Chapter 7
ZANE
“Let me get this straight,” Jax Echlin said as we took a breather from practice. “Not only did you not get Jakob Martin outside and pound the shit out of him, but you almost got hauled off to jail?”
“Hauled off is kind of dramatic, don’t you think, Jax?”
“A cop did stop you and ask for your I.D., though. And you really did demand Jakob meet you outside in front of witnesses. Getting thrown in the can wouldn’t have been totally out of the question.”
“Yeah, but…I—Jakob…he—”
I cut myself off there, knowing I’d grown tongue tied enough as it was. Before, I thought only Jakob Martin could fluster me on that level and then found Jax on equal footing. No, wait, it wasn’t Jax. I couldn’t even handle the topic of Jakob Martin without going a little crazy.
“The cop stopped me,” I said, “and, yeah, he asked to see my I.D., so I gave it to him, no arguments. That’s how you’ve got to handle these things. He wanted to know what was going on, so I told him.”
“You admitted to picking a fight in a candy store? Seriously?”
“Jesus, man, when you put it like that.”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it? You walked into Parkside Candy, spotted Jakob browsing the sour gumballs and picked a fight with him?”
“It was sponge candy. And it wasn’t—”
Again, I paused because I just couldn’t win. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Jax should’ve applauded me and wished to enjoy the same opportunity himself. But he didn’t. God, he was impossible.
“So, what did the cop tell you?” Jax asked.
“Said he was going to let me off with a warning, especially since it would be my word against Jakob’s.”
“Or everyone in the store at the time, you mean. And anyway, that would be moot if they have any store cameras.”
“Yeah, the cop said that, too.
“So, you just got lucky.”
“I don’t think I just got lucky. Look, it was really no big deal. I’m sure the cop didn’t have time for a petty squabble between hockey players with the murders and robberies going on in the city.”
Jax half-smiled. At least it looked that way when he lifted the corner of his mouth.
That meant he didn’t take me seriously. No, he thought I was a joke.
Oh, he hadn’t said those words, but I could fill in the blanks.
The fact that he would practically defend the enemy surprised me the most. Normally, he would’ve been only to happy to villainize any member of the Larkin Lions. What the heck was going on?
“You know, you don’t have to take Jakob’s side,” I said.
“What the hell are you talking about, bro?”
“Come off it, Jax, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I would’ve thought you’d be totally onboard with what I was doing. Now I wonder what you would say if I had bashed Jakob’s smarmy little face in.”
“I dunno, that’s totally hypothetical.”
“Not that hypothetical. Think about it. If he’d had the stones to step outside with me, he would’ve had a black eye, a swollen nose, and been short a few teeth.”
“Either that or we would’ve had a repeat of the Colter Bay Grill fiasco.”
“Meaning what, exactly?”
“You could’ve been laid out flat again.”
He shrugged like he honestly considered that a legitimate possibility. As if! Hearing that made me want to lay him out flat, which I would’ve done had we not played for the same damn team.
“Um, excuse me,” I said, “but I seem to remember you spending an awful lot of time looking up at the lights that night, pal.”
Touching on that point didn’t seem to rattle him, which bothered me for reasons you wouldn’t expect.
First of all, if I hadn’t told him my story, he wouldn’t have had any business commenting on fighting.
That he’d not only owned up to the ass kicking he’d taken but seemed not to care blew my mind.
He didn’t even seem embarrassed. That wasn’t the Riptide way.
You dish out the ass kickings; you never take them.
“You’ve got to get off this, bro,” Jax said.
“Off what?”
“Come on, Zane, you know I shouldn’t have to draw a picture for you.”
“What if you do?”
He flashed a bona fide smile this time and seemed to shake his head, too. You know, like I’d said something stupid? Or maybe I was my own worst enemy? I wanted to tell him to spit it out because I was dying to know. Of course, anything I said would drip with sarcasm.
I rested my stick against the boards and sighed, figuring we would be there for a while.
“Look, Zane,” he said. “I’m not trying to bust your balls. Seriously. I just think getting into something like this only creates a shit ton of distraction for you—and the team by extension.”
“Excuse me, but weren’t you the one puffing your chest out at the bar?”
“I did do that, sure, but only after shit escalated, and because I had the whole team with me.”
