The upside meant seeing the expression on the butcher’s face when he handed over Phil’s order, which contained enough meat to feed a hockey team.
“Ben?”he called into the house when he got home.“Charlie?You home?”
“Living room,” Charlie called back.
After Tetris-ing all the steaks, ribs, and burgers to fit in the fridge, Phil wandered over.
He found Charlie hanging streamers from the lamp.A “Go Sea Lions” sign hung in one of the windows.
“You said I could decorate,” Charlie said a little sheepishly.
“And it looks great.”Ever since Camille had taken the more ostentatious decorative elements, such as the big candle holders and the rug from the middle of the room, as well as most of the art and all of the books, they had slowly been filling the house with things one or all of them liked.Ben had picked up a patchwork quilt in the Castro, now draped over the couch, and on a recent trip to the mall, Charlie had found and framed a Where’s Waldo in the style of Van Gogh, which now hung on the wall.“Where’s Ben?”
“Taking a headache nap before the invasion of the hockey players.”
Phil shook his head.“Guess that answers my question about how his day went.”
After several local newspapers ran his articles covering the Sea Lions scandal, Ben managed to turn one into a steady job.An independent paper in Berkeley had offered him a column about a guy who hated sports reporting on them.Currently, he was covering baseball season.He’d declared on day one he wouldn’t become a fan; baseball might be less loud than hockey, but it lasted longer.
The articles were very funny.Phil would give him that.
So far, the best part of Ben’s transition to a new job was that, ever since finding out Ben had been undercover all year, Charlie thought he was about 1000 percent cooler.
“You know they make those fancy earplugs for concerts and stuff?”Charlie asked.“I think we should get him some.”
“Good call.”Phil made a mental note to look into it.“And our special guest?”
“Hiding in the shed.”
A knock sounded on the glass of the patio door.They turned to find Tom and Jax there, laden with trays.Ever since Jax had revealed he could cook, Phil put him in charge of catering the food for team events Phil wasn’t interested in handling, namely anything he couldn’t throw on the grill.
Phil slid the door open and stepped outside.
Immediately, Artemis barked and barked, trying to either jump on him or through the open door, hindered only by Tom’s tight hold on her leash.
“How’s training going?”Phil asked with raised eyebrows.
“She’s getting there,” Tom told him valiantly, still struggling with the leash.“And we’re taking her to puppy school while we go to training camp, aren’t we, girl?”He crouched as he said it, and thirty-eight pounds of chocolate Labrador immediately attempted to climb into his lap.
Phil and Jax shared an amused glance.Puppy school would be for the best.Tom loved that dog so much he couldn’t deny her anything.Phil didn’t know if it was her or Jax who had convinced Tom to finally give up his bachelor pad in Palo Alto, but he and Jax had spent the summer moving into a three-story Victorian house only a few streets away from Phil and Ben in Cole Valley.The easy access to Golden Gate Park and the backyard for the dog were major selling points as far as Phil could tell.
It was the first summer that Tom and Phil hadn’t spent in the gym together.
First, Phil had taken Ben and Charlie to meet his parents.He’d stretched his usual weeklong visit to two and a half, which was pushing it for him, but letting his parents dote on Charlie made it worthwhile.
Then, Tom went on a vacation to the Great Lakes with Jax and his family, meaning they missed each other for a whole month.
Finally, for the first time this year, Tom did his conditioning with Jax, and Phil didn’t train at all.Playoffs had been rougher than he’d hoped on his knee, and he had to give it a well-needed rest before his next challenge.
Instead, Phil joined Tom on his long walks with the dog, something Jax found too boring for words, and Ben had said he wasn’t emotionally ready for after a full year of being forced into regular exercise.Phil suspected Ben actually wanted to give them time—just the two of them—to rediscover their friendship now they could talk about things other than hockey.
The rookies arrived next, though Phil would have to stop calling them that.Breezy was in his fourth NHL year now, and both Luca and Howie had made it through their first.At some point over the summer, Breezy even got his hair cut—trim at the sides and longer on top—and now that it didn’t curl all over his ears, he looked a lot less like a puppy and a lot more like a grown man.
Good for him.He’d need that since he would be wearing anAthis year, though he didn’t know it yet.
“Phil!”Breezy bounded up to them.The haircut hadn’t changed much else about him, then.“Tell me you signed something.”
“I’ve signed lots of things,” Phil said.“Checks.Pucks.You name it.”
