2. Beckett
Chapter Two
BECKETT
I was ten feet tall when I strolled into the team house. My teammates hooted and cheered me on. My cheeks flushed with excitement and I directed all my attention to concealing my surprise.
I’d floated my name in passing, yes, but I hadn’t expected Coach Murray to take it seriously.
Hell, I’d hardly expected Coach Murray to notice my ambition.
In the two years I spent with the Arctic Titans, I wasn’t exactly the most beloved teammate.
I was a skilled winger with the ambition to take the center offensive role, but I hadn’t thought that would qualify me.
“Here, here,” someone on the far side of the full common room on the ground floor cheered. I glanced over there and saw Sebastian grinning at me. He was in the Beckett-friendly camp, but not too many labeled themselves that way.
Now, though, they all seemed happy for me.
I scanned the room and discovered most of the team was present.
I was the last to leave the rink, having stopped by Coach Murray’s office for a short consultation.
I’d basically thanked him for the trust he showed in me, to which he replied: “Don’t screw this up, kid. ”
I noticed two important faces missing, but I didn’t let that phase me.
Our goalie wasn’t in the group, nor was our left winger.
Sawyer had never really aligned himself with either of us.
Rather, he was friendly in his own way with everyone.
A normally pouty and broody kid, Sawyer had been going through changes in his behavior lately, and I credited his tutor-turned-boyfriend with that.
Unlike some team members, Sawyer had never hated me for the simple fact of being myself.
The same could not be said of Caden Jones, who refused to join the celebrations.
While our previous captain, Riley, had had the sense to keep his dislike of me off the ice, I doubted Caden would be able to do half as much.
Those two had been thick as thieves and had conspired for Caden to pretty much inherit the captaincy once Riley was gone.
Tough fucking luck. There were other candidates on this team. I was sure that came as a surprise to the God-given Caden.
I jumped up and sat on the kitchen island’s edge behind me.
My duffel was still hanging from my back.
“Alright, you good people, I know what some of you are thinking. ‘Let the era of decadence begin.’” The cheers exploded through the room.
The thunder of shoes stomping the hardwood floor rocked the walls.
“I’m tempted,” I admitted. “But that’s just the first of the many tests coming our way.
I can see the inevitable challenges in the weeks to come.
” The grin quivered and left my face. “‘What’s this piece of shit doing leading us?’ And, ‘What the hell was Coach thinking?’” I nodded and let the silence hang heavy in the air.
The awkwardness replaced the euphoria nearly instantly.
I held my breath for a little while and scanned all the faces in the room.
Avery was stone-cold, as usual. Sebastian folded his lips and kept a sympathetic gaze on me.
Tyler arched one of his eyebrows. Paxton’s jaw was set, teeth gritted.
My buddy, Jordan, nodded, his arms crossed on his broad chest. And the newbie, Asher, scowled on the opposite end of the room.
Asher deliberately looked at nothing in particular and I had a strong feeling he wasn’t even listening.
If I knew him, he was stuck in his head while the rest of the world existed in his periphery.
Asher hardly mattered to me right now. I doubted he would last long.
Fresh words filled my mouth instantly. I had hardly blinked since the last ones left my lips. “And I know it’ll be a surprise to a lot of you, but I mean to take this seriously.”
Someone whistled in the crowd. I glanced and found Jordan, feigning surprise. It stretched my lips into a ghost of a smirk.
“Don’t think for a second that I take this responsibility lightly. We’re all here with the same goal in our minds. To kick the Blizzard Breakers’ butts.” A round of laughter lifted the mood. “And carve out careers for ourselves, of course, but we should stick to the priorities.”
“Kick their butts,” Sebastian chanted.
“Kick their butts,” Jordan joined on the second one.
“KICK THEIR BUTTS!” Half the team said in unison, and laughter rippled through them all.
I nodded at that. “Tonight, we’ll celebrate as a team.
” I glanced at the opening and closing of the first door at the top of the stairs.
Ah. Mystery solved. Sawyer left Caden’s room wearing a pout as he descended the stairs and joined the rest of the crowd.
“Because that’s what we are. That’s all we have.
And let’s not let any strife between individuals get in the way of the whole.
