“Congratulations,” he said.“I’m glad you’re happy, and I’m glad you’re my friend.”
Phil relaxed into the hug, squeezing Tom around the middle.“Thank you.”
Tom pulled away.He didn’t meet Phil’s eye, but he did say, “You think maybe we can be friends who talk about more than hockey now?”
Phil nodded.He couldn’t say it out loud, not yet, but he’d always worried somewhere in the back of his mind that as soon as he stopped playing hockey, he would lose Tom as a friend.Maybe, if this year hadn’t happened, he would have.Now, he knew he never would.“But I’m taking you fishing this summer whether you want to or not.”
Tom sighed dramatically, but he was smiling with his whole face.
“You know what we should do when we’re home again?”Jax asked.
“Hm?”
“Double date.”
Phil laughed.“What do you say, Ben?Ready for more hockey players in your life?”
“As long as there is one non-hockey-related topic of conversation, I’m in,” Ben said, perhaps a tad long-sufferingly.
They left shortly after.Jax and Tom needed their pregame naps, and Ben needed to avoid talking to other humans for a half hour, at least.His face was drawn tight, worry lines etched into his forehead.
“That went about as well as it could have,” Phil said.
“Mm.If the police actually do something,” Ben said.“Which is a big if.And you’re only safe so long as no one else on the team finds out we’re married.Which they will if you keep looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know— You have this expression.”
“We call it ‘liking someone’ where I come from.”
Ben poked him in the side, and Phil retaliated.They were still exchanging jabs when they got to the door of Ben’s hotel room and found Trout waiting for them.
“Morris,” he said urgently.“We need to talk.”
“Anything you have to say, Phil can hear.”Ben unlocked the door to the hotel room as calmly as if nothing was wrong.Phil had no idea how he did it.He’d been a nervous wreck all day, but now he seemed suddenly sanguine.
Trout elbowed his way in ahead of Phil.“You told Easton?Did you tell the police as well?”
“Yup,” Ben said.
Phil tensed up, ready for Trout to flip out and get violent.He seemed the type.
Instead, he sagged, collapsing in on himself.“How did you know?”
“Know what?”
“Van Giesing’s gone.Left the country.He said if I was smart, I’d do the same.He must have been getting ready to drop the whole thing for months now.There’s a buyer lined up for the team and everything.”
The corners of Ben’s mouth turned down.“I imagine he had a plan to that effect in place from the moment you started this scheme.”
Trout’s natural expression of grouchiness evened out into shock.
“Did you never question why you were the one placing bets?”Ben asked him.“Or check whether the money was traceable to him?”
“He always gave it to me in cash,” Trout admitted.
“He’s a billionaire.Of course he was never going to take responsibility.You’re the fall guy.”
