Chapter 20
ATLAS
“Are you planning on coming home anytime soon?” my younger sister asked, and I rolled my eyes, even though I wanted to come home.
It was in the plans. After all, I got a couple of months at the end of each season for myself.
I could travel the world, I could train—and I would—or I could go back to Ashford Creek.
And considering that’s where the rest of my family lived, it sounded like a good bet.
“Yes, I’ll be there, pipsqueak.”
“You don’t need to call me that. It’s quite rude.
” She fluttered her eyelashes, and I noticed how happy she looked.
She had a job she loved, even though I knew she missed her boss, her old boss who had passed away recently.
She was near the family again, no longer a couple of hours away, and was dating one of my friends.
I scowled at that, still a little annoyed just for the show of it. I liked Callum. He was a good guy and seemed to care about Felicity. I trusted him with my life, so I might as well trust him with my sister.
“You’re still my little sister, so I can call you what I want.”
“You know I can beat your ass, right?” a deep voice said from behind my sister.
I snorted. “Listening in on private conversations, old man?”
Felicity just rolled her eyes. “Stop calling him an old man. You’re not that much younger.”
“Ouch,” Callum said with a laugh.
I joined him in his laughter, but it took me a few moments. My body hurt.
Our season had ended, but not exactly how I’d wanted it to go. We’d made it all the way to the third round, and I hadn’t been good enough.
One too many pucks had gotten through our D-line, and then soon, to the net. I hadn’t been fast enough, flexible enough, or just good at my job. I knew we were a team effort, but I was the one who was the last line of defense. Literally.
I was still as strong as I ever was. Hell, I was stronger than I had been when I’d been drafted.
But I was thirty-one now. Ancient in terms of the NHL.
And the Portland Gliders still liked me, but I only had one more year on my contract.
I wasn’t sure if I would be picked up and re-signed or traded.
It could be time for the scary word no one mentioned.
Retirement.
My hands hurt, my neck hurt, my lower back, my hips, my knees. Everything.
I had a damn massage therapist on call and worked with PT often. It wasn’t even stupid anymore, like when I thought I could just handle it on my own. I would take everything in my power in order to play better, improve my worth. I made millions just by blocking. I fucking sucked.
And I had failed.
“I’ll be there, Felicity. I’m just dealing with a couple of extra meetings with my agent and the team, and I want to get in a good workout with the guys.
Plus, it’s Benny’s birthday in two days, and we’re throwing a huge bash.
Twenty-one is a big age.” I rolled my eyes at that, wondering when I felt like the granddad of the group.
“Tell Benny I said hi. He was nice the last time I was there.”
“How nice?” Callum asked as he came forward so I could see him on the screen.
My lips twitched, feeling slightly lighter than I had in a while. “Overprotective much? Don’t worry, she’d break Benny. He’s far too much of a young pup.”
“I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment or hit you through the phone,” my sister said dryly.
I shrugged. “You love me.”
“I do. Although you should probably start plucking your eyebrows a bit. I know you’re not going gray, yet… they are looking a bit bushy. What will your Instagram followers think when their favorite eyebrow account starts posting those?” She stuck her tongue in her cheek, and I flipped her off.
“Excuse me. I have beautiful eyebrows.”
The others just laughed at me as we continued to talk about the comings and goings of Ashford Creek.
My eyebrows were damn amazing. Yes, I had a scar on the right one thanks to a skate that had gotten a little too high, but they were perfection in the eyes of many.
Hence, a fan-run Instagram account that haunted me.
I didn’t actually go on there. People loved it, and it had even gotten me a skincare campaign.
My friends could go pose in their underwear like I used to for billboards, but I had three products to nourish my skin.
Because apparently getting wrinkles when you were thirty-one wasn’t a good thing.
Mine were usually laugh lines, though, I hadn’t really been laughing lately. No, I wasn’t going to think about that.
