Top Shelf (Seattle Serpents #5)

Chapter 1

LOCKE

Lawson: Hi. Hello. Hey. I miss you assholes. I can’t wait to see you all.

Lawson: You’re all still coming to the party this afternoon, right?

Fox: They’d better be! Lilah’s expecting all of you to be there.

Keller: And if we don’t show, good boy?

Hutch: I’ll break your legs, rendering you useless for the Serpents this season, killing our chances at the Cup. Your fucking choice.

Lawson: Damn. That was aggressive.

Hutch: Then be here in an hour. Auden got sandwiches and shit, and she’s pregnant as hell. She’s the last person you want to piss off. Trust me.

Hayes: Aye aye, Captain.

Hutch: Fuck. Please don’t start that shit.

Locke: Aye aye, Captain.

Hutch: Really, Locke?! I trusted you!

Keller: Aye aye, Captain.

Lawson: Aye aye, Captain.

Fox: Aye aye, Captain.

Lawson: Fuck, man. You even got Foxy scared, and this party is partly for his girl.

Fox: I’m not scared. I’m just being a team player.

Lawson: Whatever you say, Foxy Baby.

Lawson: Oh, Locke?

Lawson: LOCKE???

Lawson: WHITLOCKE!!!!

Fox: Oh, snap. He used the full name.

Lawson: No, if I used his full name, I would have said Gavin Barry Douglas Whitlocke.

Locke: How the fuck do you know my full name?

Keller: Why the fuck do you have two middle names?

Hutch: Excellent question, Kells.

Locke: It’s a family thing.

Keller: Weird family, especially with names like that. Makes you sound even older than you already are.

Locke: Shut up, Keller.

Keller: Great comeback, old man.

Locke: I am not fucking old!

Lawson: You are, too. Just accept it, old-timer.

Lawson: Oooh, old-timer with the great one-timer! That has a nice ring.

Lawson: Though you tend to go top shelf more often than not.

Lawson: Anyway, like I was saying…

Lawson: Do you, like, remember black-and-white TV, Lockey Poo?

Locke: First of all, never call me that again. Secondly, how old do you think I am?

Lawson: IDK. Old? You were born in the ’80s, after all.

Locke: Fuck’s sake. Being born in the ’80s doesn’t make me THAT old.

Keller: He kind of acts like it, though. Did you hear him groan when he jumped over the boards during the playoffs last season? It was fuckin’ loud. I heard him from the ice.

Hayes: I heard him, too.

Fox: Come on, guys. Let’s be nice to Locke.

Fox: We might not have much time left with him.

Lawson: OH SNAP!

Lawson: Even the good boy called you old!

Fox: Please. I am begging you. Stop calling me that, Lawsy.

Lawson: Only if you stop blushing every time I do.

Hayes: You’re a fucking menace, you know that? Leave Foxy alone.

Lawson: That’s why they call me Lawless Lawson, baby!

Hutch: Literally nobody calls you that.

Hayes: You can’t give yourself your own nickname. That’s not how nicknames work. We’ve been over this.

Keller: Yeah, Lawson. Let me give you a nickname. I have plenty already locked and loaded.

Fox: Be nice, Kells…

Keller: What? I am being nice. I didn’t list a single one for the buttmunch.

Hutch: Is it stupid that just made me laugh?

Hayes: I’m right there with you, Hutchy.

Hutch: There’s just something so silly about being called a buttmunch.

Lawson: Yeah, yeah. Keller is SO funny. Back to my thing.

Lawson: Locke?

Locke: My grandparents had a black-and-white TV.

Locke: But it was a family heirloom! It’s not like we gathered around and watched it every night or anything. I’d just watch Saturday morning cartoons on it sometimes.

Lawson: SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS?

Lawson: Fuck, I miss those. We should bring them back.

Lawson: Let’s do a slumber party one Friday night, then eat sugary cereal and watch cartoons on Saturday morning.

Keller: Abso—and I cannot stress this enough—fucking-lutely not. Never. Ever.

Hutch: Gotta go with Keller on this one. I’m not giving up time with my fiancée for you morons.

Hayes: Yeah, no. Besides, I already do Saturday morning cartoons with Flora.

Lawson: Boooooo!

Fox: I’ll watch Saturday morning cartoons with you. Can Lilah come?

Lawson: What? No! This is for the boys only! NO GIRLS ALLOWED!

Lawson: Locke?

Locke: No.

Lawson: WHY DO YOU ALL HATE ME SO MUCH?

Fox: We don’t. We love you, Lawsy.

Keller: Speak for your damn self, Foxy.

Lawson: I think this is a perfect plan. Let’s make it happen.

Hutch: Or not.

Hayes: Yeah, no. I’m out.

Lawson: COME ON!

