As Erik worked through this, Graham was reminded of how painfully young he was.
“Exactly. Now, if Gavin hadliedabout someone else committing a crime and that person went to prison and was still there, that would be harming them by not telling the truth, yeah?”
Erik nodded, frowning. “Sure. But what ifbothchoices would hurt people? Like, that might happen, right?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately, sometimes that’s the way life goes. But then you have to decide which is worse. And maybe sometimesbothchoicesareshitty, and the hurt would be equal. I don’t know if there are any rules for how you make choices under those circumstances. Sometimes you just have to do it and hope for the best or at least be ready to face the outcomes, whatever they turn out to be. But the better you get at making thosechoices when the stakes are low, the better you get at making them when they’re high.”
He glanced around. “And look, no one is perfect. Not me, not your teammates, not your GM. Sometimes, you’re gonna fuck up, guys. You do your best, live with the consequences, and try to do better next time, okay?”
Erik nodded. “Like I did when I got drunk at the beginning of the season.”
“Exactly.”
Graham had to fight back a smile at how good Thad had been with the rookie. How patient he’d been and how well he’d explained it all.
He didn’t give himself enough credit.
Thad took a deep breath. “Gavin’s not going to ask you to keep this a secret, and neither am I. Honestly, you’d have no reason to listen to me even if I did. I’m just some dude who makes you look good on social media.” Everyone chuckled. “But take some time to think about all of this and you’ll know what the right choice is.”
The little speeches ended there, but guys milled around the locker room talking for a while. A lot of them came up to shake Thad’s hand and talk to him.
He looked vaguely uncomfortable with the attention, but Graham noticed the way Gavin smiled at Thad. Howproudhe looked at his brother.
Heshouldbe proud. But considering their history, it seemed like a pretty big step forward, at least to Graham.
“Your boy is smart,” Crawford said, sounding almost impressed a while later as he and Graham stood in front of the mirrors in the wet room following their showers.
Graham glanced over. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Crawford frowned. “It’s kinda wild that if things had gone differently, they might be in each other’s shoes right now. Thad could be the GM and Gavin the ex-con.”
“True,” Graham said, feeling a jolt go through him because he hadn’t thought about it until now.
Choices and consequences, indeed.
Graham wondered what kind of person Thad would have been then. How much of who he was had been shaped by his time in prison? How much was who he was fundamentally as a person?
There were probably a lot of people smarter than Graham who could answer, but in the end, they’d probably never know.
And honestly, Graham didn’t want Thad to be anyone else. He loved Thad exactly the way he was.
Thad awoke the following morning to the drag of a wet tongue across his cheek. He wrinkled his nose. “Fuck, Graham, what are you doing?” he muttered, shoving him away, disgusted by the act and his morning breath.
But rather than his hand meeting warm flesh, it met … fur?
He cracked one eye open and was greeted by the sight of Murphy, his tongue hanging out as he happily wagged his tail.
“Ugh. Gross,” Thad muttered, grabbing the corner of the sheet and swiping it across his face to mop up the excess saliva. That explained the bad breath at least.
And then it hit him he’dwoken up.
He’d woken up in Graham’s bed and holy fuck he’dslept through the night.
He sat up, his heart racing.
He hadn’t even been trying to sleep over.
Thad had been so tired he’d debated even going to Graham’s place at all following the game. It had been a weird fucking night, with Bobby’s bullshit, then Gavin’s confession to the team.
