Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Rowan
“Have I mentioned how fucking great it is to have working crappers again?”
Our goalie Sal walks out of the bathroom area of our new locker room into the dressing area, where everyone is getting changed for practice. We spent the past three years sharing a community college hockey team’s facilities after our own arena was destroyed by explosions caused by mechanical failure, and our new arena was finally finished and opened a couple of weeks ago.
“It was no skin off your balls,” my teammate Colby tells Sal with a glare. “You just kept shitting in the only toilet we had in the college locker room whether it was working or not.”
Sal shrugs. “Better than shitting my pants, bro.”
The college locker room bathroom had lots of urinals--but only one toilet--and the showers had lousy water pressure and ran out of hot water every time we used them. Our team owner Mila struck a deal with them to pay for our use of their facility, and she also made a big donation to the school when our arena opened to fund new locker room facilities for the men’s and women’s hockey teams.
Our team captain Ford walks into the dressing area and shakes his head when he sees Sal.
“In what universe does that mustache look good, Sal? It has to be one where everyone is blind.”
Sal grins and strokes his thick, dark mustache, which he’s been growing out for months. It looks like Ben Stiller’s mustache in Happy Gilmore, and I swear at this point he’s just keeping it to fuck with us.
“Don’t be hatin’ on my lip foliage,” Sal says.
“You look more like a ’70s porn star than ’70s porn stars do,” Beau says from the other side of the room.
“Your mom loves sitting on my womb broom. Can’t keep her off the damn thing.”
I pull my T-shirt on and step closer to him to get a better look at it. “How is it so much thicker than the hair on your head, man?”
“It’s all the testosterone I have racing through these veins.”
Dom laughs heartily from nearby. “That’s an overflowing crock of bullshit. He puts hair growth shit on it.”
Sal side-eyes him, not denying it, as we all laugh.
“Jesus, dude,” Ford says. “Shave that thing off and use the hair stuff on your head.”
“You think it’s a coincidence that I’ve had shut outs in two of the last three games? My mustachio is my lucky charm.”
The laughter quiets because we all get that. Lucky charms are a thing with us. Every season, we all hope to have playoff beards that lead us all the way to the championship cup.
“I think we should all dress as Sal for my costume party,” Dom says. “Even you, Sal. Just show up with that lip rug and you’re good.”
“When is the party?” Sergei asks.
“Check the group text. It’s Sunday night at seven.”
We’re leaving tomorrow for a five-day road trip, returning Sunday morning. Dom’s been trying to lock in everyone’s attendance at the first Halloween party he and Tess are throwing together. Beau’s parents are hosting all the Coyotes players’ kids that night for a Halloween sleepover.
The team’s extended family is always growing. Colby and Mila had their first baby, a boy, a few months ago, and Beau’s wife Shelby is pregnant with their second child.
The room quiets when our newest teammate, Griff Carrington, walks in. The dude steals the lightness everywhere he goes. He was the captain of the Vancouver team and he has a longtime rivalry with Ford. Griff expected to play his entire career in Vancouver and is still pissed off his team traded him.
“Morning, sunshine,” Dom says to Griff.
Griff ignores him. Ford gives Dom a look that silently tells him to shut the fuck up.
Sergei was known as the quietest, most brooding member of our team, but he’s got nothing on Griff. I’m not sure I’ve seen Griff smile since he got here. He plays hard, though, which is all any of us expect.
“Did you get the car thing situated?” Ford asks Griff.
“Yeah.” Griff doesn’t even glance at him as he answers.
Griff’s Range Rover wouldn’t start when we got back from our last road trip, so Ford gave him a ride home. That had to be the most awkward twenty minutes of all time.
I finish changing, lace up my skates and head out to the ice, still awed as I look around our new arena. Mila went all out. We have nice, comfortable seats in our stands and the best sound and lighting in the league. Our arena is part of a mini village where fans can get food and drinks before and after games. Mila fought the city to ensure we didn’t just have enough parking but more than enough. Being unable to find parking was the most common complaint our fans had with the old arena.
Our championship banners and retired team numbers have all been hung. It’ll take time for this to feel like home the way our old arena did, but we’ll get there.
“Hey, you want to play Call of Duty later?” Dom asks me as he skates out.
I think about it for a second. “Yeah, I’ll play til’ nine.”
“Nine?” He laughs. “Okay, gramps. You gotta take your Metamucil and wash off your dentures then?”
I shake my head. “I won’t come at all, then. How about that?”
