Chapter 8
CHAPTER
EIGHT
GUNNER
Sweat drips from the edges of my hair and trails down my forehead. I adjust my grip on the hockey stick and lean my weight back to maneuver around the orange cones.
Thwack!
The sound of the puck slashing into the net echoes through the empty stadium. I make three shots at a rapid-fire clip, adjusting my balance to increase speed.
“When did you get here?” Chance’s voice reverberates over the ice.
I straighten and nod in welcome. “You think you’re the only one who comes to training early and leaves last?”
“It’s not a competition.” Chance chuckles. “Unless it is. Because I’d win for sure.”
My lips rise imperceptibly. No matter how close we are, as athletes, we turn everything into a fight for number one.
“Whoa.” Chance’s eyes fall on the pucks in the goal. “Something going on?”
I hesitate and then I shake my head. What exactly do I tell him? As of two hours ago, I’m a taken man. My girlfriend’s the prettiest girl in town. She still hates my guts and would like nothing more than to set me on fire, but we’re in a serious relationship.
Have I mentioned that my mom hates her and now I’ll be stuck between a rock and a hard place for as long as we’re together?
“Gun?” Chance arches a brow.
“I’m fine,” I grumble.
A grin stretches across Chance’s face. “Anything you want to share with the class?”
“Yeah, Scooby’s Nightmare won today’s meet.” I fish the pucks out of the goalie net.
“That’s not what I heard.” Chance sings. His smile widens and I kind of wish we were enemies again, so I had an excuse to punch him.
“Then you heard wrong.” I skate past him, focusing on collecting the pucks.
Chance’s skates shred ice as he speeds in front of me and smacks my back joyfully. “How’d you do it, man?”
“Do what?”
“Keep you and Rebel a secret. April was blindsided when she read the texts in the neighborhood group chat.”
“Then that’s between her and Rebel.”
“But I took up for you. I told her I knew you had feelings for Rebel.”
I look up quickly, my eyebrows bunching in question.
Chance helps me gather the pucks. “I think it was a few weeks ago? Back when I was leaving Lucky Falls and I asked your permission to hire a lawyer to investigate your uncle…” Chance stops and looks over his shoulder at me, checking my face.
I give him a subtle nod.
After I heard what Uncle Stewart did to April, I understood why Chance was outraged. A part of me is glad that someone else is making a move to put him in check.
Uncle Stewart is a bad apple in our family, but he’s still family. I learned at a young age that, when it comes to our family’s secrets, my hands are tied.
“Anyway,” Chance clears his throat, “I saw the way you looked at Rebel when she came in to The Tipsy Tuna.”
Balancing my hands on the top of the hockey stick, I grumble, “How did I look at her?”
“You were staring at every move she made. And you even smiled when she walked in.”
“I smiled?” I stick a finger in my chest. “ I did?”
“Your entire face kind of…” Chance pauses in thought. “I don’t know how to explain. You… melted.”
I laugh out loud.
Chance smirks. “What’s so funny?”
“You need to get your eyes checked.” Skating briskly, I gather the rest of the pucks and send them skittering back to the neutral zone. “I’m telling you this because Rebel will probably tell April anyway.”
“What?” Chance holds his breath. “Did I misunderstand something?”
“Big time. Rebel and I aren’t really dating.” I shake my head.
“What?” Chance’s voice reverberates through the entire arena.
“We’re just pretending to so she can join the Lady Luck Society.”
“The Lucky what now?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s a community service group… the point is, we’re not really together. She hates me and that goes both ways.” I stick my finger in his face. “So don’t go around saying things like ‘I melt’ around her.”
Chance blinks a couple times, processing what I just told him.
At that moment, the door to the arena bangs open and the rest of the team march in. Loud laughter and conversation immediately liven up the air.
I tuck my chin against my chest to hide my growing smile. While I love my family, the Kinsey name is a heavy chain around my neck. Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell if anyone sees me when they look at me.
