Chapter 21
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
CHANCE
A stack of computer monitors blink to life in front of me. I fall into the office chair and it makes a loud creak. Leaning forward, I scrape my thumb over the monitor showing the arena’s front entrance.
“Hm.” I rub my thumb and index finger together, noting the dust coating both. “Does Max not have security at the arena?”
My phone buzzes with a text.
Derek: I sent the girls over like you wanted. They should be arriving by now.
Right on time, a van drives into the parking lot. Tall, beautiful girls dressed in tights and crop tops pile out of a van.
Checking my phone for the time, I balk.
Where’s Bobby?
I send a frantic text to the Zamboni driver, but there’s no response.
Plucking out my fidget spinner, I give it a whirl. If Bobby’s late and we miss this window, the crux of my plan falls apart.
“Come on, come on,” I whisper, as if I can wirelessly communicate my wishes.
I open my eyes and see movement on the monitor. Scrambling forward, I tap into the video feed of the street. A giant bus rolls into the camera’s line of sight.
My shoulders sag in relief.
Bobby’s arrived.
The cheer team is still moving up and down from their truck to the arena, carrying their pompoms and camera equipment. My gaze naturally flicks over the girls, but it’s with nothing more than respectful appreciation. Ever since I met April, my interest in other women saw a significant dip.
Thankfully, the WWW have not yet been bewitched by a curly-haired female mechanic like I have.
My teammates dismount the bus and notice the girls. Gunner and Renthrow don’t slow their stride as they head inside the arena, but Theilan and Watson do a double take. The girls smile at them. They smile back and wander over to make small talk.
My phone rings.
I answer, eyes on the feed.
“Chance,” Bobby talks in a nervous rush, “phase one is complete. I got the four of them here. What do I do now?”
“I already put the sign on the locker door. Gunner and Renthrow should notice it right away.” As I speak, the guys are turning the bend and approaching the locker room.
I tap the speaker icon, set my phone on the dusty surface of the desk and click to the security feed with a full view of the hallway.
Gunner is stalking ahead with a scowl. Rain or shine, he always looks like someone cut him off in traffic. For someone whose family owns the whole town, you’d think the guy would be a lot less grumpy.
Renthrow stomps beside him and throws a Hello Kitty gym bag over his shoulder. His muscles bulge like he’s training for a bodybuilding competition, so the cartoon-themed bag looks extremely out of place as it flaps against his back.
“Call Theilan and Watson inside.” I tell Bobby. “Then stay out of sight for a bit.”
“Aye-aye, captain.”
The phone clicks off.
On screen, Gunner and Renthrow stop in front of the door to the locker room. Gunner is the first to notice my ‘ Changing Room for the Jumping Diamonds’ sign. He points to the paper and says something to Renthrow.
“Isn’t there a way to get audio?” I click around the security feed program, but none of the icons make sense. I went to school for hockey, not cyber security.
To be fair, I don’t know how to do the thing I did technically get a degree for. Studying business administration was a way to keep mom off my back while I partied for four years.
How I scraped by in those classes that I never showed up for is a mystery that I could solve… if I checked dad’s bank transactions. But some secrets are better left buried.
I’m determined to at least get a decibel of audio going but my phone rings, distracting me.
Thinking it’s Bobby, I answer without looking.
“Not yet, Bobby. I’ll call you when we get to phase three.”
“What’s ‘phase three’ and who’s Bobby?” Mom demands.
I startle and nearly drop the phone on the desk.
“Hello?” Mom squawks. “Chance?”
Gingerly, I hold the phone properly to my ear. “Mom?”
“What mischief are you getting into over there?”
“Me? I… I was… ah,” I cough loudly, “mom, I’m in the middle of something. Why’d you call?”
“Can’t a mother check on her son, the underwear model?”
I groan loudly. I’ve been so focused on April, the team, and doing everything I can to get back to the league, that I didn’t think of what would happen if those pictures reached my parents.
“You saw?” I cringe.
“I waited and waited, thinking surely Chance will call with an explanation on why he’s parading around with his buttocks ablaze, but nooo ,” she stresses, “I’d no choice but to pick up the phone and call you myself.”
“There was a bit of an accident…” Something on the screen distracts me. Theilan and Watson have joined Gunner and Renthrow in the hallway. They’re all heading to the second locker room.
“Accident? What accident?”
“Nothing too serious. But unfortunately, it happened in front of a news team.”
I set a six minute timer. I’ve been observing the WWW all week. On average, they only take about six minutes to shower.
Putting mom on speaker, I navigate to my messenger app and type out new instructions for Bobby. After I press ‘send’, the monitor picks up Bobby’s location. He’s on the ice, taking pictures of the dancers. The girls crowd him, pushing their cell phones at him and flashing practiced smiles.
“A news team? We should sue them! There’s such a thing as citizen’s privacy, you know.”
Bobby, answer your phone.
“Put your lawyers away, mom,” I mumble, checking the monitor. “We don’t need to sue anyone.”