We’re brothers, boys. We’re comrades on the ice. We’re the motherfucking Titans.”
The entire team exploded into cheers, their feet thundering louder against the hardwood floor. The joy of the moment lifted me and carried me so high that I became instantly dizzy. It was the best thrill of my life — and I was known for thrill-seeking.
I hopped off the kitchen island and saluted my brothers in arms with a casual grin on my face. Hands reached to clap my shoulders, some shook me reassuringly, while some drew further back.
Jordan cocked his head at me. “Where to, Captain?”
“Thirsty Thinker,” I said. “It’ll get tough starting tomorrow. Let’s go out with a bang.”
There was a glint of mischief in Jordan’s eyes. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
I chuckled dryly, struggling to believe these words weren’t sarcastic.
It truly was me. There was someone who believed in me enough to put this responsibility squarely on my shoulders.
Even going out tonight seemed like the wrong thing to do, but it was a tradition.
It was what Riley Brooks had done two years ago when he had become the captain.
“Are you taking the simp with us?” I asked in a low voice as we moved a little further from the other guys.
Jordan’s eyes appeared sharper in an instant. “The simp can do whatever the hell he wants. He’s not my responsibility.”
I wondered if Jordan and Asher’s parents would have agreed with that.
After all, it had always been their biggest ambition for their sons to get along.
So much so that I had personally witnessed both of their parents insisting that the two were brothers.
Something about the way Jordan tacked the ‘step’ part to it had always irked his father like it was an insult of some kind.
Then again, Jordan had an immense talent for making simple words appear insulting. He was the master of backhanded compliments and the best defense the Arctic Titans had seen in years.
“Alrighty,” I said innocently and followed Jordan’s glare to Asher, who was pulling his phone out and showing an absolute lack of interest in everything around him. I reached for my phone and then decided to wait. “I’ll join you guys in a minute.”
“Suit yourself, Cap,” Jordan said and swung his shoulders back and forth as he walked away. A few more glances came my way before most of the room emptied.
I leaned against the kitchen island, viewing the emptying common room.
Sofas lined the walls, coffee tables ran through the middle, and on the far end stood a fireplace we rarely used with stacks of decorative firewood by its side.
Asher wore a defiant expression when he finished with his phone.
It was like my very existence was somehow a threat to him.
Or anyone’s existence, for that matter. It was only that I had known Jordan and him for years, and Asher had always had the time to spare me a narrow-eyed look.
“We good?” I asked for no other reason than to break the silence.
Asher thrust his chin out and ticked his eyebrows fractionally upward. That was all I got. Not that he was deeply entrenched in the team dynamics, like Sebastian and Tyler were, for example. Asher disliked his big stepbrother enough that being Jordan’s friend put you on the naughty list.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket again. Uncle Nate’s been on my mind for the entire hour and I desperately wanted to call him.
Asher headed upstairs just as the door of the now single occupant’s room opened and out strolled Caden. He wore a pompous combination of skinny jeans and a tucked-in stiff-collar shirt on sporty sneakers that made him look extra douchey.
I ignored him until he reached the ground floor and a cloud of spicy sweet cologne threatened to manslaughter me. “Time-traveling to an eighties’ disco club?” I asked lazily.
“Minding business that’s not yours?” he retorted without taking a breath.
“Clearly,” I said, setting my phone on the kitchen island. It was always more infuriating to rise to the bait intentionally. None could ever harm you if you took every mockery as a compliment. I knew how to disarm my opponents.
Caden stopped, his mind working through the loops. “Don’t.” He dropped the word hoarsely like it would make me more inclined to obey.
“How can I resist meddling when it gives you that virgin blush?” I asked flatly. And my bluff worked. Caden’s face reddened with anger.
“Fuck off, Partridge…”
We both looked down when my phone vibrated on the counter. My heart leaped. Uncle Nate was calling me like he knew I’d been thinking about him.
Caden gave a contemptuous snort and shook his head. “Is that your Big Shot uncle calling to give you a heads-up so you don’t gape when Coach delivers the news? He’s an hour late.”
The insult seared me way more than Caden knew and I meant to keep it that way.
