Chapter 5 #2
Practice was easy. Coach had the team running plays that I could stop in my sleep.
There was only one player who could get the puck past me, a guy named Chaser.
I wasn’t sure if his name was Chase, or if it was a hockey nickname—but the guy was good.
I wondered if he was the one that the scouts were interested in checking out.
Coalman had told me there was one contender, it had to be him.
In the dressing room, I sat off to the side. Chaser and one of the defensemen, a kid named Mack, were sitting on either side of me when Coach came in.
“Great practice, gentlemen. Good hustle out there. The Windswan Eagles have had a good season, but their goalie is nowhere as good as ours.” He smiled and gave an obvious wink.
“We’re lucky to have Nick Tinsel on our roster, but we can’t rest on our laurels.
We play them Wednesday night, so no partying at the Last Chance tomorrow, and go easy at the gym.
It’s a three-game series. I think we can sweep it, and we’ll have a practice on the outdoor ice surface before the classic.
The Eagles practice regularly on an outdoor rink, it’s a totally different game out there without the boards.
” He pointed to Mack. “I’m talking to you. ”
Mack shrugged. “I can’t help it if people get in my way next to the boards.”
The rest of the team laughed.
“Mack is our enforcer,” Chaser explained.
“You don’t say.” I laughed. “Mack is built like a…” I understood his nickname. “Mack truck?”
Laughter erupted in the room. “You got it, new guy.” Number Twenty-Six clapped.
Coach left the room. Number Twenty-Six stood. “Tomorrow night, come to the Last Chance. Team building.” He clapped me on the shoulder.
“What about the no partying thing?” I asked and immediately regretted it. I also regretted laughing and enjoying my time with my new teammates. For a moment I’d forgotten that I was going to try my best to hate them all. Those kind fuckers were making it really hard.
“It’s just one drink.” Chaser shrugged. “It’s sort of something that we do with all the new players on the team. We need to go out and…bond.”
“Right.” I nodded. They assumed that I didn’t know about amateur hour at the Last Chance Tavern. This wasn’t my first rodeo as the new guy on a hockey team, and I recognized an initiation setup when I saw one. “Sure. I’ll come for one drink.”
I wasn’t going to go. One, I knew a hazing ritual when I saw one—and I wasn’t in the mood for swinging around a pole, and two, it sounded like fun. Something I was actively trying to avoid during my time in town. And three, when I didn’t show, they would think I was an asshole. Which I was.
A knowing smile spread across the player’s faces.
As we left the arena, Chaser jogged to catch up with me. “Sweet ride.” He whistled.
“Thanks.” I pulled out the keys and unlocked the door. “It’s not that great in the snow.”
Chaser leaned over the side of the truck and peered into the truck bed. “Come to my place, I’ll get you some sandbags. These rear-wheel drives need a bit of weight in the back, unless you plan on driving around in four-wheel drive the entire time you’re here.”
“It makes it easier to fishtail.” I laughed. “But if you’ve got some sandbags, it sure would make driving through the mountain pass a hell of a lot less scary. Should I follow you?” I looked around the parking lot, but there weren’t any cars left.
“I walked,” Chaser said. “It’s not too far.”
“Hop in.” I got in and leaned over to unlock the door. The truck rumbled to life as Chaser hopped in the passenger seat. Country music blared out the radio and I turned down the dial. “Which way?”
“I’m on Sycamore Street. It’s just off Main Street. Turn right out of the parking lot.” Chaser put on his seat belt, clicking it into place. “Man, this thing is like vintage.”
“It’s not like vintage.” I laughed. “It is vintage—1974.”
“Older than Coach and Brushy.”
“Yeah, what’s the deal with…Brushy?”
“What do you mean?” Chaser rested his elbow on the window frame. He was wearing cowboy boots and had a full beard.
“I mean, he read me the riot act about not sleeping around. He said to stay away from the bunnies, and the non-bunnies. Who the hell is left?”
Chaser laughed and slapped the thigh of his jeans. “He did? Oh man. He does that to everybody. Don’t take it personally.”
