Eren chuckled and squeezed August’s hands back weakly. His eyes were closed now, and he was already breathing deeply like he was about to fall asleep.
“I know you’re not…but all you have to do is look sad, and he’ll cave. I do it all the time…”
Eren took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.
“I’ll teach you the tricks of the trade…tomorrow…”
August placed Eren’s hand down and pulled the blanket over him to keep him warm. “I’ll marry Quinn,” he said. “But you’ll be teaching your daughters how to skate, and how to be kind—and how to eat all their vegetables so they grow as tall as you.”
A stray tear escaped Eren’s eye, and August brushed it away.
“But Iwillteach them how to find the courage to stand up for themselves, even when it feels scary to do so.”
August gave his captain one more smile before exiting the room, only to immediately be tackled by two mini-Callahans and one medium-sized Harlow.
“What did he want?” Quinn asked, looking up at him through dark lashes that seemed to make his green eyes more vibrant.
“He wants me to get you a ring,” said August.
“A ring!” Emira chirped, though August doubted she knew what that meant.
Quinn’s mouth was open slightly, but he snapped it shut when August frowned.
“And I need to find a lawyer.”
“Dude, you just got out of the hospital and got cleared for morning practice after being off for two weeks, you had therapy this morning, you’re playing a game against Montreal tonight, and you want us tohelp dig holes in your creepy basement?”
August narrowed his eyes at Niko and shoved a shovel into his hands. “I was discharged the day after I got injured. I’ve been conditioning training every day that I’ve been off and sweating my ass through physio, so it’s not like I’m going to be lagging tonight, and my basement is fucking huge, so yes, I need your goddamn help.”
Niko’s face suggested he would rather be anywhere else than where he was now, but August didn’t have much time, and he wanted to get back to the hospital before the game to visit Quinn, so the kid would have to suck it up.
“Why can’t you be like Sauce, over there? Look how happy he is.” August pointed in Haas’s direction, where the rookie was shovelling into the packed dirt with a gleeful grin. “You need to take a lesson in spontaneity from him.”
Niko scoffed loudly, and the sound echoed through the space. “He’s a fucking goalie. The last thing I want to do is learn anything from a guy who thinks digging up gross evidence in your haunted house is a fun activity.”
August didn’t want to do it either, but he couldn’t rest until he knew for sure his dream hadn’t been wrong. He still couldn’t tell the difference between reality and illusion sometimes, but after he talked to his therapist about the dream where he had buried his father’s tapes and pictures of him in his basement, he knew he wouldn’t be able to rest until hetried.
But Quinn was too busy to help him, and August didn’t want to hire strangers to do it, just in case there was really evidence involving him buried somewhere, so that’s where Niko and Nollan Haas came in.
Niko, because he was his best friend, and Haas, because he was always around Niko, and the rookie was down for anything when asked nicely.
If they took too long, he would ask Arlo and Étienne to join them even though their game was in a few hours. August knew they would help if he needed it, but they weren’t at that point yet.
“And you have media shit to deal with,” Niko grumbled, reluctantly stepping off the paved section of the basement and onto the dirt part like he was scared a skeletal hand would shoot out and grab his ankle. “But no,let’s get filthy and do our best to avoid digging up the corpses of the victims who were murdered by the last creep who owned this place.”
Haas straightened, and his humming went quiet as his gaze flicked between Niko and August. “Or—August is actually a serial killer, and he’s saving time by making us dig our own graves.”
Niko slammed his shovel into the dirt. “You say that like you mean it, and yet you’re still not running for your life.”
Haas flashed Niko a goofy grin and went back to shovelling. “Not much we can do if Gusty decides to take us out. He’s gigantic, dude.”
August picked a corner and began digging to hide the fact that he was laughing at Niko’s bewildered expression. He still couldn’t decide if Niko liked Nollan or if he hated him. He would need to study them further before he made up his mind.
“Oh, wow—look at the size of that spider—”
Haas barely got the words out before Niko was climbing August like he was a fucking tree, cursing so fast that he couldn’t tell if he was speaking English or something else. Niko wasn’t a small kid either, and it took a great amount of effort for August to remain upright.
“I fuckinghatespiders,” Niko groaned, jumping when August grunted loudly.
