Chapter 2Nick
Chapter 2
Nick
JULY | Tarot: IX. The Hermit
“Stelle, I don’t feel great. You know about my tummy,” Mikey croaked.
“Obi, will you trade him seats?” Guy asked. “It’s easier if you sit in the front.”
“My legs are longer!” I objected.
Guy flicked his eyebrows up at me. “Do you want to smell Mikey’s puke for the next hour and a half?”
“Might be both ends,” Mikey said. “Once you rock the boat, the whole system goes haywire.”
“Fine, I get it,” I groaned, unbuckling my seatbelt and lunging for the backseat.
“Why are you guys getting married in Bumfuck Wherever anyway?” Mikey grumbled as he shifted into the front seat.
“It’s not Bumfuck,” Guy said. “It’s a historical landmark.”
“So Jessie told me on the whole ride here. What is with these West Virginians and their obsessive fact-giving?” Mikey asked.
Guy laughed. “Kitty does that too. It’s a great place to be from. You’re just jealous.”
“You lived here for a year,” Mikey scoffed.
“It was a good year. I met my future wife here,” Guy said. “And wait till it’s your turn to get married, Mike. Jessie’s from here too.”
That was news to me. “You putting a ring on it, Mikey?”
“I ask her every single day,” he said. “One of these days, she’s going to say yes.”
“So you’re annoying her into a commitment?” I asked.
“I’m being persistent and showing her that I love her enough to marry her every single day.”
Guy sighed wistfully. “Never would have imagined you’d be such a romantic.”
“Pot, kettle,” I said.
“Excuse me, I’ve always been a romantic,” Guy said. “You should take lessons from me, young Obi.”
I chuckled. “What do I need to know?”
“He’s just a baby, Stelle. Let him sow his wild oats,” Mikey said, acting like he was also some sort of authority on the topic. “Not like you didn’t sow yours.”
“Pot, kettle,” I said again. Mikey’s penchant for getting around before Jessie came along was well-known.
“I never said I didn’t!” Mikey whined.
“Look, I tried to marry Kitty when I was Obi’s age. It just wasn’t the right time. I did what I had to do to get by,” Guy said.
“So, Obi, Stelle’s advice is to get your heart set on one person, pine for them for years, sleep with other people, stalk the person you love, and then wear them down,” Mikey explained.
“Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing to Jessie?” I asked.
“Yeah, see? Good playbook,” Guy said.
“I’m not stalking Jessie. And I didn’t pine for her for years. I just wished for someone like her. It’s different. Plus, we live together. She loves me. She’s going to say yes one of these days.”
As Guy launched into a counter-argument to provoke Mikey, I drifted off in the backseat, my attention captured by the mountains growing denser out the window. It was as if the earth itself was embracing us from all directions as we navigated the winding passes.
Those two droned on about relationships and whatever dumb shit they’d gotten into in college. I’d gotten into my own dumb shit for the one year that I went to college, and it left me battered and bruised. That whole affair was why I wasn’t rushing into the dating scene.
And in a way, it was indeed an affair. An affair that ended in me losing my best friend and the first person I ever loved. Shane was my freshman roommate at the small Ohio college that was randomly known for hockey, but more known for partying. I don’t give up my feelings easily. I can feel the spark of attraction, but I need to feel connected to someone before I can get to physical intimacy. My only kiss before Shane was my prom date, and that ended with me asking to just be friends. I’d known her for years, but once we were kissing, it just didn’t feel right.
But with Shane, I felt the tension between us for weeks. We went everywhere together and did all the late-night studying and paper-writing together. Then one night at a frat party, he asked if we could leave early. His fingers had brushed mine on the walk back to our dorm, and I thought I was still imagining it. But once we got our door closed and his body crushed mine against it, I knew for sure that I hadn’t been imagining what we had.
Shane had all my firsts, and from what he told me, I had his. First kiss with a man. First hand job, blow job, sex.
First love.
Pushing our beds together because we were both too big to squeeze into a twin, then pushing them back in the morning. We’d always treated our nights like a sleepover, talking until one of us dozed off. But once we were “us,” we stayed up in each other’s arms. We knew everything about each other. He knew about my dad’s depression, and my mom picking up the slack. I knew about how his parents were loaded, but basically ignored each other all the time. Their main concerns revolved around whether Shane and his brothers made good matches with other social elites.
I felt bad that I was his secret, that he was actually promised to some girl back home. That she was his girlfriend actively. Did she know about us? Did anyone?
When Shane and I went our separate ways for the summer, he ghosted me. I tried calling, texting, Snap, anything I could think of. But when he posted a picture with his girlfriend smiling in his lap, I knew it was over. He’d chosen what his parents wanted.
Losing Shane devastated me. And if I hadn’t gotten drafted that summer, I might have gone on a real self-destructive streak. But instead, I chose to focus on what I was good at: hockey. I had a year in the AHL, and was quickly called up to be part of the Princes.
It paid off. That focus led to me riding through West Virginia with guys seven years my senior who I considered my closest friends. I was lucky to have had them come into my life at just the right time.
We had to pull off the road to let Mikey regain his composure. Kitty and the girls passed us, blaring the horn with their middle fingers out the window. But just before they got around the next bend, their van pulled over and Jessie got out, jogging toward Mikey. She patted his back as he puked over the guardrail. My stomach turned in a different way. It was heartwarming to see how sweet they were together. It had taken Mikey a long time to find her, and he was a damned fool for her. Maybe someday I’d get that lucky.
Once Mikey recovered, we got back on the road. We all sang along to country radio, or at least Guy and I did while Mikey was green in the passenger seat. We got to the Greenbrier in the late afternoon.
