Secret Pucking Unicorn

2. Miranda

Liam jerkshis head toward the tunnel. I assume it’s a signal to get the hell out of his practice and stop being a distraction to his players. Daphne, the team’s social media manager and my friend, must interpret it the same way because she stands.

“Let me give you the tour of the rest of the place and get you settled in your office. Liam will want to talk to you after practice.”

As I follow Daphne to the tunnel taking us out of the practice rink, I look back to the ice. Declan is bent over with his stick on the ice, ready to start the next play. Even his helmet and cage can’t hide his strong jawline or the tendrils of black hair escaping the edge of his helmet. Wearing his pads, he’s gigantic, but I know under them he is muscular with broad shoulders and strong arms that give the best hugs. The few times we’ve cuddled together when visiting I got to enjoy being near all his muscles. He wasn’t playing hockey then. I bet there are more, larger muscles now. I shouldn’t think about my best friend’s older brother like that, but I do. Like always, our connection is strong because he lifts his beautiful blue eyes to mine, and a jolt of electricity shoots through me.

We leave the practice rink and Daphne gives me a tour of the locker and training rooms before ending up in my office. It’s off the locker room and next to Liam’s office. The space is nice with a chair and desk, a couple of armchairs, and a couch I’m longing to take a nap on. I don’t sleep when I travel. I can’t let myself relax enough to be vulnerable and sleep on a plane. I cheated and did my trip in two segments. First, I flew from Auckland to Los Angeles yesterday. I got a room at an airport hotel for Christmas Day and tried to nap for a few hours before going back to the airport to catch an overnight flight from L.A. I arrived in Philadelphia early this morning and took a hired car to the rink here in Atlantic City. I can’t wait to get to my room at Trevor’s and crash. If I can get a solid twelve hours of sleep, I’ll be okay.

I take the chair behind my desk and before Daphne’s ass can hit the couch, two heads pop through the door, grinning. Kendall is my best friend and roommate from college, and Mallory Carter is Coach Liam Morgan’s fiancée and Trevor Carter’s older sister. I don’t know her very well but it’s nice to see another friendly face. They bounce inside and sit on either side of Daphne.

“So,” Kendall says. “You and Mac?”

“Mac?” I ask.

She rolls her eyes in exasperation. “Declan Mackenzie. You know damn good and well who I’m talking about. I saw everything on the ice this morning. Spill the tea.”

“Ooh, yeah, tea sounds good. Daph, where can I get a cuppa?” I rise from my chair. I don’t want to discuss me and Declan. Not that there is a me and Declan.

Daphne gets up and walks through a second door in my office, leading to a dining area. We can choose from juice, water, coffee, and some mass-produced tea bags. Hot water is from the water cooler. I sigh. I should be used to this, but I miss making a proper cup of tea. I’ll need to see if I can find a tea shop and get some good loose-leaf tea. I can pick up an electric kettle.

The girls grab drinks too, and we wander back into my office. My office. I like the sound of that. In Auckland, I had a cubicle in the offices of the professional rugby team I worked for. It wasn’t my own private space. I could get used to this.

“Keep these doors closed and maybe locked if you don’t want the players walking in randomly or using your office as a pass through from the locker room to the dining room,” Daphne advises.

Mallory winks. “Or get an eyeful of naked shifters walking back from the showers.”

Heat rushes to my cheeks. “Thanks for the tip.”

“That’s what she said,” Daphne cries, holding her hand up for a high five.

Mallory and Kendall laugh as I slap Daphne’s hand. I don’t get it.

“Just the tip of his penis,” Kendall explains. She’s used to me not getting jokes.

My cheeks are blazing hot now, and I curse my fair Irish complexion.

“Back to Mac…” Kendall doesn’t give up when she gets a thought in her head.

I nod. “He’s my best friend’s older brother. We grew up together. Our parents were best friends. I stayed with them while my parents were traveling with clients.”

My parents are equine veterinarians, and when I was a child, they worked at different estates and race tracks throughout the UK, Ireland, and Europe. It was easiest to leave me with the Mackenzies when I was younger. They had a houseful of kids, and adding me to the mix was no problem.

“Hey,” Kendall exclaims., “I thought I was your best friend!”

I shrug. “She’s my best friend from childhood. You’re my best friend from college, besides being the best roommate ever. Honestly, you and Sophie would get along great.”

“What’s up with his number? Does eighty have some special significance?” Mallory asks.