“As a mother, it is my job to protect my son’s buttocks?—”
“Mom, can you stop saying ‘buttocks’? Please? ” I swipe my phone from the desk, sneak out of the security room and look both ways.
“Would you prefer the term ‘no-no zone’? Bodunk-a-donk? Rumparoony—as the kids say?”
“Which kids? I would pay to know which kids are saying that.” I tiptoe down the hallway.
“If you can’t even say the word, Chance, why on earth would you galivant around in such a manner, embarrassing yourself and your family for the whole world to see?”
I’m getting close to the second locker room.
Lowering my voice, I whisper, “I’m sorry, mom. It’s my fault. It’ll never happen again. Now, I really need to go.”
“Wait, I have one more thing to discuss. Who’s that girl you keep getting photographed with?”
I tense. “You’re asking like you haven’t already run a background check.”
“That’s not very nice, Chance,” she says dryly. “And of course I’ve run a background check. I know more about that woman than you do.”
“Mom…”
“Her name is April Brooks. She went to a trade school ,” mom sounds mildly disgusted. “Her dad is in a nursing home and she’s struggling to pay both his bills and her garage’s mortgage.”
That stops me short. “April’s struggling to pay her dad’s bills?”
“She looks very different than the women you usually go for, Chance. And don’t get me wrong. That’s not a bad thing. I’m just a little concerned that such a woman would be with you for your money.”
I check my watch. Three minutes.
I’m running out of time.
“April’s not like that. She’s amazing.”
“But—”
“Things are different with her,” I tell mom firmly.
“So you’re bringing her to the gala?”
I crane my neck to see into the locker room. “Yes, yes. You’ll see her then.”
“Chance, darling, if you’re ready for ‘different’, I can introduce you to so many women?—”
“I’ll call you later, mom. Love you.”
Tapping the ‘end call’ button abruptly, I slip my phone into my pocket and sneak into the locker room.
Two minutes.
I run like a track and field athlete at the Olympics. My fingers dig into fabric. Shoes. Gym bags. I even snatch the team’s flag from the wall. Rolling them into a giant ball, I scurry out of the locker room just as one of the faucets in the shower squeaks off.
“No way you got so many numbers,” Theilan is saying to someone.
Watson’s voice rings with pride. “I got ten, bro.”
“Call them. I bet half those girls gave you dupes.” That voice belongs to the Hello Kitty man himself, Renthrow.
“Wait right here. I’ll get my cell phone and prove it.” Footsteps slap the ground and a moment later, I hear, “Did anyone move my cell phone?”
Holding back laughter, I dash to the security room. By the time I drop comfortably into the chair behind the monitors, the action is already taking place.
Renthrow’s head is wedged into the hallway while his body is hunkering behind the door. His eyes are wide and he’s craning his neck as far as it can go. Mouth wide, he appears to be yelling for someone.
Poor guy is yelling at empty air.
Gunner’s head pops out under Renthrow.
Theilan and Watson follow.
They look like four peas in a naked little pod.
Gunner is the first to realize he’s being watched. His chilly stare angles upward at the security camera. I do a chin-up gesture, returning his glare with a greeting.
The four heads disappear.
A moment later, Gunner steps into the hallway. I burst out laughing when I see the tiny speedo he’s wearing. I left the speedos in the locker room long before they arrived at the arena. They’re sparkly, pink, and several sizes too small.
Eyes narrowed, Gunner turns and gestures to the others. Slowly, the rest of the WWW file out. Theilan is covering his speedo with both hands as he inches along in embarrassment. Watson keeps picking at the material, walking crookedly.
Renthrow is at the front of the pack, but today, he’s not walking like he’s leading an army. Instead, he’s crouched over, making small, shuffling movements, and jumping at every sound.
From the camera, I see a trio of dancers moving in their direction. Gunner glances back and forth nervously.
The rest of WWW freeze.
As if an alarm went off, the men make a sharp turn and scramble back to the locker room. Theilan goes sprawling. None of the others go back for him. He looks over his shoulder with wild eyes, crawls desperately on all fours and pushes himself to two feet again.
My stomach is about to split apart.
Tears leak from my eyes.
No wonder they were laughing so hard when they pranked me. I’m enjoying the show and I don’t even have audio.
Vindicated, I head back down to meet them.
As I get closer to the locker room, I hear Gunner saying, “Renthrow, you take a hit for the team. Go find some clothes and I’ll get your daughter those tickets to Star Princess Girl that you’ve been asking about.”
I freeze in my tracks.
Renthrow has a daughter? Since when?
So then… is the Hello Kitty themed gym bag and slippers not his aesthetic? Does it have something to do with his kid?
“Theilan should go. He’s the one who isn’t afraid of showing off his body online.”
“Making exercise videos on the beach is not the same thing,” Theilan objects. “Watson should go!”
With a grin, I step into the room. “That won’t be necessary.”
“You!”
“Where the heck are my clothes!”
A pack of glittery-speedo-wearing athletes charge at me, all yelling at the same time.