Locke: I’ll pass.

Keller: Do I really need to say it again?

Fox: I’ll still come, Lawsy!

Lawson: Fine. Then Foxy Baby and I will have our OWN slumber party. None of you dicks are invited!

Hutch: Good.

Locke: Perfectly fine with that.

Hayes: Hallelujah!

Keller: Literally none of us are upset about this.

Lawson: By the way, have I told you lately how much I missed you? You guys are, like, my favorite people.

Lawson: Well, aside from Rory.

Lawson: She’s amazing. Last week, she let me be her assistant for a whole day. A WHOLE DAY! Sure, I had to watch her manipulate doggie anal glands, but it was magical still.

Keller: Please don’t make me barf.

Hayes: Let’s not get into this again.

Hutch: She’s about to be my sister-in-law. I already know how amazing she is.

Lawson: Damn, Hutchy. That was almost sweet of you.

Hutch: Tell no one.

Lawson: Sorry, bud. Screenshots are forever.

Hayes: You’re screenshotting our group chats?

Lawson: Of course I am. I have a whole folder dedicated to Keller telling me he loves me.

Keller: I have never said those words to you.

Lawson: Sure you have. You just say it in your own way, Kells.

Keller: The fuck I do!

I shake my head at my teammates as the group keeps going, my phone screen exploding with new messages.

This time, it’s mainly between Lawson and Keller, the team’s neediest and grumpiest players, who are always at each other’s throats.

It’s usually Lawson trying to get Keller to admit he loves him, which is quite entertaining.

That’s just how we show we love each other.

Most days, our chats are obnoxious. On other days, they’re really obnoxious.

But some days… Well, they’re still obnoxious.

I wouldn’t trade being teammates with them for anyone else in the league, though.

We’ve gone through a lot over these few years together, and we’re truthfully like family, even if some of us can’t admit it.

My phone continues to blow up, but I bow out of the conversation, instead trying to enjoy my last few minutes of peace before heading to Hutch’s place for the party.

I know the second I step through Hutch’s door to celebrate his fiancée and Fox’s girlfriend launching their company, it will be bedlam again.

Lawson and Keller will still be arguing.

Hayes and his girlfriend, Quinn, will be there with Flora, and likely Pickles, because the cat goes everywhere with her.

Hutch will hover over a very pregnant Auden, and Fox will fawn over Lilah.

And I’ll just be standing there, taking it all in and wondering how we got to this point in the first place.

When we joined the Seattle Serpents, we all agreed we would stay single until each one of us lifted the Stanley Cup over our head. Two years later, that plan has been blown to hell thanks to several guys falling madly in love.

I don’t fault them for it. Who wants to be lonely?

Who can even control that kind of thing?

It was inevitable that something like this would happen, but now it means only two members of the Serpents Singles Club—a ridiculous name—actually remain single, and I’m one of them.

The other is Keller, who we all know will never find love.

I’ve never met anyone so vehemently against it before.

It’ll be a cold day in hell before he ever lets that happen.

Unlike him, though, I’m not so against it.

I never really have been. It’s hard to be when it’s all around me.

My parents are still together and happily married.

Each of my siblings is married and has children.

Now, almost all of my teammates are in committed relationships too.

It’s everywhere, so of course I believe in it.

I’m just not so sure it’s going to happen for me.

Any time I’ve tried in the past, it hasn’t lasted.

Not to mention I haven’t felt anything even remotely close to having feelings for someone since…

No.

I don’t let myself go there. Back to New York. Back to that night . The one I’ve done everything to forget.

“Can I grab you anything else?”

I’m relieved when the barista breaks my thoughts apart. She’s at the front counter of The Coffee Spot, a rag in her hand as she wipes down the espresso machine. It’s getting close to closing time, and I assume this is her polite way of telling me to get the fuck out.

I grin. “I’m good, Kayla. Thank you. I’m heading out now. Thanks for letting me stay so late.”

“You know you’re always welcome here, Locke. Even if I do close in five minutes.” She tosses me a teasing wink.

I rise from my chair, then set my mug in the dirty dishes bin before sending her a wave on my way out the door.

I climb behind the wheel of my SUV, which I parked just down the block, and cut my way into Seattle traffic.

The drive to Hutch’s place isn’t long in distance, but that means nothing with the one-way streets, the closures for no real reason, and the overall shitty driving.

By the time I pull into his driveway, my mood is sour, and all that peace I was striving for is nowhere to be found.

It’s been like that a lot lately. I search for calm, and all I find is chaos, this unruly feeling inside me like I’m being wrung out like a towel after a long day at the pool.

I don’t know if it’s just me itching to get back out on the ice and start the season or what, but I know I need to do something to relieve all this tension or I won’t be worth a damn to my teammates.