“You’re fucking coming, dude. We haven’t played in more than a week.”
Dom’s my best friend, and our friendship works well because I usually go along with his dumb ideas. But last month, he convinced me to keep playing the night before a road trip and we didn’t quit until I had just enough time to go pack my shit and make it to the bus on time the next morning.
Never again. I was a zombie on the way back to the hotel after the game that night. Our coach would rip us both gaping new assholes if he knew we did that.
“I’m setting a timer on my phone and I’m done at nine. I’ll walk out in the middle of a game if I have to.”
He gasps. “You barbarian.”
“Those are my terms. Take ’em or leave ’em.”
“Yeah, fine. Bring pizza and wings, but don’t say I told you to. Tess is making vegetable soup for dinner tonight and I hate that shit, but I don’t want her to know.”
“Would she be pissed?”
He shrugs. “No, but she’d be hurt. She’s trying to become a better cook and I don’t want her to feel bad.”
“And what about you? Are you trying to improve yourself in any way now that you guys are going to be walking down the aisle?”
Coach blows his whistle to start the practice.
“You can’t improve upon this,” Dom says smugly. “I’m already an eleven.”
I only hold back my response because practice is starting.
“Horseshit,” I say that evening, tossing the PS5 controller I’m holding on to the couch cushion next to me. “Clapper527 keeps cornholing me.”
“Hey, will you hold a piece of pizza in front of my mouth so I can bite it?” Dom asks, furiously pressing buttons. “But don’t block the screen.”
I take a piece of pizza out of the box and take a huge bite. “I’m not feeding you unless you wipe my ass.”
“I’ll wipe your ass if it’s clean.”
I laugh a single note and sit back down next to him. “Why would I need my ass wiped if it was clean?”
“Come on, I’m hungry.”
“You want me to ask Tess to bring you some more soup?”
“Eat my ass. She put squash in it this time. I had to smile while I ate that soggy shit and say it was delicious.”
“I told her when I got here that you hated it.”
His jaw drops and he looks over at me. “You better be fucking with me. If you hurt her feelings, I will dick punch you so hard your nuts will fall out of your asshole.”
He’s so distracted he gets killed in the game and I laugh, satisfied. “No, I didn’t.”
“You’re a cocksucker.” He sets down the controller and goes over to the open pizza box, taking out a slice. “Hey, Tess said you and Cam might be going out.”
I keep eating my pizza, waiting for a few seconds. “Is there a question in there?”
“I thought it was assumed. Are you?”
“I hope so. I’ve waited a year and it’s almost up.”
“Don’t try to make yourself sound like a Boy Scout to me. It’s not like you haven’t been with any other women in the past year.”
I shrug. “So what? She said she wasn’t dating anyone for a year so I waited. I’m still interested.”
“Interested in...?”
I open a bottle of water and chug half of it. “Interested in her. You know that. I’ve liked Cam since the day we met.”
“Yeah, but Cam’s my family, man. So are her boys. You can’t fuck around with her feelings.”
I scoff. “Between the two of us, I’ve always been much better to women than you. Until you met Tess.”
He lowers his brows, agitated. “Look, there are unlimited women out there for you to fuck around with. Not her. You’re like my brother and she’s like my sister. I don’t want one of you not showing up at my house anymore because you’re worried about running into the other one.”
“Relax. We haven’t even made plans yet. I won’t screw her over. You know me better than that.”
He shakes his head and gives me a rare, serious look. “We’re having this conversation because of how well I know you. Will you just respect our friendship enough to leave things the way they are with her? I’m asking you to do that as a favor to me.”
Tess opens the door to Dom’s office and takes a step inside, smiling at us. “Hey, how’s it going?”
“Just saving the world from total annihilation,” Dom says.
She looks at the pizza and wing boxes on the table in the game room. “Rowan, you never have to bring food over; I’ll always feed you. I made soup tonight.”
“Dom said it was amazing. I’ll remember that next time.”
She beams at Dom. “You really liked it, babe? I thought you might not have.”
“It was fantastic, as always. My baby can cook.”
Tess gives him a warm look and then turns back to me, her expression serious. “Don’t let him stay up all night again.”
“I’m leaving at nine.”
“You should stop playing at nine, too,” she tells Dom.
“I will.”
She closes the door and as soon as it clicks shut, he mouths to me, “ I won’t .”
I don’t pick up the conversation about Cam because it won’t go anywhere good. Dom should know me better than he seems to. I guess he’ll just have to see for himself that when the time comes, I won’t hurt Cam.