3. Locker Room Fumes
Chapter three
Locker Room Fumes
They get a five-second warning before I enter.
Carter heads in first, and the sound of bodies scrambling makes me grin, my tension seeping away.
Now this is familiar.
I crack the door to the locker room open and call out. “No point hiding those tiny peens. I’ve eaten bigger chipolatas.”
“Aw, hell, Rosie,” Ryker bellows. “If Jonas is a chipolata, I’ve got—”
“Finish that sentence and you’re scratched.” Carter’s not in a mood to play, and his tone even makes me shrivel.
Ryker clears his throat. “...Nothin’ but respect, Cap. Swear to god.”
All of them are dressed for practice when I duck inside. Well, almost.
Ryker sweeps me up first, a grin on our rookie’s face as he squeezes me tightly and sets me back on solid ground. “Here she is, everyone. Maintain an orderly line, please.”
A flood of murmurs echo approval.
“So superstitious,” I say fondly. And also, so cute. “How’s it feel not to be a rookie anymore? You’re a sophomore now. Fancy.”
“But he still can’t pick his pants up, so as far as we’re concerned, he’s still a rookie.” Benji ruffles my hair as he passes. “Kiddo.”
“Hey, Gramps. How’s life at the home?”
He levels me with a mock glare as he sits, stretching out his legs and leaning forward. “There ain’t nothing wrong with my mobility, kid.”
Anybody with eyes could confirm that, given how he warms up on the rink. Nothing unites the crowd more than watching Benji’s hip flexes. There are whole online channels dedicated to the close-ups.
It’s a beautiful sight. “How are the living arrangements going?”
“Ask him.” Benji eyes a reddening Ryker. “Asshole keeps eating all my groceries. It’s like I’ve got a mouse infestation. Or a toddler. Leaves crumbs everywhere and doesn’t touch the vegetables.”
Ryker clears his throat. “I’m working on that.”
I bite my lip to hide my laugh. The veteran-rookie roommate arrangement between Benji and Ryker is the source of much entertainment at our pack dinners. “Great.”
“Alright!” Carter steps up onto a bench and waves his arms. “Everyone step up. Before Rosie does her thing for you freaky assholes, we’ve had some bad news.”
Every head swivels to me.
“Who are we kneecapping?” Ethan Cross, our second center, says. Ryker folds his arms beside him, and I bite down on my cheek.
“Nobody.” Arms wrap around my waist, and I lean back into Liam’s chest as he nods toward Carter. “Eyes on Cap, assholes.”
His whisper tickles my ear. “Who are we kneecapping?”
Nobody, I hope. “Listen.”
This isn’t the moment for me to moan about my own shitty news.
“So…” Carter rubs his neck and glances at me, his face still drawn into a deep frown. “Looks like we’re going to be sharing the Furnace with the Aces this season.”
The room goes silent. And then erupts.
“Quiet!” Liam bellows, and I wince. He squeezes lightly in apology. “Shut the hell up and pay attention.”
“Look.” Carter exhales. “I’m as pissed about this as all of you. But we have a job to do, and that’s what we’re focusing on. So I don’t want anyone fucking with them. We are not gonna be the problem here. Our eyes are on the playoffs, and nowhere else. Understood?”
The grumbles increase, but a few heads nod.
“Good.” Carter points. “You’ve got five minutes, and then I want all of you on the ice.”
A ruckus erupts, stragglers yanking on skates and grabbing sticks.
“What’d I miss?” I twist to see Jonas. He tosses his gel onto the bench and looks around. His hair is set carefully away from his face, not a strand out of place. “You didn’t do the thing already, right?”
I shake my head. Liam’s muttered explanation has his mouth dropping open. “Shit. Carter’s gonna lose his mind.”
“We’ve already seen Boone.” I burrow back into Liam, unashamedly hiding myself in his chest. “Upstairs.”
“And?” Liam asks. He tugs lightly on my hair.
I tilt my face to look up at him. “Went about as well as you’d expect.”
