Chapter 25
“A’ight, Captain Rapp! I see you been using pussy juice tonic on that beard, muhfucka look like an Arabian horse’s mane,” Ford said, a silly-ass grin on his silly-ass face.
“I noticed that, too,” Jones said.
Shaking my head, I kept my eyes on the task at hand, taping my stick. “Y’all some dumb motherfuckers, you know that?”
“But did we lie? You gon’ sit there and pretend you ain’t been eating Bambina like a Cruise Ship buffet?” That, of course, was Ford.
“I ain’t pretending shit. I also ain’t sharing what I do with my woman,” I explained.
“Yo, Rapp! Congrats on bagging Bambina. Damn near the whole team wanted that,” Jennings, one of our backup goalies, said as he stepped into the locker room.
“Uh, thanks?” I replied. My teammates had been congratulating me since I arrived.
“Yeah, she thick as hell, man!” another teammate yelled.
I sighed. I mean, I knew she was fine, but damn, I wasn’t trying to hear this shit from them.
“You can’t kick your teammates’ asses, Rapp. These fools look up to you,” Jones advised.
“I ain’t gon’ kick nobody’s ass. I’ma just lay down some ground rules. My woman’s name needs to be omitted from every-damn-body’s mouth and I’m deadass serious about that!”
“Okay, Michael Myers, shit! Let’s just get through this first day. Shit’ll calm down. This whole you and Bambina thing is new,” Ford offered.
“Yo, Edmund! Your fine-ass lady is in the arena with the other fans here to watch camp. She got some damn Amazons with her,” Martinique, one of our defensemen, yelled into the locker room.
I literally growled. Not these fools using my first name now.
“What’s up, Jones? Ford, glad you’re back. I see you, Moneybagg Rapp.” I wasn’t even sure which teammate that was because I was looking at the floor. Only my people would tease a person for being rich. I loved us even though the shit was irritating.
Jones said, “Damn, they saw your rich ass on the blogs?”
“That’s fucked up, my guy,” Ford added.
“Don’t I know it,” I groaned.
* * *
Training camp was held in a town located about an hour from St. Louis. The downside for me and my lady was we’d have to be apart since the team was lodging at a hotel. The upside? Camp lasted for less than a week. We’d only sleep apart for four days.
The returning team members looked good, especially Ford who’d been working his ass off during the off-season. A couple of the rookies were on fire, too. All in all, I was excited about getting back to work. Wasn’t nothing like being out on the ice, for sure. Even though most of the team was constantly messing with me about my lady, I was glad to be back with them, and I could admit that some of them were funny, so I let them do their thing.
Ishmia was there in the crowd every day. When I’d spot her, her attention would be on the ice, and even though she wore her shades, I knew she was studying us—me—as was her nature. In the evenings, we spent hours on the phone with me answering her hockey questions. Yeah, she was one of the team’s owners, but her knowledge of my sport was surface, initially. By the end of camp, her ass was an expert.
One thing that made me smile was seeing her sitting with my fellow linemen’s wives. She was making friends, and I could tell she was happy about that. I loved this woman with everything in me, and we were good together, so, so good together.