Tuck shrugs, casual and bordering on careless. “Of course.”
It’s a solid image, one I suspect is absolute bullshit.
I stay quiet while he leads us to a private elevator then down wide, concrete-walled hallways, and I admit—if only to myself—that I’m nervous when we stop in front of two big red doors. It’s obviously the locker room.
Tucker pushes them open like he’s done it a million times, and more questions start piling up about his role in the organization, but there’s no time for any of that.
In the second between Tucker walking in and Lex following him my fingers twitch with the impulse to reach for Lex’s hand, but I curl them into a fist instead and look straight ahead, forcing my feet to move.
I don’t register the faces, I can’t, because all my focus is on acting like I’m really looking at the men who cheer for Lex when Tuck introduces hi?—
What?
There’s a rushing sound in my ears as it dawns on me that this... whole thing might not be something I need to disassociate from.
They’re cheering for him.
Some throw plastic bottles in the air, others wave towels over their heads, but they’re all smiling as they look at Lex.
He is . . . well, processing. Just like me.
But the edges of his lips are turned up just a little as his cheeks flush with that ridiculously adorable blush. It seriously doesn’t belong on a six-foot-five mountain of a man, but he pulls it off.
Somehow.
I didn’t realize Tuck had wandered off until he’s walking back with a big smile and a Demons sweater bunched up in his hand. He offers it to Lex, and I can tell he’s warring with himself over it, but he takes it, holds it up to see the horned head on the chest, and the sixty-six on the shoulders.
I wonder briefly why he doesn’t turn it around, why he doesn’t spare the last name on the back even a second, but as his smile grows and his shoulders drop almost imperceptibly, I realize it probably matters less to him.
When he lowers it and looks around, there’s a calmness in his eyes. “Can’t wait to get out on the ice with you,” he tells the room at large.
The answering cheers are somehow louder than before.
“Come on.” Tucker gestures at the fabric with a nod. “Try it on and let me take some pictures.”
Tuck puts him in front of the locker that already has “Jankowski 66” over it, and then two guys join him. They’re the alternate and the captain, which I can tell from the letters patched onto their jerseys, and then the whole team joins in, forcing me and Tucker to step back a few feet.
No one pays me any mind, but the few glances I get are friendly, and that’s enough for now. Especially because nothing is as interesting as watching Lex.
He has the same smile on for the whole team photo, but I still see the moment the reality of it all hits him.
He doesn’t move, his face doesn’t even shift, but his eyes start to shine with so much emotion that I feel my own dampen just from watching it.
I know the last thing he wants is to let any of them see him cry—which is what’s going to happen in about a minute—so I nudge Tucker after he’s taken the fifth shot, and try to convey with only my eyes that we need to be done with this.
He understands.
“All right, finish getting ready!”
“We’ll show off for you,” I hear one guy say, and when I turn to look, I see it’s the goalie and he’s clapping Lex on the shoulder. It seems like a familiar pat, at least more familiar than the ones he gets from the rest of the guys as he makes his way toward me and then out of the room.
Tucker mumbles something about posting and tells us he’ll see us Saturday, and I’m left to decide if I should distract Lex or find some secluded room where he can let go.
He’s looking around, eyes jumping from one spot to the next nervously as he bites down hard on his bottom lip, so I go with my instinct and grab his hand, pulling him toward the first door to the right. It’s marked as a PT room, and when I open it I sigh at how blessedly empty it is.
“Eli, what?—”
“Just sit, Lex.” I pull on his hand, and nudge him gently toward what I guess is an exam table. “We’ve got time before the game starts, and it’s only me here.”