“Jesus,” Jonas mutters. “What a shitshow.”
“Alright, line up!”
I tap on Liam’s arm in a silent request for freedom. “I’m up.”
This might be the dorkiest superstition in NPHL history, but the sight of twenty massive hockey players shuffling to form a polite queue always has me biting my cheek to stave off laughter.
It might be the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. “So… May this season bring us all the good things. Good luck, good chirps, good vibes, good pucks, and may every opponent accidentally hit a board at least once.”
Cheers fill the locker room.
I start laughing when Ryker holds up his jersey hopefully, only to kiss my cheek with a smack when I brush my wrist against it. “You know this makes me feel like the team mascot, right?”
“Nah, you’re much prettier than Atlas. Don’t tell him I said that.” Ryker winks before he heads out, Ethan shoving him away and taking his place.
The center offers his jersey solemnly, and I press my finger to the very edge of his sleeve. “Katie’s still coming tonight, right?”
He rolls his eyes before shrugging it on. “As if you haven’t been coordinating outfits.”
We might have matching legwarmers in the Titans colors. I keep my face innocent. “I plead the fifth.”
And so it continues, until the locker room only has three players left. My favorite ones.
Carter steps up and presses his lips to my neck instead of waiting for me to touch his jersey like everyone else. He presses the material against the other side of my neck instead, dragging it slowly down my throat.
“Captain’s privileges,” he murmurs. “I get the scent straight from the source.”
I swat him away as Liam and Jonas follow his lead, Liam brushing my cheek with his thumb before tugging his own jersey on. “You, Carter Reynolds, are supposed to be with Elena right now, getting your shoulder checked. Don’t think I didn’t notice.”
“Meeting messed with the schedule.” Carter shrugs. “I’ll see her later.”
The knock on the door has me raising a brow. “See? Elena only works to Elena’s schedule. Now she’s hunting you down like prey.”
He blanches.
“Hello?”
The voice that calls out definitely doesn’t belong to Elena. “Sorry to interrupt. I thought I heard Rosie’s voice. Is she here?”
Shit. I forgot I’d said fifteen minutes. I glance down at my watch and wince. “Sorry. Come in.”
Lauren steps gingerly into the room. She looks even more put together compared to the chaos left scattered around us, and I watch her look around. Her nose wrinkles. “Huh. Smells exactly how I thought it would and yet… worse.”
Rude. That is the musky stink of team spirit.
Although she might have a point.
While I’m searching for something to say, Carter blessedly steps in to save me from the awkwardness. "Yeah. Hockey isn't the nicest smelling sport. I'm Carter Reynolds. Captain and center. This is Liam Kessler, our defenseman, and Jonas Hart, left wing. We're also Rosie's pack."
She offers her hand to shake, but he doesn’t take it. She yanks it back and looks at me, fingers curling in and mortification sweeping her face. “Right. Of course. I’m sorry.”
“Who’s this?” Liam says behind me. His voice sounds tight, and I slip him a grateful glance. But he’s laser focused on Lauren, his eyes narrowed.
“Yeah. Hi.” A hand raises. Neat, clean, trimmed nails. Not fussy. “I’m Lauren. I’m the… Just started today actually. Helping with content strategy, so I’m trying to get my head around how things work around here.”
“Right,” Liam says shortly. And then he turns his back on her completely. “Carter, can I have a word? In private?”
Lauren’s eyebrows raise. Jonas doesn’t say anything at all. But he’s watching her, a faint crease between his brows as he glances between us. When he inhales deeply and stiffens, Lauren flushes.
I try not to feel too smug.
“Sure.” Carter glances between us. “You two are meeting now anyway, right? Ro, we’ll see you later.”
Lauren takes a deep breath as we step outside into the hall. “Wow.”
“Yeah.” I rock back on my heels. “You do get used to the smell after a while.”
She grimaces. “I thought that at the last place, but I never did.”
