Page 79 of Two for Charging

Jayden fixed him with an unimpressed look. “You’re changing the subject.”

Chris sighed. “Okay, so we’ve been having some drama on the team, I guess. Some of the guys have been keeping secrets, and some of the other guys got upset about it.”

“You don’t have to dumb it way down for me.”

“No, I know. But I can’t say much. It’s other people’s secrets, you know?”

Jayden nodded sagely. “Got it. But now everyone knows?”

“Not everyone. There’s a few Russian guys on the team, and they’re a whole different culture, so it can be hard.” It was a dimension to the problem Chris hadn’t considered before Halloween—how different it would be for the Russians to acclimate to having queer teammates. He wished he knew more about the world. Then he wouldn’t always be blindsided by these things.

It made him think, in retrospect, that he’d been too harsh on Tom and Jax.

He should apologize.

Jayden’s forehead wrinkled up on a frown. “Sucks. Sounds like when I had to explain to Alicia why she couldn’t touch my hair. We got into a whole big thing, and Mara had to call us both into her office.”

Chris blinked. “Is hair touching a cultural thing? I thought it was rude to touch people’s hair without their permission.”

Three kids at the table near him cracked up, including Jayden. Chris winced. There he went again, being an idiot about everything.

But Jayden must have caught sight of his expression because once he’d stopped laughing, he said, “Oh, no, dude, you’re totally right. It is rude, but people do it to Black people all the time anyway.”

Chris breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ve never been too dumb to be racist before.”

Jayden burst into laughter again, and Chloe, who had yet to speak more than three words when any given hockey player spoke to her, started snickering too. It wasn’t so bad to be laughed at when Chris had made the joke himself. By the time everyone calmed down, he’d caught sight of the French homework spread out on the table. He might know nothing about their lives, but he did know when to use the plus-que-parfait instead of the imparfait.

Mara joined them as they were finishing up on the worksheets. “You are a lifesaver,” she said. “I’m the rare gay girl who’s good at math and terrible at languages.”

“Oh, I’m just from Montreal,” Chris demurred.

Shaking her head at him, Mara tutted. “You also speak Italian—don’t lie.”

“Seriously?” Jayden said. “That’s so cool. All I know is Spanish.”

“Spanish is awesome!” Chris said. “It’s the second-best romance language after Italian.”

“Won’t they kick you out of Canada for dissing French?” Mara asked.

“I’m not making the national team anyway. Besides, French has too many accents, and the spelling is dumb.”

“I’m telling Emily you said so,” Jayden said, and vaulted off his chair to find the girl whom Chris had been helping with her homework.

Chris watched him go fondly. He was amazed Jayden had sat still for so long. He’d have to visit more often.

“Are you doing okay?” Mara asked in the sudden absence of teenagers.

“Of course. I mean, things are awkward. I’m sure Mooney’s told you all about it.”

“Diego told me about the team, yeah, but how are you?”

“I don’t understand.”

Mara reached out and patted his hand. “I mean, you had a rough night on Halloween, and you’ve been having a rough time in general, huh?”

“Oh. I mean, it’s much worse for Howie, and I don’t know if Tom’s talked to Dmitriyev yet, and—”

Her hand migrated to his shoulder and shook him a little bit. “Dude. You are allowed to be pissed. They put you in a shitty position. It might not have been on purpose, but it was rude of Jax to assume you would tell him Howie’s secrets because he’s older and smarter, and it was kind of immature of Howie to blame you and storm out.”