12. What the Hell Happened?
I blowout a quick breath before I look back at Evans and grin. ”That all you got for me today?” For the last twenty minutes he”s been putting me through what was supposed to be a simple off-ice warmup before practice, but this is more intense than some team tryouts I”ve had. He”s doing everything he can to find a weakness in my knee, all under the guise of activating my muscles before I stand in against live shots. To be honest, I”ve dreaded facing shots, but it will be a walk in the park after this.
”I think you”ve proven you deserve a chance out there today. You are ready, my man.” He smacks down twice on my shoulders.
Elijah Evans is the head trainer for the team, and he”s kept a close eye on my rehab. I”ve never told him, but he”s been a lot more optimistic through this entire process than I have been. He never once doubted I would be right here in skates and ready to head out onto the ice. Not even when I had nightmares of doing a butterfly slide while a 220-pound center barreled into me.
I nod. ”I”m ready.” But they don”t sound convincing. And I don”t move. He stops and looks up at me. ”What do you need?” he asks.
I need a brain that didn”t have its confidence shattered seventeen months ago. A mind that doesn”t remember that snap and the stabbing pain the instant my ACL tore. ”I just need to—What do you know about her?”
Behind him, Lily walks out of one of the training rooms and heads toward the rink. There shouldn”t be anything sexy about a yellow hoodie and black leggings, but damn if my cock doesn”t press against my athletic cup. Evans turns just as she walks out of sight. ”Lily? The new girl?”
I nod.
”Not a lot. From Denver. Worked for the baseball team there.”
As much as I love Salt Lake City and playing for the Sting, I know this job would be a step down for a trainer on the Colorado Lightning baseball team. ”Did she get fired? Move here because of a boyfriend or husband?” I try to sound uninterested when I say it, but it doesn”t stop my cheeks from blazing with guilt when he looks at me.
”Not a clue. She”s really friendly, but never says anything at all about herself. Anyway, you”d better get out there or Coach is going to be pissed, and you know he”ll blame me. Anytime I player isn”t ready, it”s the training staff”s fault.” He chuckles, but we both know it”s true. Coach is from a different generation. In his day, if you weren”t bleeding or missing a limb, you”d better be on the ice when your line was called.
”I got your back. I”ll tell him I was in the bathroom if he asks. I”ll see you after practice to let you know how it felt out there.”
”You got this.” He pats my shoulder again and walks toward the training room, and I head down the tunnel to the ice.
As soon as my blades touch the ice, I smile. This is what I was made for, and this is always going to be home. A few of the boys stop their warmups to welcome me back, and even Coach gives me an almost imperceptible nod as I skate toward the crease. Just before I enter the blue paint, I turn around and look for Lily. It shouldn”t matter whether she”s here. She doesn”t know anything about my injury or what I”ve gone through. It”s not like I need her to witness my comeback, but there”s a splinter of sadness when I don”t see her. I push it aside and let my body take me into the crease. My crease. When I”m in this blue paint, I need to be all about business. Anyone who tries to slip something past me now becomes the enemy.
Practice goes better than I imagined it would. We start off easy, but after just a few minutes I”m blocking wristers and slap shots like I never missed a second. I”m in the best form of my life, and the smiles on the guys tell me they know it too. So, when Coach decides to end the day with a three-on-three scrimmage, I”m ready. Milo moves in front of the net at the other end of the ice, and we tip our masks to each other before we pull them down and drop into our stances. He didn”t win the Vezina Trophy last season, but everyone knows he should have. I”m convinced the only reason he didn”t is because that would have made the Sting winners of three out of the last four seasons.
The first five-minute period passes without a goal for either side. My side wins the face-off to start the next period, and Kayden slaps the puck just past Milo”s glove. I hear it ping off the pipe before it ricochets in the back of the net, and just like that, it”s one for Black and zero for Yellow.
For the next period and a half, I turn away at least a dozen shots on goal. Yellow still trails by one, and as time winds down, they”re getting desperate. As soon as the puck passes into the offensive zone, they start firing. I”m going to be covered in bruises tonight, but each puck I take off my body is a welcome back. When the Princeling fires a puck at me with just a couple of minutes left, I intend to glove it at first, but I see that two members of the Yellow side have skated too close to my net. Kayden has slipped behind them, so I knock the puck down and quickly send it between the attackers to Kayden.
He takes off full speed down the ice. His legs pump as he taps the puck side-to-side like he”s running a stick handling drill, but he”s setting up Milo, keeping him guessing so he won”t know which side the shot is coming from. And when Kayden does finally uncoil just a few feet short of the blue paint, I”m sure it will be the goal that keeps us ahead for good. I look toward the bench. The players on both sides are standing, and just behind them is Lily. Her brown eyes are focused on the net at the other end of the ice. But when her pretty pink lips curve up, my heart stumbles. As if those lips were moving for me.
Since Serenity left me, I could have had any woman I wanted. There have been so many chances. Women at the surgeon”s office slipped me scraps of paper with their phone numbers on them. Anytime I”d go out to eat with any of the boys, women would always flock to our table. Hell, the cashier at Smith”s last week asked if I needed someone to come home and put away the groceries. Each one of them has gotten a no from me. And I didn”t think twice about any of them.
But Lily? I don”t know what it is, but she”s different. So when she turns her head to look toward my side of the ice, her eyes now wide, my pulse spikes. My heartbeat roars, and I can”t take my eyes off hers.
Not until the horn sounds and I see the Yellow team celebrating in front of my net.
”Good job, men. Wrap it up. Cool down. See the trainers if you need them. Hit the showers,” Coach yells from his box. I look at him. What the fuck? ”Don”t worry, Morrison. Lapse of focus. It”s your first time back on the ice against live fire. Just make sure it doesn”t happen during a goddamn game or I”m gonna show you a whole new meaning of pissed. Now go see Evans to make sure you didn”t break yourself again.”
”Yes, sir.” I use my stick to slap the puck out of my net, and turn to Kayden. ”What the hell happened?”
He shakes his head and looks at where Lily was standing just a second before. ”I went low and right, and he sticked it away. Right to Poppy. He fired the puck down to the Princeling. And you?—”
”Don”t say it.”
”I don”t know what you were watching, but it wasn”t anything on the ice.”
I yank my hand out of my glove to flip him off. Then I head down the tunnel. I strip off my pads and toss them in a pile before heading to the training room next door. Evans isn”t here yet, but she is. She”s bent over a table, studying notes on her computer, but when I walk in she looks up. Her cheeks color, and she gaze darts to the sides like she”s looking for help before her eyes settle back on me.
”Good practice.” Her words sound forced and raspy.
I start to walk toward her but then stop. I don”t want to come across as any more of a creep than I already have. ”I looked like shit out there.”
She laughs for a second but then catches herself and blanks her face. But when I smile, she does too. ”Yeah, I was just trying to be nice. I”ve seen better goaltending at an under-12 game.”
Now I laugh. ”Ouch, Pajama Girl. You know how to hurt a guy.”
”Just call it like I see it.”
I walk toward her again, but I don”t stop this time. I rest my hands on the other side of the table. Her face is just fifty centimeters from mine now, and I expect her to back away. But she doesn”t. ”What is it about you?”
Lily”s face goes so white I”m sure there are corpses with more color. ”Sorry. I shouldn”t have—Sorry. You looked good out there. I mean, in a professional sense. Well, obviously. You moved like... I couldn”t tell you had a knee. I mean a problem with your knee. I-I need to go, though. I need to talk to Dr. Martinez about... things. The things I need to talk to her about.”
And before I can stop her, she”s out the door and practically sprinting down the hall.