“His initials are AD—Alexander Declan. It sounds like the number eighty, and he always said it would be his number if he was ever on a team.” I take a deep breath. “I didn’t know he was playing here. Playing at all, actually. We haven’t spoken lately.”

When I contacted Trevor to see if he knew of any job openings with the Devil Birds, it didn’t occur to me to ask about the players. Everything came together quickly. I was rushing to tie up the loose ends in New Zealand and preparing to come here, and I didn’t bother researching the team roster. I assumed Trevor—I guess I should get used to calling him Carter like his teammates do—was the only person on the team I knew.

My degree is in sports management, and eventually I want to work in the front office of a professional sports team. Advancement wasn’t going to happen with the rugby team I worked for in New Zealand and I didn’t want to settle there permanently anyway. I want to be close to my friends. And my parents are here now. We aren’t close—I haven’t spoken to them since before I left for New Zealand—but I keep hoping to have a closer relationship with them and we need to be near each other for it to happen. I wanted to be back in New Jersey anyway, and discovering they were at a racetrack near where I went to high school and college sealed the deal. They couldn’t be here for the six years I went to school in New Jersey, but within a year of me moving across the globe, they find a spot.

I’m thrilled to see Declan, of course, but my goal is to work hard, prove my value to the team, and make this a long-term situation. I’m tired of moving all over the world at the drop of a hat. From the ages of ten to sixteen, I went to eleven different schools in five different countries. Some schools I didn’t even stay for the entire term. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school that I landed at the boarding school I graduated from. Then I spent four years at Wickham University with Kendall and Carter. It was the most stability I’d had since I left Ireland and the Mackenzies when I was ten.

I want to settle here. Find a house with a little bit of land where I can plant flowers and watch them grow. Maybe get a cat or a dog. Live somewhere no one can make me leave. It would be mine and no one could take it away from me. I can’t let my silly crush on Declan distract me from my goal. He’s here while he’s playing hockey. Once he’s done, he’ll move back to Ireland to start the horse farm he’s always dreamed of.

Love of horses is what we have in common. We’d spend time sitting on fences, watching them run around the practice track or grazing peacefully in the fields. Discussing bloodlines. Dreaming of the day Declan would have his own farm and could breed the horses he wanted, train them, and coach riders. His father’s stable was full of thoroughbreds for racing. Declan wanted magnificent black Friesians for dressage and warmbloods for eventing. He wanted to raise horses to do more than run around a track. I was his first coaching project. I didn’t need him to coach me. I took to riding like a duck takes to water. But it was a way I could spend time with him, and it made him happy. Even as a little girl, I had a crush on him, despite not realizing that’s what it was.

I realize staring off into space, lost in my memories, is not going to go unnoticed by my friends. Hopefully, they’ll chalk it up to jet lag. I focus on them and try to get conversation rolling again with topics other than me and Declan. Daphne is wearing a baggie team hoodie, but I can see the start of her baby bump. She’s expecting her first child with her husband, and I couldn’t be happier for them.

“When are you due?” I ask Daphne.

“End of May. We tried to time it for the offseason, but it turns out I was already pregnant when we started trying on purpose.” She shrugs with a blissful grin.

“Oops,” I say with a giggle.

I turn to Kendall. “You’re dating the captain? How did that happen?” I’m impersonating a talk show host interviewing my friends, but if I keep them talking about themselves, they won’t ask awkward questions about my life.

“We pretended to fake-date, but with real benefits.” Kendall wiggles her eyebrows. I can’t miss what she’s implying. “So people would stop trying to fix us up with each other or with other people. There were some hiccups along the way, but fake became real. You and Declan…”

For a cougar shifter, she has the memory of an elephant.

Shrugging, I say, “There is no me and Declan. We were friends as kids.”

“So you haven’t seen him since you were a little girl?” Mallory asks.

My comfy office chair is more like a hot seat. “I saw him a couple of years ago.”

Kendall cocks her head. “When? You didn’t go to Scotland or Ireland while we were in college. Did you go before you went to New Zealand?”

“No.” I shake my head. “He came to the Wickham graduation.”

“Oh.” Kendall at least has the grace to look embarrassed. None of them were at the graduation ceremony because Kendall had run off a couple of weeks earlier to elope with her asshole ex. When she skipped walking at graduation, none of her family went. During college, I had spent holidays at her home when I didn’t go see my parents. I felt included and even loved there. But it was all fake. They were there for me when Kendall was there. They were always kind, of course. They are nice people. But I wasn’t one of them.

