawn now.”

“Wait,” Hunter says. “I think it’s a good idea.”

We’re not talking about Dash anymore, are we? “You do?”

“You’re gonna be gone whether I like it or not—and I don’t like it, for the record. But …” He sighs. Then he nods. “Look, it’s not that I don’t have every faith that you’ll be fine on your own, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it for peace of mind.”

I smile. “Because you’re an overprotective older brother. Man, your real kids are gonna be totally annoyed when you have ‘em someday.”

“You are my real kid, Dirk.” He leans toward me, placing a construction-worn hand on my shoulder. “Now go mow the goddamn lawn.”

I move my ass, sliding into my sneakers. “Wait, was that a yes?”

“It’s an ‘I’m gonna talk to Stacey Alderchuck tomorrow’.”

“Ha! I knew you knew the Alderchucks, at least a little bit.” Stacey’s the more responsible one, and he knows it, which is why he didn’t say he’d talk to Casey, or even both of them.