“You’re saying you’re only tough when you’ve got backup, huh? Yeah, that’s real brave.”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m telling you that the situation was at least a little different.”
“And you also opened your mouth, knowing the shit it could cause.”
I didn’t want to go there, especially when I really preferred to blame the Larkin Lions for everything. In truth, the brawl wouldn’t have happened if he’d ignored the Lions’ presence, or at least behaved in a peaceful manner, but I felt like I couldn’t say it. He was the team captain, after all.
“I know I did,” he said. “Maybe I should’ve known it would escalate. Whatever. I stand by what I said about the team being there. I didn’t go after anyone from their team individually that night and definitely not after the fact.”
When he paused, I knew he meant to let his point sink in, and he succeeded, but not quite like he might’ve hoped.
“Something about Jakob Martin drives you nuts,” he said.
“Yeah, it’s the fat nose that still hasn’t completely healed.”
“It’s more than that and you know it, Zane.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You won’t let this go, bro. Yeah, the rivalry means something to me, too. I hate the Larkin Lions with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns, but I despise the team, not an individual player.”
“What about Levi Dunn, the guy that popped you?”
“That’s different.”
I raised my index finger like I had a point to make but stopped myself short of speaking. He was almost right about something (praise Jesus!) no matter how badly I wanted to deny it.
Something about Jakob Martin rubbed me the wrong way even before the Colter Bay Grill brawl.
After his fist made its acquaintance with my face that feeling grew, but I understood there was more to it than that.
Maybe the fact that he was so goddamn smug about the whole thing had done it.
That he seemed to feel in total control of the situation had contributed to my animosity.
“What’s going on?” Jax asked.
“Nothing. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
And I really didn’t. I had noticed some things about Jakob that I hadn’t shared—and absolutely wouldn’t now that Jax had exposed himself as a wet blanket.
Jakob had not only appeared to remain in control of the situation but seemed unflappable.
But it was almost like he wouldn’t have been with anyone else.
He could handle a confrontation from me, like I was the exception to the rule.
Or maybe I wasn’t the exception at all. Maybe I was a big dope who didn’t know his ass from his elbow.
Okay, I’ll take being the exception to the rule. Sounds great, huh?
I pictured how Jakob must’ve looked when the cop had stopped me. In this fantasy, Jakob smiled hugely, showing the craziest pair of dimples the world had ever seen. I certainly found them exceptional.
Even crazier was the fact that I would never give something like that a second thought. Only at Parkside Candy had I seen Jakob Martin up so close (when he didn’t have his fist in my face, that is), and never noticed that he possessed a perfect set of teeth.
I shouldn’t have noticed the dimples or the teeth. For that matter, I shouldn’t have noticed the twinkle in his eye. It was weird. I had no idea what it would lead to. God, I needed to wiggle out of this conversation before my mind really went off the rails.
“I can make this way easier for you,” Jax said. “The coach already warned us about getting into any more trouble with the Lions. He wasn’t joking around, and you know it.”
“Yeah, yeah, Jakob got the same spiel from their coach.”
“But this isn’t a spiel, Zane. He was on the level. Hockey is serious business around here, you know that. All this rivalry stuff is bullshit—it’s good bullshit—but only if it doesn’t interfere with winning.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, hating to admit defeat, but I understood he had me licked.
“We need you on the team and in good standing if we’re going to win a title,” he said.
“And you won’t be here if you get into it with Jakob Martin or any of the other Larkin Lions.
It doesn’t matter if it’s at the Colter Bay Grill, Parkside Candy, or the freaking zoo.
You know the coach would never bullshit anyone. ”
Jax had a point—again. Dammit to hell.
“Okay, fine,” I said. “Forget I brought it up.”
I grabbed my stick and skated back to center ice, leaving Jax Echlin and his stupidity behind.
I understood my boundaries as our coach laid them out and understood the need to be available for the Riptides more than anyone.
Weird things had happened to me since that night at the Colter Bay Grill.
It wasn’t just getting laid out and later outsmarted.
As I swept up a puck and glided down the rink, I couldn’t banish thoughts of Jakob Martin from my mind, especially his smile, perfect teeth and dimples.
Don’t ask me why.