I walked across the stage, knowing no one in the crowd was there for me. I thought I had been lonely as a ten-year-old when I got dropped off at my first boarding school in England and watched my parents drive away. That was nothing compared to walking across the stage to accept my diploma from the Dean in silence. My classmates received applause and whoops. They announced my name, and I started my trek in silence. There weren’t even crickets. Then I heard it, a lone “Yay, Miranda,” in a distinctive Irish/Scottish brogue along with a heavy-handed clap. I looked out and there was Declan, standing tall and proud, with a huge smile on his face. Others started clapping too, but his was the applause I heard most clearly. For once, I wasn’t alone.

It’s not a big deal. I’m used to it. Luckily, I like my own company and am self-sufficient. I don’t need anybody. I’m a pro at being friendly and forming relationships, but I know they aren’t genuine. It’s proximity and convenience. I don’t let anyone truly get close. I learned that letting people in means letting them hurt you. No more of that. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me four or five times…well, I finally get a clue. Sure, it took a while, but it was a lesson I learned by the time I was twelve years old. Having busy parents teaches you a lot of things young.

But I’m ready to change that. Kendall, Daphne, and Trevor weren’t at graduation for assorted reasons, but they have been there for me many other times through the years. Daphne is like the older sister I always wished I had, and I think I fill the little sister role for her. Neither of us have siblings. Her parents passed away when she was a teenager and my parents…yeah. The moment I mentioned thinking about coming back to New Jersey, Trev opened his home to me. Daphne and Kendall helped me get this job. I owe them a ton and I’m not going to let these friendships fade. I have to trust more and be more open. I have to try, even if it’s scary and may open old wounds.

And I’m going to try to establish a new relationship with my parents. Maybe now that I’m an adult and independent, we can connect on a different level. I don’t need them. I want to be close with them. Like a normal family. Someday I want to have a family of my own and even if they weren’t present in my life the way I wish they were, I’d love for them to be grandparents to my children.

I realize everyone is waiting for me to answer. What were we talking about? Oh, the last time I saw Declan.

“He was in New York working at a vineyard owned by one of his classmates from Cornell. He was close,” I say. “I went to his graduation, and he was returning the favor.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Mallory is bouncing in her seat. “Mac went to Cornell?” She looks at Daphne and Kendall. “Did we know that?”

“No, Burke and I haven’t been spending our time talking.” Kendall wiggles her eyebrows like we wouldn’t know. I can be dense sometimes with flirty innuendoes, but I’m not completely stupid.

“What did he major in there?” Daphne asks.

“Are you asking out of personal curiosity, or for stuff to use for content?” I ask. “I don’t want to tell tales out of school or share stuff he doesn’t want known.”

“I’m being nosy. I get approval from the athletes before I post stuff.”

“Hospitality management and a viticulture minor,” I say.

Kendall scrunches her face. “Really? He doesn’t seem like the hotel type, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him drink wine.”

“He isn’t.” I sigh, feeling disloyal talking about Declan’s personal business.

“Oh, his family is in the hotel business, right? Somehow connected with the Clardmore hotels?” Daphne exclaims.

“Yeah,” I say.

“That’s nice he was close. Did you guys visit a lot through the years?” Daphne asks. Man, she’s all kinds of nosy today.

“Some—more video calls than in person. We were both busy, and I moved a lot before college. At Wickham, I was busy with cheer, and courses limited me to seeing him a couple of times a year. I went to his graduation mostly because his family was attending, and I hadn’t seen them in years. It was easier for me to go up there. They would have come down to Wickham if I couldn’t have made it, but it wasn’t necessary. I talk with his sister Sophie more.”

I hear a bunch of male voices approaching, and Liam pokes his head in from the locker room.

“There you all are. Randi, did you want to join me while I talk to the team or wait until after they stop stinking?”

Grabbing the legal pad and pen on my desk, I rise. “I’ll go with you. That’s what I’m here for.”

“Do you need a ride to the barn?” Mallory asks. The house she shares with Liam is on the same property as the converted barn I’ll be living in.

With an eye roll and a sigh, Liam says, “We’ll make sure she gets home, Mallory. Half of the team is going to the same place she is. We won’t leave her stranded.”

“I’m good, Mallory,” I say. “Catch up more later.”

Looking over my shoulder and giving a quick grin, I follow Liam into the locker room. I hope no one is naked. I think.