Chapter Ten April
“Don’t you think this is maybe a bad idea?” Jenna stabbed Nick’s carrot cake and stole a bite. Terry licked his lips as he watched, hand twitching around his spoon as he obviously hoped to pull off a similar maneuver.
Nick sighed and pushed his plate closer to Terry, who eagerly took a huge piece and shoved it in his mouth before Nick could change his mind. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“This thing with this guy who all but broke your heart a few months ago? Either talk, which we both know you won’t, or stop hanging out with him so much. Having a crush is one thing. Pining over your best friend is another.”
“Yeah, that seems like a bad idea,” Terry said around a mouthful of cake. It was barely intelligible, and therefore Nick chose to ignore him.
Besides, Jenna was always the harder one to argue with.
“It’s not a big deal. It’s a small crush. And we’re also not best friends, so stop making more of this than there is.”
“He has the power to destroy your stupid heart in his hands, and you keep giving him that power!” Jenna said with the same anguish she normally reserved for telenovelas and cheesy horror movies. “You were miserable and hurt after Pennsylvania, and I don’t like worrying it’s going to happen again.”
Nick shook his head. There was a bitterness to his tone when he answered, “It can’t happen again.
That whole mess was his fault, and I think he gets that.
He’s been very careful not to hint at that kind of thing anymore, and really, he never did much hinting then until the actual day of the tournament. ”
“So he got cold feet,” Terry said sagely. “Makes sense. It’s not like you were some random guy he could hook up with on the road and then come home and forget about. Maybe he chickened out because he realized it was going to be a super awkward never-ending one-night stand.”
Nick blinked at his cousin in surprise. That was actually a fair point, but he didn’t expect that kind of insight from Terry.
“I want to go to a game,” Jenna demanded. “I want to meet this guy and put the fear of God in him.”
Nick’s phone buzzed in his pocket. “You’re scarier than God,” he said as he took it out.
Unguarded, his carrot cake lost a few more pieces.
“Can I go to the game? You said there’s a girl on your team…” Terry said.
“She’d eat you alive, Terry,” Nick said automatically.
“I like girls like that,” he whined.
It didn’t matter, Nick was already tuning him out.
Brady (7:12 p.m.)
hey I’m not gonna be there next game
Nick (7:14 p.m.)
uh i think you meant to send this to benns?
Brady (7:14 p.m.)
no I already told him
I’m gonna miss stick n puck this weekend too
Nick (7:15 p.m.)
okay
you have never missed hockey in the history of ever what’s up?
Brady (7:15 p.m.)
my sister’s getting married so I’m driving up for the wedding
spending at least five days in town to help out
Nick felt his cheeks go hot. There was a lot to unpack here. Brady never shared that kind of personal thing. That Nick even knew Brady had a sister was a miracle, and now suddenly there was a wedding?
“He’s texting you right now, isn’t he?” Jenna asked.
Nick’s head snapped up. Both of them were giving him disapproving looks, though one was definitely more sympathetic than the other.
Maybe “pitying” was a better word for it.
“Do I need to say it?” Jenna asked. “I’m sure you already know it, but would hearing it help?”
“We’re friends! Friends text each other!” Nick said and held his phone close to his chest in case she planned on stealing it.
Jenna looked unimpressed.
“He’s got a point,” Terry said.
“How many other people on the team do you text?” Jenna countered.
“Text? Specifically? Uhh…”
Technically, he’d had text conversations with several team members.
Benns, obviously, from early on when he joined the team and needed to coordinate ordering a jersey, asking about different rules, general commentary about big games, etc.
Then there was Lexi, who’d texted half the team for help when he couldn’t find the Columbia rink, but that was nothing more than Lexi’s panicked message followed by Nick sending him a GPS location.
There was an old conversation from October after the team trip that was just GG’s five-paragraph text analysis of the Caps coaches in the last decade.
Nick had never replied. More recently there was one from Gail that was nothing more than three tophats in honor of his hat trick.
So he had messages… but he knew they weren’t what Jenna meant.
“We talk on Facebook messenger… in our group chat…” he said lamely. “Look, I get it. I’m in control here, I swear. No heart breaking, no high expectations, just a hot guy I’m friends with.”
“So you’re not interested in him anymore?”
Nick made a face. “Interested? Of course I’m interested, but after PA…
” He shrugged. He decided to answer with the laid-back attitude he wished he actually felt.