“So you’ll be here? You'd better tell Mom and Dad too, so they can plan your welcome-home dinner.”
“You know we’ll need to find the fatted calf,” Callum said deadpan.
I flipped them off.
“I hate you both. But yes, I’ll be there.
I’m sure there’s some summer festival that I need to be a part of.
” Having grown up in a small town, I was used to festivals.
There was one every month. They brought in tourism and kept the town’s morale whole.
Though the underbelly of the town was always where I tended to reside.
Because my friends were the Ashfords. And that came with its own notoriety.
“Anyway, send me your details, and I can come down and pick you up from the airport if you want.”
“I think I can handle it, hotshot. NHL money’s a little bit better than decade-old NFL money,” I said to the former tight end.
He flipped me off because he loved me, and we said our goodbyes.
As I hung up the phone, my shoulders dropped, and I finally relaxed.
It had taken all within me not to ask about her.
After over a decade, I would’ve thought I would be able to breathe without chest pain when it came to thinking of her. But she was the one who decided to stay home. She was the one who loved Ashford Creek so much that she had never left.
And I had hightailed it out of there for my dreams, to bleed and sweat and break down on the ice. I’d made something of myself.
And I wouldn’t feel shame and anger over what I left behind.
“Hey, Atlas, are you planning on coming to Toppers tonight?” my left wing, Thomas asked as he moved forward and looked around in his locker.
Toppers was our local bar that many of the players went to. The owner was a former Glider himself, and Toppers was named because he had once hopped over somebody in the Olympics and scored the gold-medal-winning goal.
That meant that he protected our sanity and our privacy. We could go in without getting mobbed by fans—unless that’s something we wanted, and we had time by ourselves. Of course, there was always a puck bunny to pick up on the way out, though I didn’t indulge in that.
Oh, if you looked at any tabloid or influencer feed, you would think that I was with a different woman every night. But I wasn’t the playboy they thought I was. Well, not anymore.
I shook my head, ignoring the lies within my own mind.
“Atlas. You good?”
I nodded. “I need to see Coach later, but I’ll be at Toppers. I want to get in a few stretches while the trainers are still on call.”
“You’re way more disciplined than any of us, and I like it.” Thomas came forward and put his hand on my shoulder. He was my height, considering I was well over six feet, that was saying something. Then again, most hockey players were mountains.
“It wasn’t your fault, you know. None of it. We got to the seventh game, and we all worked our asses off. It wasn’t our year. Stop blaming yourself.”
“Thomas, buddy. You’ve been in this as long as I have. We both know that that’s not happening.”
My friend sighed before squeezing my shoulder and grabbing his bag.
“Be safe. I’ll see you tonight. And maybe I’ll come with you to Ashford Creek just to annoy that sister of yours.”
“She’s taken, you know,” I said dryly.
“By a football player. Come on.” He rolled his eyes and headed out, leaving me alone in the locker room. I was usually the first one there, last one out.
I would settle my affairs and head to Ashford Creek for maybe a week.
Maybe less. I knew my parents wanted to see me more.
Hell, I loved them, but there were reasons I didn’t stay for long.
Then again, after next year, I wasn’t sure what would happen.
Because my joints knew the truth. Despite the fact I could have another decade in this league, my heart wasn’t in it.
And my body had taken one too many beatings.
This had to be my last year.
With that lovely thought, I headed toward the back room, ready to meet up with my trainer. I walked past the showers, noticed one of them was on, and frowned. “Anybody there?” I asked.
With a shrug, I went and turned off the water, annoyed that one of my teammates would’ve left it on. Probably a rookie. Though, since the season was over, they weren’t rookies anymore.
That made me smile, and I turned, ready to head out.
The blow came out of nowhere, and all I saw was a shadow.
As something slammed into my knee, I called out, hit the tile floor, water splashing, and as I reached out, trying to figure out what the hell was happening, something connected with the side of my head, and there was nothing.