Renthrow moves to grab me by the collar, but I stop him by lifting my phone.
“Smile for the camera, boys.”
Immediately, they halt in their tracks, cover their faces and yell for me to put the phone down.
Gunner glares at me, but even he backs off.
“You think this is funny, McLanely?” Watson clips through gritted teeth.
“ You thought it was funny. When you did it to me.”
A harsh, self-reflective silence falls on the room.
There’s a reason ‘do unto others as you want done unto you’ is a golden rule. It’s because it’s true.
I lift my phone higher.
“Ah!”
“Don’t!”
But instead of taking a picture, I call Bobby.
Thankfully, he answers.
“Can you bring the clothes I left in the security room?” I say into the phone.
“I’ll be right there,” Bobby answers.
Gunner straightens his shoulders, his glare thick enough to melt paint. “Was this all a set up? Even those girls?”
“The girls were part of the ruse, yes,” I say calmly.
Renthrow’s bushy eyebrows tighten over his eyes. “We were never supposed to retake photos for the website, were we?”
“Nope. That was sent from a fake email account.”
Watson scoffs. “This is where your prank ends? Nice try, McLanely, but you didn’t go as far as we did.”
I say nothing.
Gunner inhales sharply. With a dark frown, he looks at Watson. “He could have if he wanted to.”
Awareness rolls over Watson’s face.
Renthrow narrows his eyes.
“I don’t want a war.” I step forward with my eyes on the lockers behind them. It’s difficult to have a serious conversation when my opponents are wearing ridiculous, bedazzled pieces of fabric.
“You asked for one the moment you took over the team without earning it,” Theilan says.
“Maybe. Maybe not. But fighting each other won’t get any of us what we want.”
Someone snorts. Could be Renthrow. It came from his direction.
“You think hating my guts will win you any games? It won’t. Our real enemies are the players who come on that ice thinking they can keep us from the trophy.”
Bobby hustles into the room then. I nod to the players and he instantly gets the message.
“Get dressed.” I tell them as Bobby dishes out their clothes. “You look silly in those speedos.”
That comment earns me dark looks across the board.
Gunner shrugs the shirt over his head and flings a heated stare at Bobby.
“Bobby, how could you betray us like this?” Theilan says.
Bobby shrugs. “You each got one chance to torture each other. Now, you’re even and we can finally focus on the season.”
Gunner sits on a bench to tie his shoes, his glare a little less severe. “We knew you were going to get us back someday. We were waiting all week. As far as revenge goes, this isn’t bad.”
“Thank you.”
“But it could have been worse,” he allows. “So why didn’t you make it worse?”
“Because as much as I believe in giving as good as I get, there’s something more important than that.”
“Which is?” Renthrow grunts.
“Protecting my team at all costs.”
Watson gasps.
Theilan glances away.
Renthrow studies me as if he doesn’t know what to do with me.
Gunner shakes his head disbelievingly. “We know why you’re here. We know you’re not sticking around. Don’t bother acting like we’re a team.”
“That’s exactly why I don’t want to waste time fighting with you. You don’t have to like me. We don’t have to be friends, but what we are—whether we like it or not—is teammates.”
I stride right up to Gunner.
He leans back, eyeing me warily.
“Honest truth? Off the ice, you suck.”
He bares his lips in a snarl.
“But,” I offer my hand, “on the ice, you’re my family.”
Gunner smacks my hand away.
I offer my hand again, determined.
Gunner studies the hand, rises to his feet and stares me right in the eyes. “Dream on, McLanely. You suck on and off the ice.”
I laugh, seeing the olive branch for what it is.
Renthrow slaps me on the back. “Where’d you find these speedos, man? They’re awful.”
“I ordered them online. They were pretty customizable. I almost got one with each of your names on ‘em.”
“You couldn’t get them a size bigger?” Theilan squirms, his mouth twisted in discomfort.
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
Watson points at Theilan and guffaws. “You really do look awful. I wonder how many of those girls would have texted back if they saw you like this?”
“Are you kidding? I could bag twice as many girls in this speedo.”
Renthrow waves a hand at the door. “You’ve still got a chance.”
“I said I could. I didn’t say I wanted to .” Theilan grins and runs into the shower with his bundle of clothes.
Watson, Renthrow and Gunner follow him.
At the last second, Gunner turns back and looks at me with his cold stare.
I tilt my chin up, waiting.
“I’m dumping your gift in the trash,” he says. “Unless you want it back.”
I make a disgusted face. “You can keep it as a souvenir.”
He narrows his eyes and moves toward the shower. Then he stops and looks at me again. “We usually head over to The Tipsy Tuna on the weekends. Just to let off some steam.”
My eyes widen in shock. That was definitely an invitation to join them, but do I have to? I wanted to go see April after this.
As the silence lengthens, Gunner’s face hardens. “If you have something better to do…”
Gunner strikes me as the petty type. He will never make another offer if I reject this one. “I could use a drink. Who’s buying?”
“If you want us to pretend tonight never happened…”
I chuckle. “I guess I am.”