“Where was that?” That’s a normal question, isn’t it? Much better than why the hell did you steal my job, you bitch?
Unfair, I remind myself. It’s not her fault she has the job I’d love.
She didn’t know I existed.
“New York.” She falls into step beside me as I head down the hall, fully intending to stop by Georgio’s cart for a top up. I dare Liam to say a single word about my caffeine intake after the day I’m having. “Good team. Nice people, but I was ready to move on.”
“And now you’re here.” I try to smile.
“I guess so.” We share awkward glances, and Lauren sighs, stopping and turning to face me.
“I meant what I said about your work, you know. I didn’t realize I was walking into something here.
They reached out and asked if I’d be interested in a move, and I…
I needed it. Didn’t think too hard before I signed the contract, truthfully. ”
Damn it. I don’t want to like her.
“Rosie!”
We both turn, and I frown at Carter jogging back down the hall. He must have ripped his skates off to catch up to us. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He grabs my hand and tugs me away from Lauren with a muttered apology. “I need to talk to you for a sec.”
I stare up at him as he steers me toward the wall. “You sure about that? Because it doesn’t look like nothing.”
I saw him two minutes ago, and he looks wrecked. His pupils are blown wide, his hair messed up. “Is it your shoulder?”
He grunts. “No. Will you stop? My shoulder is fine, Ro.”
“Okay,” I say carefully. “But you’re kind of scaring me here.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look like this. He closes his eyes and breathes deeply before he opens them and focuses on me.
There’s no focus like a hockey captain. It’s all consuming. “Is it Boone?”
He doesn’t answer for a moment. He cups my face, and he watches me.
It’s the same expression that he wears watching me sleep like a creeper, though he swears we both wake up at the exact same time and he didn’t see a single speck of drool. It’s a cross between wonder and adoration.
I’ve never told him how much I love that look.
But today, it makes me feel cold.
“I love you so much,” he whispers finally. “So much, Rosie.”
“I know you do.” I twist my face to kiss his palm and try not to freak out. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’s all…” he closes his eyes again. “Look, I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything.” I wait. A stone has settled in my stomach. It gets bigger the longer the silence between us stretches out.
“Could you go home?” He rushes out the words, each one tripping over the other.
My chest shrivels, the stone shifting to lodge itself in my ribs. “What?”
Carter swallows. “Look…with Boone here, and everything, I’m not going to be able to focus. It’s nothing you’ve done, Ro. But I’d feel better for today knowing you’re not involved in whatever drama kicks off. Will you?”
I turn to look for Lauren. She’s clearly trying not to watch us, but her posture gives it away. “Carter… I get it. I do. But that’s not the impression I want to make.”
“I know,” he says tightly. “But I’ll explain. It’s opening night, and everyone is gonna be crazy. They’ll get it, I promise. This isn’t on you, it’s me.”
The stone expands, creeping up my chest and winding around my lungs. “What about the game?”
He kisses my forehead. “You’re never missing a game. Fuck, I can’t function without you, let alone play. We’ll come back later, and I swear I’ll have this straightened out.”
He presses his truck keys into my hand. “Take my truck. We’ll catch a ride home for dinner and pregame, and then we’ll all head back together. And everything is going to be fine, I promise.”
When he steps away, I wobble. “Um. Okay. I guess.”
He nods, relief warring with whatever the hell has him looking like somebody’s died. “Thank you. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
“I need to head back. I left Benji running warm-ups.” He rubs a hand over his face. “I’ll cover you with…uh, Lauren.”
At my nod, he looks me over one more time before turning away and approaching Lauren. She glances at me once and then nods, waving to me before Carter splits back to the hall and she heads for the stairs to the upper rooms.
Watching them walk away from each other settles my chest, at least a little.
“Okay,” I mutter. “Don’t be weird, Ro.”
Even if everything feels a bit weird.
It’s not the worst idea to head home. To our home, and our space, and get my head on straight before the game tonight so I can be there for them.
I grip the keys.
But first, coffee.