Ben blinked.“Why?”
“I don’t know.I was reading this blog about raising teenagers, and they said it’s a common rule.”
“I don’t think he’s having sex with them.”
Phil considered.“Not with both at the same time anyway.”
“Probably.Anyway, I’d rather have a safe sex talk than make him leave the door open.It would be too much like what his parents would do.”
“Isn’t he a little young to be having sex though?”
Ben shrugged.“I mean, I think so, but it’s up to him.Anyway, I think he has enough body image stuff going on without putting pressure on him to have or not have sex.”
“Fair,” Phil decided.“So, how did your meeting go?”
Ben glanced up the stairs.He definitely didn’t want Charlie hearing about this.“Let’s go to the gym.”
“Oh?”Phil’s eyebrows shot up.
Ben flushed, remembering the first time they’d had sex, balanced precariously on the workout bench and drunk on need.“Not for that.”
“What else would you ever go into the gym for?You hate it there.”
“I do not.”
“You hate exercise—”
“I donot.Not all exercise is as silly as hockey.”
To prove his point, he walked alongside Phil on the treadmill while he explained what had happened.
“You’re supposed to sit on evidence so he can get a new job?”Phil asked incredulously.“That’s…”
“Immoral?Illegal?Both, probably.”
“Now what?”
Ben had been asking himself the same question since Pulvermacher hung up the phone.“I think,” he said slowly, “I want to go to the police.”
Phil shut off his treadmill.“Yeah?”
“Yeah.I mean, it has to count as some kind of insider trading or something, right?”
“Will it get you in trouble with your family?”
Torpedoing Pulvermacher’s chance at the Arizona job almost certainly would, but it wasn’t as if Ben would be welcome either way.Anyway, Pulvermacher didn’t deserve to be rewarded for leaving the team high and dry because its players had decided to do some good in the community.
“Honestly?”Ben said.“Yeah, it will.But I think people should know, you know?Both that it’s not your fault you guys can’t win—”
“Hey!”
“—and that your GM is such a homophobic prick he’s leaving because of acharity.I mean, there are three queer men on the team.You deserve better.”
“Three— Oh, right, I’m still on the team.”Phil frowned.“Hey, how do you know about Jax and Tom?”
“If they want it to stay a secret, they should wait until after curfew to sneak into each other’s hotel rooms.”
Phil snorted.“Only had to wait a decade for Tom to finally start acting like an idiot teenager.”He turned off the treadmill and moved to face Ben.“So what’s your plan?”
