No therapist could undo what had been carved into him. This—whateverthiswas—he’d fix it himself, just like always.
Because in the end, that was the only thing he knew how to do.
And when the laughter faded and the room emptied, August stayed where he was with his helmet in his hands, and his head bowed. The hum of the arena echoed faintly through the concrete walls, the game lights dimming one by one.
The world outside kept moving.
August just had to find a way to move with it.
Chapter 15
Quinn
The hockey game had been…one of the most exciting things Quinn had ever watched. He had no idea what was going on, but Bea was quick to explain points to him when they happened, enthusiastically telling him the game was abarn burner.
Stupid fucking name, but it just meant that both teams were scoring lots of points and driving the spectators wild—which was exactly what happened.
The bigfoots won with eight goals, one of those being the overtime one that Eren scored, andfivecoming from August. That was a huge jump in performance between the last game Quinn had watched and this one, and he wasn’t sure what that meant.
“Logan and I are going out for drinks,” Bea said once they were in a quieter place, wrapping an arm around Quinn’s waist and crushing him into her side. “Do you want to come? I think Eren is going too.”
Quinn shook his head and detangled himself from his friend before she became permanently attached. “It’s late, and I need to wake up early tomorrow with the girls. You have fun with your rowdy hockey boys. I’ll think about you while I’m warm in my bed, reading fluffy romance novels.”
“Oh, you bitch,” said Bea, shooting him a half-hearted glare. “That sounds so amazing. How big is your bed? Want to have a sleepover?”
Thatdidsound nice, but if he invited her over, there was no doubt in his mind that they would be up until the early hours of the morning. He couldn’t start his day walking around like a zombie, even if he knew that Eren would hire someone to help him out with the girls if he really was that tired.
“You’re making a face,” Bea said, poking Quinn’s flushed cheek. “We’ll skip it for tonight, but the sleepover is happening soon, and I won’t take no for an answer.”
They strolled through the private section of the parkade reserved for players, staff, and other important people, the space quiet now that the game had ended. Quinn could have left after the final buzzer went off, buthe chose to stick around and keep Bea company while she waited for her husband to get his ass out of the locker room.
“Maybe it’s a good thing we’re postponing our sleepover,” Bea said, sighing dramatically. “After Logan scored that goal and got into a fight, I’ve been thinking of making another baby with him.”
Quinn sucked in the cold air too fast and ended up sputtering and coughing, while Bea cackled like a madwoman and patted him on the back.
“I won’t be able to look at him now!” Quinn hissed, giving her a playful shove that only made her laugh harder. “Seeing his face will just conjure images of him fucking you!”
Bea was trying to wipe her tears away, but she wasn’t doing a great job because she was smearing her eyeliner. “You can join us if you want. You said you were looking for models to paint, and I bet we could find some dynamic positions that will earn you points in school.”
“Fuck you,” Quinn spat, but he was laughing too—and crying.
“Comeon.” Bea was so hysterical that she had to hold onto Quinn to keep from falling over. “It would be sohot. And I don’t know if Logan likes guys, but I’m sure we could—”
Quinn covered her mouth, but he overcompensated and ended up knocking them both into her car. Her face was red, and she was getting snot on him, but Quinn didn’t care. He had covered her mouth to keep her from shouting her threesome plans through the entire building, but they ended up laughing loud enough to draw the attention of the few people around them.
“Is she causing a scene?”
Quinn looked over his shoulder and spotted Logan swaggering toward them. He was wearing casual clothes and looked damn good, but Quinn could tell from appearance alone that the poor man was as straight as an arrow.
Sorry, Bea.
“I would say cut her off after she’s reached a certain number of beers, but that number would be zero, and she won’t like that.” Logan winked at Quinn, and Bea, who still had her mouth covered, started muffled-cursing at her husband.
Quinn removed his hand when she licked him, grumbling as he wiped his slimy palm on his pants. “For someone gorgeous enough to be a Hollywood actress, she’s kind of…”
“Awesome?” Logan grinned and swept his wife into his arms, instantly earning forgiveness for threatening to take alcohol away from her. “She’s my little trash-panda, aren’t you, baby?”
“Don’t saythat word around me right now!” Bea shoved out of her husband’s arms and made a show of standing without needing help. “You have no idea what force you’re threatening to unleash.”
