Chapter Ten April #2
Nick took his time getting ready. He wouldn’t say he was nervous about having family in the audience, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t, either.
It was some weird accountability thing. When he talked about his games, he could color them any way he wanted to.
He tried to be fair in his self-assessment, as objective as reasonably possible because that honesty was the only way he could actually improve.
But that didn’t mean his own interpretation didn’t color his play-by-plays.
Now he’d have outside eyes looking in. Whether they were painfully blunt about his playing or sugarcoated it, simply having them there meant someone else would know if he played like garbage.
Would they think he was wasting his time with this hockey thing?
All those lessons and hours of practice for nothing?
The short answer, the one he knew both Jenna and Terry would give without hesitation, was no, he was not wasting his time.
He was enjoying himself doing something he loved, and that time could never be wasted.
His actual ability to score goals or help his team was maybe tied to how much fun he had during any individual game, but his overall love of the sport and pride in coming so far weren’t negated by bad plays or off nights.
Still. They might say he should quit, and he wasn’t sure he could take the blow no matter how unlikely it was.
All the worrying made him the last one out of the locker room. Even Mags, who’d arrived a good ten minutes after him, was long gone by the time Nick finished lacing up.
Not a great start, but hopefully nothing a good warm-up couldn’t fix.
He nearly lost it right at the door into the rink. Jenna was leaning over the bleachers and talking enthusiastically to Gail, who was still on the runway between the locker rooms and ice. Nick was shit at reading lips, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out what they were talking about.
Who they were talking about.
He stood there dumbfounded for a good thirty seconds before Gail noticed him. She gave him a huge Cheshire Cat grin, turned to say something to Jenna, and then disappeared out onto the ice.
“Have I ever mentioned I hate you?” Nick groaned as he walked by.
“Love you, too!” Jenna said while making a kissyface. “Score some goals for us!”
“Please give Gail my number!” Terry called.
Nick made a beeline for Gail, stopping in front of where she’d decided to stretch by the bench.
“I would like to point out that Terry and Jenna are my cousins,” he said.
“Anything they say is circumstantial at best. I am at least five percent better than they portray me. Maybe even up to twenty percent.” Gail opened her mouth to say something.
“Also, Terry is in love with you and even though I’m not sure I support that, he wants me to give you his number. ”
She shut her mouth again and looked over at the stands. “What does he know about me?” she asked.
“That you’re small and angry and mean.” He paused in consideration, then added, “He’s also probably figured out that you play hockey.”
Gail looked over at the stands and gave Terry an appraising look. “Yeah, all right. I can give him a try.”
“Then remind me to give you his number after the game.” Nick waited patiently, hoping Gail would give him a hint of what she and Jenna had talked about. “So…”
“So you should get your other cousin out on the ice. Could use another firecracker out here. Can tell she doesn’t take shit, and I’m tired of being the only girl.”
“She sprained her wrist ice skating in the third grade, so she very adamantly will not skate ever again. She also doesn’t ‘sport.’ ” He made sure to do little air quotes around the way his cousin said the word, and he thought he did a fair imitation of her disdain for exercise.
“Too bad.”
Silence. Nick really, really wanted to ask if they’d talked about Brady, but he also couldn’t bear to bring it up. He looked at Gail with large, pleading eyes that she pointedly ignored.
“Go warm up,” she said. There was only a hint of wicked delight at Nick’s expense.
“You’re killing me,” he whined. “You are actively killing me. You will be investigated upon my death.”
“You’re so dramatic.” Gail rolled her eyes and leaned forward.
It was an unnecessary gesture considering no one else was at the bench yet.
“All I did was answer your cousin’s questions.
I have no clue what the fuck is going on between you and our resident Pittsburgh boy, but I do know Jensie is on average a stand-up guy.
Both on and off the ice. So that’s what I said. ”
Nick heaved a loud sigh. “So if there’s a problem, are you saying I’m—?”
“No.” She held up a hand to cut him off.
“Gonna shut that down right now. I’m here to help with the hockey.
I don’t do the other stuff. It’s messy and just…
no. Not saying I don’t want things to work out, but I am no love guru.
Y’all have already managed to throw each other out of your grooves, and I don’t want to be dragged down into that. ”
“Uh, excuse me. I got a hat trick.”
