Page 106 of Love Me Boldly

“What’s your agent saying?” Graham asked. “Is he looking? Or talking to coaches?”

“Yeah.” Tanner’s gaze shifted back and forth, his nerves catching up. Both thumbs started thumping on the table, and then he looked back. “Might be here.”

He cleared his throat and quickly said, “But I’m not, you know…I’ll be happy wherever, I just want my chance. So yeah…maybe the Carolina Ice Kings.”

“No shit?!” Eli said. “That’s incredible. That’d be, holy cow. That’d be awesome, Tan.”

“Don’t jinx it,” he mumbled. “I didn’t want to say anything, but I met with the coach yesterday. Kind of why I showed up here anyway after being told to stay away.”

“Ice Kings.” Graham sighed and shoved back his hair. “We won’t jinx it, but damn…that’d be awesome. Does that mean you can’t tell us who’s leaving?”

“I don’t even know if someone is. It’s all speculation, and it could be anyone, but there are a few right-wingers who are getting older. Team’s solid, though.”

“They get close every year,” Eli said.

I had no idea what that meant until Graham spoke up. “They’d be lucky to have you. You’d be sure to take them all the way to the finals next year.” He turned to me. “The Ice Kings lost in the last series before making it to play for the Stanley Cup.”

“So they’re good.”

“Yeah, they’re good.”

“It’d be a dream.” Tanner groaned and fell back into the booth. Rubbing his hands up and down his face, he said, “This sucks. The waiting. I need to get drunk off my ass and sleep for days, and I also need to run five miles. I don’t think my heart can take it.”

“Don’t go into cardiac arrest around me,” Eli said and popped a tater tot into his mouth. “I’m off duty.”

Graham and I laughed. Tanner scowled at him.

It was just like old times, minus Tracey and the cheap beer Tanner used to drink.

“Where is Jonah?” Graham asked. “Isn’t he usually here this time of day.”

“Yeah, but our friend Ashley called. She’s the one that has the foster kids.” I’d told him about her the other day when I told him about Trina and Cole. “Her older daughters offered to take Jonah to the pool, so they’re all swimming.”

“Pool?” Tanner sat up straight. “I could swim some laps, get rid of all this nervous energy.”

“It’s in Ashley and Robbie’s backyard, so no.”

He pouted and chugged his sweet tea, making a lip-smacking sound. “What am I going to do?”

“I have an idea for tomorrow,” I said. “If you’re still around.”

“I’ll probably be in the morgue after this panic attack I’m about to have.”

Eli chuckled and shoved a tater tot into Tanner’s mouth. He chewed it and stole a handful off Eli’s plate.

“What’s tomorrow?” Graham played with my hair as he asked. “After skating, anyway.”

“My friend Cole invited us over to their house. He’s the cop.”

“Got it. Can the hooligans come?” He gestured to Eli and Tanner.

“Count me out,” Eli said. “I start another round of twelves tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there,” Tanner said. “Not like I have anything else to do except wait.”

“That sounded nice, Tan. Thanks.” Graham must have kicked him because Tanner jumped in the table and cussed like a sailor.

“I just meant waiting sucks,” he muttered, bending close to the table and probably rubbing his shin.

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