The more he acted nonchalant, the more true he hoped it would become.
“I’d be skeptical if he started flirting again.
He’s cagey, which I knew, and I don’t know how to navigate it. ”
“Talking,” Jenna said. “Talking’s how you navigate it.
But, since I know you won’t, and it doesn’t seem like this Brady guy will either, I approve of your current attitude.
It’s the most mature you’ve acted about the whole thing.
But I still want to go to a game, both in support of your hockeying and to give this guy the stink eye. ”
He squeezed his phone in his hand, remembering Brady’s message. “My next game’s this Thursday.” It was difficult to keep a straight face. Hopefully if Jenna noticed anything weird, she chalked it up to his discomfort.
“Good. Time? Place?”
Terry perked up. “Can I come?”
“Nine-thirty in Laurel. Yes, but no flirting.”
“Awesome. We’ll be there.”
*
They were both waiting for him by the sign-in tables.
Terry had a collection of food he’d clearly snagged from the vending machines, and he was busy flattening out a dollar bill to collect more goodies.
This was typical Terry behavior, and although he’d gathered a small crowd of children who watched with wide, impressed eyes, it wasn’t unusual.
And then there was Jenna. She was chatting with Donno, who seemed baffled by this strange creature accosting him with questions about things she shouldn’t know about. This was also typical Jenna behavior, which didn’t make it less alarming.
“Does Nick get enough ice time? Is he trying out new positions? How is Benns’s coaching style helping the team? Do you do special teams or just whoever has the next shift? How was the PA tournament a few months back? Hey, is Brady a competent defenseman, and has he already arrived?”
Definitely typical questions for a complete stranger to ask.
Nick let Donno suffer a few extra seconds before rescuing him.
“Glad you guys could make it,” Nick called loudly. “Donno, I see you’ve met my cousins.”
Donno mumbled something Nick couldn’t hear and fled once Jenna’s attention was diverted.
Nick did his best to suppress a laugh. “You’re a menace, you know that?” Nick said as he signed in.
Jenna watched like a hawk and then pointed to Brady’s name with a line through the signature box. She tapped it. “What’s this mean?”
Of course she’d figured out the sign-in sheets faster than he had. Either that, or it was one of her earlier questions to Donno.
“I do believe that means he’s out for the game,” he said innocently. “Such a shame.”
Terry looked back and forth between them with wide eyes. Not in fear, because he knew damn well neither of them were upset at him, but with sheer excitement that one of them was going to get their ass kicked.
Her eyes narrowed. “You knew about this.”
“Bra—” He shook his head and belatedly corrected himself. This was a hockey rink with their team around, after all. “Jens might have mentioned something.”
Jenna noticed the change, raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. “When?”
“A couple days ago.”
“Before or after we planned on coming to this game?”
Nick bit the inside of his cheek and kept his tone solemn. “Might have been just before.”
“Nick! You butt! You know what, fine. I don’t need to meet him. I don’t even want to meet this guy. I will watch and be supportive during your game, and this just removes unnecessary distractions.” She then turned on her heel and walked toward the rink.
Terry stared after her, clearly terrified of the prospect of having to sit next to Jenna all game but also impressed that Nick had managed to pull this off.
“Good luck?” Terry said tentatively.
“Thanks. And sorry. Didn’t mean to make it awkward.”
Terry looked constipated as he shrugged it off. “Honestly, this might be less awkward? Because she won’t have someone to shout at during the game except you?”
“And you.”
“And me, yeah.”
Donno gave him a bewildered look when he walked into the locker room, clearly in the middle of describing the angry blonde monster that had cornered him on the way in.
“My cousin is…” He trailed off, unable to find the right words to adequately encapsulate all that was Jenna Duffy. “Tenacious?” he tried.
“No fucking kidding there, bro.” There was a slight tremor in Donno’s voice, and Nick wondered how long the inquisition had been going on before Nick had shown up. “She reminds me of my grandma, except taller, younger, and way more likely to smack me if she doesn’t like my answers.”
“I automatically like her,” Gail said. “You better score tonight, Nicki. Family’s in the building.”
“Not much chance of that,” Nick grumbled. About a third of his goals were assisted by Brady, and anyway, he wasn’t feeling it. It was some combination of bad luck and the pressure of being watched, but it seemed more likely he’d end up in the back of the net tonight than that he’d put a puck there.
To be fair, Jenna and Terry would probably find that more entertaining.