Page 35 of King of the Crease

I also had some misses, too, but fortunately nobody is mentioning those. Short memory.

“Thank you to Griffin and Mitch for the defense. You made my job much easier.”

“For a guy with only one functioning eye, you’re pretty good,” Des says.

“And for a guy with only one functioning nut, you’re pretty good out there, too.” Griffin winks at him with his lone functioning eye.

“Des is a cancer survivor,” Tanner tells me. With his sweet face and bright blue eyes, I can’t imagine Tanner contributing to the trash talk like his teammates.

“I’m sorry and congratulations,” I say, covering my bases.

“It’s all good. Everything down there is still going strong.” Des smiles at Tanner in a quick, throwaway moment. Nobody else seems to catch it. A stolen glance that seemed a touch too friendly. Maybe I’m not the only closeted guy here.

“You guys were so good out there,” I gush to him and Tanner. Their passing was beautiful choreography. “It’s like you share a brain on the ice.”

“We’ve been doing this for a while,” Tanner says.

“You all played together in high school, right?”

They nod.

“Feels like yesterday,” Hank says.

“We kicked ass then. And we’re kicking ass now.” Bill wears a satisfied smile.

“And if you’re wondering, Bill was the same hard-ass back then.” Des blows him a kiss. “Only back then, his voice would do the puberty cracking thing, so it wasn’t as intimidating.”

“Des, don’t make me tell the sleepover story,” Bill says.

“Now I have to hear it!” I laugh into my glass as I attempt another sip.

“Nobody has to hear it.” Des cocks an eyebrow Bill’s way.

“You were the one who brought up puberty.” Griffin raises his shoulders to his ears.

“I’m not listening to this slander. I’m going to the bathroom.” Des stands up and gives us a blanket middle finger.

“So what happened?” I ask once he’s gone, eager like a child in a village hearing a story from his elders.

Bill clears his throat. “Sophomore year, we were having a sleepover at Derek’s house. Des would always fall asleep first. He needed his beauty sleep. So we did the thing where you stick a sleeping person’s hand in warm water to get them to pee.”

Tanner rubs his face, his face red already with laughter.

“And Des peed his pants?” I ask.

“Nope,” says Hank, practically giddy. “He came in his pants!”

The table erupts in laughter. Our glasses shake, clanging against each other’s.

My mouth falls open. “Can that happen?”

“Apparently.” Hank shrugs. “He woke up with a big sticky stain on his sweatpants and locked himself in the bathroom.”

“Still doing that, apparently.” Bill looks over at the Stone’s Throw restroom. Even hard-ass Bill is cackling, his smile an arresting feature on that stonecold face.

I join in the laughter, tears pricking at my eyes.

“Poor Des,” I say. I feel bad, but also I don’t think I’ve ever laughed like this. Pure, contagious guffawing. Could I be having anymore fun?