The Rebound Play (Love on Thin Ice)

1. Dan

CHAPTER 1

DAN

I reach for the remote to silence the game on TV as I listen to my former teammate and mentor, Troy Hart, on the other end of the line. I’ve been lounging on my oversized sofa as I recover from my latest PT session. Being benched for a left wrist injury during the Chicago Blizzard preseason wasn’t exactly the way I planned things to go this year, and I’m frustrated I’m not fit to be out on the ice with the team.

But Coach’s word is law in my world, and he’s benched me for the next five or six weeks.

I’m about as happy about it as a polar bear in a sauna.

I put the phone on speaker and sit upright. “Wait. Did I hear you right, Troy? You want me to come back to Maple Falls to play hockey for a kids’ charity team called the Ice Breakers?”

“That’s what I said,” he replies.

“But there is no kids’ charity hockey team in Maple Falls.”

“There is now, thanks to me and Zach, my loaded brother. He’s matching the sponsors’ donations, and all proceeds from the games will go to charity.”

Zach Hart, billionaire. Huh . The idea of that fancy guy in my small hometown in Washington state is almost laughable.

“Which charity?” I ask.

“Happy Horizons Ranch. Angel Davis runs it. She’s a local here in Maple Falls.”

“Angel Davis? I’ve known her just about since birth.”

Troy laughs. “Maple Falls sure is a small town. Angel does a great job helping disadvantaged kids learn outdoorsy skills on her ranch. Kids come from all over the county these days.”

A worthy cause for sure.

“You know I’m down with an injury, right?” I ask, instinctively rotating my left wrist to assess the pain.

Yup, there it is.

I hurt it at practice last week, smashing into the plexiglass in an uncompromisingly aggressive hit from the team rookie. It turns out plexiglass is a lot tougher than my wrist. I told Coach he was overreacting when he benched me, that it was just a sprain. But he wasn’t listening. Said I was too important to the team to compromise. Said he’s got his eye on me as captain once our current captain, Carter, retires.

I should take it as a compliment. All I am is frustrated.

Time on the ice back in my hometown sounds more than tempting—once my wrist is healed.

“I do know you’re injured. I also know you desperately want to play, and you’re benched with the Blizzard.”

“Do you know everything?” I joke.

“Yup,” is his straightforward answer. “I can give you ice time as captain of the Ice Breakers, right here in your hometown. Perfect, right? Game time and family time.”

I always went on about how great my hometown in Washington state was when Troy was on the team, and clearly, the guy was listening. He and his wife, Kelly, bought an arena when they moved there not that long ago.

As he is older than me and was already a gold medal Olympian and top NHL player by the time I joined the team straight out of college, I’ve always looked up to Troy. He was the elder statesman of the team. If Troy says come home and play hockey for a kids’ charity, I’m not going to question the guy—particularly when he’s offering to clear it with my team management.

“Keep talking,” I tell him as I lean back against my seat, the cream leather groaning against my bulk. What can I say? We hockey players aren’t exactly known for our small frames. I’m 6′5″ with a decent amount of muscle and shoulders my high school coach once described as wide enough to block out the sun. I'm no ninety-pound weakling, and if I were, I wouldn't be able to do what I do for a living.

“It's a six week commitment, including practice time and five games against the Canadian Lumberjacks. And it'll be great for your state of mind. Being benched for an injury is no picnic.”

“You got that right,” I grind out.

Troy laughs. “I remember the days when not playing a game felt like the end of the world. But trust me, Dan, there is life outside of hockey.”

“You sure about that?”

“Positive.”

“I want to be out there, playing my part. This season we’ve got as good a shot as any team of winning the Cup.”

I’m not being arrogant. I know I’m a good player. I got drafted in the first round, right out of college, and I’ve got a seventy-six-point average per season. Not bad for a small-town boy whose hockey-obsessed dad had to take a second job at the gas station to afford my sport.

Now, being able to pay off my parents’ mortgage, as well as take them on a cruise of their choice each summer, is my way of paying back their sacrifice, despite the fact they’re always telling me their pride in my success is more than enough.