Annie looked to be in better spirits than when we met at baggage claim. Beautiful Annie, with her sparkling green eyes and apparent Diet Coke addiction. And that sadness in her eyes that twisted something in my gut.
I’d first noticed her at Guy and Kitty’s engagement party but was too nervous to talk to her. I figured any friend of Kitty’s would have a sharp wit and generally be a little scary, like Kitty. Don’t get me wrong—I love Kitty, and I’m glad she makes Guy happy. But she can be a little bit intimidating. I lumped her friends into that category, but that didn’t mean I was immune to Annie being a beautiful woman. When I saw her at the airport in Chicago, I felt like she could see straight through me to the tiny crush I harbored for her. A crush with no basis other than her looks, but a crush nonetheless.
So when I caught her sad eyes as she boarded the plane, I got as pink-cheeked as a teenager.
When we got out at the Greenbrier, the guys went for their girls’ bags, and I grabbed Annie’s from the back of the van.
“I’ve got it,” she said. I shrugged her off. She was quickly recruited to help with the bag with Kitty’s wedding dress in it, anyway.
“How long is that thing?” Mikey teased Kitty.
“As long as I want it to be, Michael,” she shot back.
They continued bickering in their brother-sister way, but I watched Annie on the steps in front of me. Her long blonde hair shone in the late afternoon sun as she dabbed at some sweat forming on her brow. There was no denying it: Annie was very pretty. She had an athletic build, long and lean. The little tank top she wore showed off her strong shoulder blades, her spine a delicate column between them. Little freckles lined the tops of her shoulders, just like over the bridge of her nose. What would the skin of her spine feel like under my lips?
My eyes zoomed down to her ass, clad in some fancy yoga pants and finished with some white sneakers. She was fit, that’s for sure. I wondered if she played a sport. Then I chastised myself for ogling my friend’s friend’s ass.
Hey, at least someone piqued my interest. That wasn’t a guarantee.
I didn’t really date. I spent most of my time with my teammates who were in relationships. I sometimes thought about the dating apps, but I didn’t want someone outing me if I marked that I was interested in males or females. The few dates I had been on from the apps were a bit disastrous anyway. I could always tell upon arrival if someone had googled me. Sometimes even before. A girl requested we change our date to a much more expensive place, and she made it clear that I’d be paying. I had one polite drink and got the hell out of there.
Yes, my rookie contract had been a record-breaker. And I didn’t blame women for googling me for their own safety. You should know who you’re meeting up with. But it sucked. I never got guys in my DMs, and I was medium afraid of some of the propositions I got from women. It was so obvious that they wanted a money-for-sex trade. Not like sex work, but like, I’m their meal ticket and they’re unlimited ass.
Between my freshman affair and my quick rise to the NHL, I found myself in a position where I’d done everything you can with a man but never so much as fingered a woman. What kind of twenty-one-year-old was I? Most guys my age would have tons of experience. And I did, with one specific boy. If I were still in college, I probably would have experience with girls.
Whatever. I could crush on Kitty’s friend for the weekend if I wanted to. It was low stakes. I’d probably never see her again. Something about the sadness in her eyes at the airport messed with me. I wanted to do whatever it took to see her smile again. My thoughts drifted to me, of all people, being this beautiful woman’s knight in shining armor, saving her from her sadness.
And there I was, lost in my own head as Kitty and Guy greeted their other friends who’d gotten in earlier.
“Obi, here’s your room key,” Guy said, passing me a card. “They tried to block us all together, but I guess there are two weddings? They had to put you and Annie on the other side of the hotel.”
Annie appeared at my side with a shy smile that made my cheeks heat. I kept doing that around her. Just looking at her boarding the airplane made my ears hot.
“No funny business, you two!” Guy said. “She’s got a boyfriend!”
Annie’s body shifted like she’d been punched, her smile faltering.
“Huh, what? Why would there be funny business?” I asked, pulling at my neck.
Annie watched me with hollow eyes and a courtesy laugh. “You ready? I’ll drag the cart.”
“Oh, nonsense!” I squeaked. “I got it.”
Who the hell says ‘nonsense,’ Obi?
I pushed the luggage cart toward the elevator bank, silent as she pushed the button. I let her step into the elevator first and followed.
“So, what sport do you play?” I asked.
She quirked an eyebrow. “Why do you think I play a sport?”
“I, uh, you’re just, um, you have strong shoulders. And thighs?”
Her cheeks and chest flushed pink.
“Sorry, that came out weird. You just, uh, look . . . athletic?”
She gave me a sympathetic grimace. “Ah. I used to play volleyball, but it’s been a minute.”
“Oh, wow. I bet you were really good,” I said. “Ya know, the muscles.”
She sucked a breath through her nose. “You seem sweet, Ober, but maybe a little less talk about my body,” she said, holding up two fingers in a pinch. The doors opened and we figured out which way to walk. I hurried after her, dragging the cart behind me.
“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I’m doing that. I’m not one of those guys. I just, I hardly talk . . . to anyone. Ever. So. Sometimes I’m awkward.” We arrived at her door.
“It’s fine, Ober.”
“Wait, you know who I am?”
She turned back with a little snort. “Your luggage tag. And I’m a sports attorney. Everyone knows the goalie prodigy, Nick Oberbeck.”
“Oh. Um, just so you know, I usually go by Obi or Nick.”
“Nick.” Annie patted my chest. “Let’s just get through this wedding, shall we?”
“Get through?” I wrinkled my brow as her sad eyes returned.
The other set of elevator doors opened and Kitty and Guy spilled out hauling Kitty’s dress. “Annie! Can I sleep with you until the wedding? It’ll be like old times! Your room is a suite anyway, so we can have a big slumber party!”
Annie’s face brightened, her sadness transformed in an instant. “Of course! Amazing!”