But when I started playing hockey with the Lucky Strikers, it felt like I’d found home. We were connected by our obsession with hockey and our desire to win. I was finally a part of something due to my own merit. It’s one of the reasons I was so affected when Chance took my captain spot on the team.
“There he is! The man of the hour!” Theilan hoists his hockey stick in the air like a trophy.
Watson starts singing ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow’ and the other guys join in, singing so robustly that Max pokes his head out of a window in the second floor admin section to see what the racket’s about.
“What’s going on?” our team manager yells.
Chance looks at Max with a shrug.
Theilan spins around to yell at our team manager, “Gunner and Rebel are dating.”
“That’s nice,” Max says. “What does that have to do with you guys?”
Watson shakes his head. “You and Chance didn’t grow up in Lucky Falls, so you don’t know. But Rebel Hart is a legend around here.”
“Rebel Hart?” Max snorts.
I frown at him.
The team manager looks at me in surprise. “Is her last name actually Heart? As in ‘Brave Heart’?”
“It’s Hart without the ‘e’,” I grumble. “H-A-R-T.”
Theilan protests, “Nah, spell that correctly. It’s Rebel K-I-N-S-E-Y now.”
Laughter breaks out from the team.
I roll my eyes.
If they knew how hard I had to work just to get Rebel to pretend to date me, they’d know the likelihood of her changing her last name to Kinsey is as good as aliens descending on Lucky Falls and playing against us on the ice.
“My older brother told me this once,” Theilan’s voice drips with a gossipy undertone, “that so many guys were leaving her love letters and trying to get with her, that it started fights in PE and on the basketball court. Even the teachers had to get involved.”
Chance swings around, his eyes wide. “Is that true?”
I squirm. “There were only a few fights…”
Chance’s eyes double in size.
Watson takes up the story. “From then on, Rebel swore that she’d never date a guy from Lucky Falls. She’s only ever dated out-of-towners. No matter how hard anyone tried, she’d turn them down flat.”
At first, I open my mouth to argue but, on second thought, I wonder if they have a point. I didn’t notice before, but each time I heard of Rebel dating someone, it wasn’t a native of our town.
“I should have known that if anyone in Lucky Falls could do it, it would be a Kinsey.” Theilan points to me and starts applauding.
Max purses his lips, impressed. “Not bad, Kinsey.”
“It’s not like that,” I mutter.
But no one hears me nor do they care.
I give Chance a helpless look.
He clears his throat and motions to the team. “Enough chit-chat. Where’s coach? Everyone’s got so much energy today that I’ll suggest we do suicide drills.”
Groans break out from the guys.
I hold back my laughter when Theilan begs, “Are you punishing us for being single?”
“Yeah, now that you two have girlfriends, you’re ganging up on us,” Watson whines.
“I’m happily single.” Renthrow pats Watson on the shoulder. “Leave Gunner alone and let’s get started. I have to hurry home.”
“Why? Is Gordie sick?” Theilan asks, straightening immediately.
I pay attention too. Gordie is Renthrow’s baby girl and, by default, the niece of every member on the team.
Renthrow nods gravely.
Theilan claps his hands together loud enough to wake the dead. “Come on, boys. Let’s get this started. Gordie needs some chicken soup and a bed time story.”
The boys scramble to change and get on the ice where coach runs us through a harsh set of drills. By the time we’re finished with practice, everyone’s wrung out and panting.
“I think Coach wants to kill us,” Theilan groans, dragging himself off the ice and onto a bench.
Watson guzzles a bottle of water.
I move over to Renthrow. “Do you need anything for Gordie?”
He shakes his head. “I already asked Mauve to make some chicken soup. I’ll swing by The Tipsy Tuna to pick it up before heading home.”
“I can do that.”
He shakes his head. “It’s alright, but I appreciate the offer.”
I nod.
Renthrow nods back.
Limping to the showers, I open my locker door and reach for my gym bag. At that moment, I hear a buzzing sound and check my phone.
The moment I see the name rolling across the screen, my blood runs cold.
UNCLE STEWART: Heard you’re dating the Hart girl.
UNCLE STEWART: That better be a joke.