I know I totally won the family lottery, from my actor brother, Ethan, right down to our book-obsessed kid sister, Emerson, aka Emmy. Mimi, our grandmother, lived just down the street, always feeding us delicious baked goods from her kitchen, and instructing us not to tell our mom. We’re close, supportive of one another, with a set of parents who might not have had much when we were growing up, but who went beyond the necessities for each one of us. For me it was hockey lessons and running me around for games, for Ethan it was acting class, and for Emmy it was an endless supply of books.

“I get it. Hockey’s your world right now,” Troy replies. “Which is why coming back to your hometown to play is so perfect for you. I can work things out with your team management to get you the time off, and we’ve got an excellent PT. She’ll get that wrist back into shape before you know it.”

“I’ve got to admit—it’s tempting.”

And besides, there’s another reason for going back home, and it’s kind of a big one. Keira Johnson. My Kiki. Only she hasn’t been my Kiki for ten years now.

Just the thought of my high school girl—the girl I left behind—has my pulse kicking up a notch or ten.

Keira is the girl I’ve never been able to forget.

Sure, there’ve been other girls. It’s been a long time and I’m no saint. Women tend to throw themselves at you when you’re an NHL player, particularly when you’re known as the pretty boy of the team. Those puck bunnies, as they’re sometimes called, simply come with the territory—and it’s fun territory, believe me.

Of course, the fact that my kid brother is the current heartthrob on the hit Netflix fantasy show, It Came One Winter , doesn’t exactly hurt, either.

But here’s the thing: Most of the women I meet are only interested in me because I’m Dan Roberts, center for the Chicago Blizzard, brother to the guy they love to watch on TV. Relationships for me tend to last a few weeks, a month, tops. My lifestyle means it’s hard to hold down a relationship. And besides, those women aren’t interested in plain Dan Roberts, the hockey-obsessed kid from Maple Falls, who worked his butt off to make it to the NHL.

So, my heart has been safe, never forgetting my first love. Keira.

An image of her springs into my mind. She’s laughing at something, her gray-blue eyes dancing, her blonde hair falling in soft waves around her shoulders. Her smile is framed with those cute dimples of hers, the dimples I used to get to brush soft kisses against.

I took her for granted when I had her. I was a dumb kid, only seventeen when we broke up. I figured there’d be other girls, other loves. It’s been ten years since we broke up for me to take my hockey scholarship at Yale, literally the other side of the country from her. But I know if I ever got the chance to be with her again, trust me when I say I would leap at it.

“When do you need me?” I ask, my mind made up.

“Seriously? Dan, that’s awesome! Having the great ‘Dan the Man’ Roberts, hometown hero and famous NHL star, on the team would mean even better media coverage and more money for the kids.”

I laugh. “And I get to have some of my mom’s home-cooked meals.”

“On that, it would be good if you could stay with the team. Me and Kelly bought the Maple Falls arena as well as the lodge. You might remember it. The Hawk River Lodge?”

“The one on the edge of town with the big pool. Yeah, I remember it. ”

“I don’t have to tell you it’s nothing too fancy.”

“There’s nothing much fancy about Maple Falls,” I say on a laugh. “But that’s part of its charm.”

“You’re so right. Can you get here by the end of the month?”

My entire schedule consists of physical therapy and gym workouts. Occasionally, I catch up with the guys from the team, but it’s hard when I’m not training with them, getting ready for the season.

Truth be told, I spend more time alone than I’d care to admit. I guess I’ve been so busy chasing success I’ve not created the life I actually want. But I tell myself that will come in time. Right now, it’s all about hockey. I’ve worked too hard for it not to be.

There will be time for a wife, kids, a place that feels like a real home. As slick and spacious as my house is, it’s never felt like a real home to me. Not like where I grew up.

Don’t get me wrong: my life isn’t exactly horrible. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, and I’m reaping the rewards, from the huge paycheck to the fame, and everything that brings.

As ungrateful as it sounds, it’s not enough for me.

I want that special someone, someone to have a family with, someone to grow old with, someone who loves me for me and not the fame or the money.

And a big part of me has always wondered if that person is Keira. She still lives in our hometown. That much I know.

Spending a full six weeks in Maple Falls might just give me the answer.