Page 97 of Unrivaled

He could never complain about any of this to his family, of course. They’d think he’d gotten soft.

He had a shelf of snowflakes on his eyebrows when he let himself back in the house. Gru shook himself vigorously, flinging snow and hair around the mudroom. Then he pranced to his bowl in anticipation of the next best part of his day.

“Yeah, yeah,” Max grumbled as he tried to toe off his boots without falling over. “Give me a minute. I’m coming.”

He was dumping the last scoop of food into Gru’s dish when he heard a faint ringing from the mudroom. He’d left his phone in his coat pocket. “Shit.”

It took so long to dig out past the crumpled Kleenex and roll of dog poop bags that he thought for sure the call would go to voicemail. Then his fingers were too wet to swipe Accept and he had to wipe them on his shirt three times.

Finally he picked up. “Hello?”

“Max. Thank God I caught you. I’ve been trying to reach you all morning.”

Fuck. He recognized that voice. “Hey. Sorry, I was walking Gru and it’s practically a blizzard out there. Probably couldn’t hear my phone over the wind.”

He already knew, when his agent didn’t acknowledge what he’d said, that he wouldn’t like what came next. “Listen, Max… there’s no easy way to say this.”

He closed his eyes and swallowed. “Where are they sending me?”

She released a long breath. “Miami.”

His throat grew thick with emotion. “Okay. I’m guessing they don’t want me to go in to practice this morning.” He wasn’t part of the Monsters organization anymore. No last chance to say goodbye, not when it meant he might see some new set play the team had drawn up—information he could pass on to his new team.

“The equipment manager’s going to ship your gear down.”

Well. That was that.

Gru must’ve sensed something was wrong, because he snuffled into the mudroom and pushed his nose under Max’s chin. Automatically, Max wound his fingers into the thick fur at his neck. “Have you heard from Florida? When’s my flight?”

“Still waiting to hear back from their front office. I got the feeling they’re making multiple last-minute deals and haven’t gotten all the details sorted out yet. I’ll call you as soon as I know more.”

Numbly, Max thanked her and hung up.

Gru whined and licked his chin.

“Okay,” Max said after a fortifying breath. “First things first, right?” And Gru had to be first, because Gru was a dog and couldn’t look after himself. “Let’s get your harness back on, buddy.”

He didn’t want to ask for this favor, but he’d probably be living in a hotel for the foreseeable future. The hotel might not be pet-friendly, and it wouldn’t be fair to Gru. He’d be better off with Hedgie and El.

“Florida, eh?” he muttered, half to himself and half to Gru, as he pushed open the door into the snow. “Figures.”

Getting sent away from the snow, fine. But couldn’t he have ended up at a team closer to Grady? They’d have the same weather and still be a six-hour flight apart, plus the same time difference.

Grady was probably still in bed right now, with no idea Max’s life had gotten turned upside-down. He kept his phone on Do Not Disturb at night, so Max couldn’t even call him and vent.

He didn’t realize he’d made it all the way to Hedgie and El’s front door until Gru barked, expecting to be let in. Belatedly, Max rang the doorbell.

Several minutes later, Hedgie answered it, bleary-eyed, dressed in pajama pants and with his hair sticking straight up on one side. He must have been asleep. “’M I late?” he asked, blinking through a yawn.

Then he noticed Gru, and suddenly his eyes opened all the way.

Max held out the leash and tried to keep it together. “I need a big favor….”

GRADY WENTto practice in a terrible mood.

He felt awful for Max. A trade was hard enough when you were expecting it. But a trade that blindsided you when—at least apart from the temporary coaching situation—you were happy with your team? When you were one of the team’s core players? When you’d expected to wear the same jersey your whole life?

He called on his way to the rink for morning skate, in the hopes that maybe talking to Grady would help. Grady didn’t know how, but Max had a way of making him feel better despite his own determination to be a grumpy asshole. Grady could at least try to return the favor.

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