Hayden smiled sheepishly. “It was fucking terrifying.”
Shane closed the door behind him. “You need to stop watching those.”
“I know.” He threw himself onto Shane’s bed, making himself at home. “What were you up to?”
“Trying to sleep.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“It’s cool,” Shane said, sitting on the bed beside him. “I wasn’t too successful.”
“Fucking time zones.”
“Yep.”
“Wanna watch something?” Hayden asked.
“What? Like, one of theSawmovies?”
“No! The opposite of that.” Hayden grabbed the remote off the nightstand. “I’ll find something.”
He landed on a competition reality show about strangers hooking up in some tropical location, which basicallywasa horror movie as far as Shane was concerned. He kept his thoughts to himself, though, and let his friend be comforted by toned young women in bikinis.
“It would be weird to go on one of these shows,” Hayden said.
“Mm,” Shane agreed.
“I’d probably be good at it, though. I’ve got a good body, I’m a nice guy. I know I’m not, like, smart, but compared to these dudes I’m a road scholar.”
“Rhodes,” Shane said.
“Yeah. And I’m rich, so. That would be an edge.”
Shane sat up from where he’d been lying back against the pillows. “Sorry. In this scenario, you would be a contestant on this trashy reality show, but also you would still be an NHL player?”
Hayden shrugged. “I guess.”
“You would spend a month of your life, or however long it takes to film this show, living in this gross beach house and trying to win ten thousand dollars when you have an NHL salary and, like, barely any vacation time?”
Hayden frowned at him. “You’re overthinking this, buddy. Obviously I’m not going on a show like this because I’m married to the best woman in the world and we have...four beautiful children.”
Shane grinned. “Did you hesitate before you said four?”
“No!”
“Did you actually lose track of how many kids you have?”
Hayden lightly punched Shane’s thigh. “Just wait until you’re a dad. You’ll see.”
They watched in silence until the next commercial break, then Shane said, “You think I’ll be a dad someday?”
Hayden’s eyebrows pinched together. “Sure. You want to be, right?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“Well, then.”
“It won’t be easy. And probably won’t be for a long time.”