“It was weird, though.” I rubbed my chin. The tires spun as we made it up the slight incline to Main Street from the arena. “It was like he was singling out a specific person, the girl who lives at the inn where I’m staying.”
“Yeah.” Chaser shook his head. “For a while there, a lot of guys were sleeping with their billet’s daughters. It didn’t go over well.”
“I’m not billeting.” I hadn’t been a billet since my junior days. Living with new families every year while I played hockey was like having to start all over again. As soon as I could make it on my own, that’s what I did. “I’m staying at the Snowy Peaks Inn.”
Chaser shrugged. “Same thing, dude. Don’t overthink it.”
I already had. Logan’s response had been…odd.
“He specifically mentioned the girl from the inn. I told him that she wasn’t my type, you know, to get him off my back.”
“How’d that go?” Chaser didn’t seem all that interested in the conversation but was entertaining it.
“Fine. Until I told him that the hot brunette I saw at the G-Spot was more my type.”
Chaser turned to look at me as though he were in slow motion. His eyebrows raised so high they almost disappeared underneath his cowboy hat. “Is that all you said?”
“I mean, I described her. Hot, brunette, dressed in all black, classy—no, wait, I told him I liked older women.”
Chaser shook his head and rubbed his hand on his eye. “Dude. Was she kind of short and her hair super shiny? Like, did she look like she belonged in New York, not Chance Rapids?”
I snapped my fingers. “Totally.”
“Yeah, that’s Billie Jo, but she goes by Charlotte now. She grew up here, left, and came back a rich, fancy real estate broker. You really said that to Logan?”
My inhale was long and I took my time before exhaling. “I did. I was trying to convince him that I wasn’t going to make any problems with Evie.”
It was the first time I’d said her name to someone else, and I liked the way it sounded coming out of my mouth. “Yeah, well. You just told the owner that you fancied his fucking wife.”
My foot eased off the gas involuntarily. “Oh. No.”
Chaser slapped the dashboard and howled. “Oo-eeee. Tinsel. You fucked up. You would’ve been better off telling him you were going to bang…wait a minute, you’re staying at the inn with Evie Newton?”
I nodded. “Yes, until I find a place to live.”
He whistled. It was clearly one of his standard responses. “I can see why Logan was concerned. She’s the hottest single Rapidian in town. Every guy has been trying to get with her, but I think she’s celibate or something.”
“Like a nun?” The milkmaid uniform was very off-brand if this was true.
“Yeah, I think so.”
The yellow light from the north intersection lit up the cab as I pressed on the brakes.
It was still daylight, but the clouds hung low overhead.
It wasn’t snowing, but it looked like it could start at any second.
The truck skidded, and we stopped, but halfway into the intersection.
Luckily, we were the only car on the road.
“These roads are shit.” I shook my head but made a mental note to slow down.
I loved the damn truck far too much to get into a fender bender.
“This is a good day.” Chaser had grabbed onto the bar above the door. “They don’t use road salt here, so the snow just gets compacted down until it turns into ice. Those sandbags will really help you out.”
It wasn’t a big deal, and nothing had happened, but sliding into the intersection had got my heart thumping a little harder than normal. Everyone wanted Evie, and no one could have her. Finding out this information had the opposite effect than it should have—it made me want her even more.
“Can we make a quick stop at the hardware store?” I asked.
“It’s your truck, man.” Chaser leaned back and turned up the radio. “I’ll wait here.”
I pulled in front of the hardware store, got what I needed, and was back in the truck before the song was over.
After getting the sandbags from Chaser’s house and ensuring him that I would meet him at the Last Chance tomorrow night, I headed back to the inn.
I had failed at two things. One, I made friends with my teammates, and two, I couldn’t stop thinking about the pretty girl with the braids.
As I parked the truck in the rear lot, my cell phone rang.
It was Coalman. I didn’t want to answer, but I owed the man, big time.
The truck cooled quickly as I listened to Coach outline our plan.
And as fast as the truck became frigid, so did my warming to Chance Rapids.
I couldn’t like it here. I had to keep everyone at arm’s length because I was going to ruin everything.