“After you got back into your groove. After being out of it. For like a month. You want relationship advice, you stick to your cousin. She seems to have her head on straight. You want hockey advice, I’m your gal.
And right now, this gal says get your ass out on the ice and warm up so you don’t disappoint your adoring fans. ”
Right.
Nick had a mediocre game. He started out weak, probably because he could hear Jenna cheering him on.
He settled into a rhythm after a few shifts, the familiar sounds of puck and skates and sticks on ice soothing him.
There was the added benefit that Jenna stopped randomly screaming words of praise and instead focused on specific good moves he made.
He didn’t score, but there were definite times when he made solid plays, and he was only out for one goal from the other team. Nothing memorable for or against him, so he was satisfied.
Player of the game? Definitely Gail. She was always solid on the backcheck, a traditional stay-at-home defenseman who only pushed up if she felt she had a really good opportunity and trusted that her winger would cover her if she’d miscalculated.
Tonight, though, she was on fire. She made risky plays and rang the post twice.
She skated circles around the best players on the other team.
There were even a few times when they went one-on-one against her, and she stayed with them.
No, staying with them completely undersold what she did.
She taunted them. She forced them to the outside while calling out, “Come on, big boy!” or “That all you got, tough guy?” or “Where the fuck they pick you up, Mites on Ice?” It was hilarious and surprisingly effective, completely throwing off her opponents.
And then there was the epic hip check to the one guy who almost got around her. He went spiraling to the ground and lost his stick and one of his gloves in the process of trying to right himself.
“What the fuck, ref!” the guy screamed as play continued on around him. “Where’s the call on that?”
“She’s half your size!” the ref said.
“She still can’t check!” he sputtered. “It’s a no-contact league!”
“Incidental contact.”
Nick needed to find footage to send to Brady.
Ugh, stupid Brady. The guy was in Pittsburgh and certainly not thinking about Nick, so why was Nick thinking about him?
Because Nick was an idiot, that was why.
Fuck his life.
“Were you showing off for my cousin?” he asked Gail as they skated away from the handshake line. Nick had noted that the guy Gail had checked hadn’t made eye contact with her as she fist-bumped him.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Gross. You know he wet the bed until he was five.”
Gail snorted. “Yeah, so did both of my brothers. I’m not surprised. Boys are gross.”
Later, Nick not-so-subtly pulled Jenna aside in the lobby, letting Gail and Terry flirt and exchange numbers while Nick did his best to talk around the elephant in the room.
“Thanks for coming,” he said. “Sorry I couldn’t score for you.”
“It’s okay, I know you’re no Ovechkin. Even he can’t score on command, I assume.”
“Well, actually, there are a lot of times when he—”
Jenna shut him up with A Look. “You looked good out there. Almost like you’ve been doing this your whole life.”
“Almost?”
“Considering this is, what, a year after you really started? C’mon, that’s pretty good!”
“Yeah, yeah.” He blushed and did his best to come up with something, anything, he could say to keep things centered on hockey.
“I’m sorry I’m giving you so much shit about Brady,” Jenna said.
“I want you to be happy. I saw you playing tonight, and you were definitely happy. So… I guess I’ll ease off and let you figure out the ‘cute boy’ issue, since you seem to be handling it okay so far.
Not healthily,” she added, “but you’re not a mess about it, so that’s something. ”
“Thank you. I’ll take that ‘not a mess’ as a compliment.” He nodded toward where Terry was babbling his way through a goodbye. “You backing off on me because you need to focus on that ‘definitely a mess’ over there?”
Jenna peeked over her shoulder and winced. “Oof, yeah. I mean, good on him, but yikes. Terry is so very… Terry.”
“And Gail is very, very Gail.”
“I like her, though.”
“Was it the ‘humoring you before the game’ or the ‘yelling shit at men who towered over her’?”
“Both, for sure. I’m Terry’s ride so I gotta head out. Movie this weekend?”
“Of course.” He rubbed his hands over her hair and pulled her into a half-hug. “Enjoy smelling like sweaty hockey player.”
“Gross.” It didn’t stop her from hugging him back. “Night.”
“Night.”
*