If Caden understood the power of the bomb he had just dropped in the middle of my entire fucking life, he would never stop using it.
I sneered instead. “Nah, he’s probably calling to conspire on how best to cock-block your chances of getting laid tonight. ”
Caden’s face contorted with anger. “One of you will have to take it up your ass if that’s your plan. I feel like bottoming tonight.”
I fucking knew it, I thought. The casual dropping of his preference didn’t surprise me one bit. In fact, it just annoyed me. “No need to advertise, Jones,” I said with an eye-roll.
“Go fuck yourself,” he spat and stormed the fuck off.
I watched after him while parsing through all that had just happened. So Caden just decided to slide that piece of information there, did he? I couldn’t guess why unless he just meant to shock me. The more pressing problem was that he had accused Uncle Nate of rigging my captaincy.
I was fully aware it was within Uncle Nate’s ability, which made denying it hard. Apparently, just because it wasn’t true, that wasn’t enough to make me innocent of nepotism.
Suddenly, my eagerness for this phone call had disappeared, but I picked up anyway. As I answered, I marched out of the team house for a little more privacy. “Uncle Nate.” My voice was forcibly happy. “I was just about to call you.”
“Hey, kiddo,” Uncle Nate said in his usual tone. It was slightly husky and smoky but mostly confident. “I was just thinking about you.”
“Oh yeah? Anything in particular?” I asked, my grin returning to my face and audibly seeping into my words.
Uncle Nate’s confusion lifted my heart. “What do you mean? Did something…?”
“Oh, something happened.” I dropped the words before they ripped out of my chest. “Coach Murray had named me the captain.”
“Holy shit, kid,” Uncle Nate said with unmistakable surprise. It soothed the tiny inkling of doubt that had lived in me until this very moment. “I knew you had it in you. Didn’t I tell you? Two years ago, kid, I told you this would happen.”
I remembered it. The summer before college, I was spending all my spare hours conditioning to make the best first impression I could.
Little had I known how Caden would sneer and turn Riley against me.
We’d been at Uncle Nate’s ranch in Texas for the week, Mom and I.
He’d flown us in and treated us like royalty for the sake of the months that had gone by with little contact.
He’d sat me down one evening and told me of his early beginnings and the doubts that had bombarded him from all sides.
And he’d told me I was on the path to greatness.
“I can see it, kid,” he’d said. “There are many players who will be good. But great? Few are destined for greatness. And you’re one of them, Beckett. ”
I’d lived with those words ever since. They had been the very thing that had helped me get up in the morning. “You sure did,” I agreed.
“So, you’re doing well, I take it,” Uncle Nate chirped.
“Better than ever,” I admitted. For just this moment, I didn’t have a single trouble in the world.
“Good. Good.” Uncle Nate’s tone softened further. “That’s all I wanted to know, but you gave me news worth celebrating. Got plans for yourself?”
I couldn’t wipe this stupid grin off my face.
Uncle Nate was the closest thing to a father I had.
Not only was he my biological father’s little brother, but he was the strongest male presence throughout my life.
And to hear the pride in his voice threatened to unman me sooner than I’d have liked.
“Yeah, I’m taking the guys to the tavern on campus.
Nothing fancy.” I ran a hand through my floppy brown hair and enjoyed the moment.
“Have fun, Beckett,” Uncle Nate said. “I’m proud of you, kiddo. Don’t forget that.”
How could I ever forget it? Making Uncle Nate proud had been the driving force behind everything I’d done most of my life.
My love of hockey came from that place and I knew it.
I didn’t need therapy to tell me how much I lacked the father who’d walked out on us.
And I didn’t need therapy to tell me I attached myself to the next closest thing.
My grandfather had stepped in to help my mother, but he hadn’t known much about what young boys needed.
Uncle Nate had been the cool guy who’d played that part.
We hung up, and I sniffed, then walked back inside to get ready. Guys were already slowly making their way out to the tavern, but I took my time. This was my night. I could be fashionably late, even if some might use that as extra proof that my ego was the size of Texas.
Haters were always going to hate, no matter what you did. So, why bother trying to correct them? There was way more fun to be had in joining them and taking their power away from them.