Page 5 of Rush the Edge

My eyes light up. “Going away party?”

River snatches his keys off the counter and tosses me my jacket. “You think Natalia was going to send you off without a proper goodbye? You clearly don’t know your best friend well enough.”

Natalia was my roommate in college before I had to drop out.

We’ve been best friends since.

“Let me guess…” I smile and zip my coat. “The Bex?”

River snaps his fingers at me, and I follow him out of the empty apartment.

The Bex was the ultimate hangout spot during college, and although we’re at least forty minutes away, I’m not mad. I might even get a basket of fries to end the night off, knowing damn well they’ll probably make me feel sick come morning.

Two

KANE

I’mone of the first ones out of the locker room. After the practice we just had, I’ll be lucky if I can even walk to my car. Probably won’t stop me from going out later, but right now, my quads are twitching with exhaustion.

I swipe my finger against my phone screen and see a few texts asking me when I’m heading to the bar from my teammates and a couple from River. Ease slides into my tense shoulders when I don’t see a text from a random number. It’s not unusual to go months without a text with nothing but a dollar amount, but each day that goes by without one, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Instead of fucking around with a text back to River, I slide into my car and call him.

“What’s up, man?” he asks on the second ring.

“On my way home from practice. You’re not at the hospital today?”

River always was the smartest of our friend group, just like I was the most athletically inclined. Our senior class voted me the most likely to be arrested, which was their little joke after Iwasarrested, but they voted him most likely to become a doctor one day, and they were right. After completing his bachelor’s in half the time it should’ve taken someone, he’s in his first year of residency, and it turned out he was sent to the same city I play hockey in to complete it.

River snorts sarcastically. “You need practice. That last game sucked.”

“Fuck off,” I snap.

I’m still irritated that we lost our last game and that I wasn’t able to get a hit in when one of their players started getting mouthy with Volkova. Not that the grumpy vet of the team needed me to step in and fight for him, but if he wasn’t going to do it, let someone that will, you know?

“Hey, listen…” River starts off slow, and my hackles rise. “I have something to tell you.”

A certain someone pops into my head, but I quickly banish her like I’ve been doing for the last several years. River eventually caught on that I don’t want to talk about Daisy or care to know how she’s doing, but with his tone crawling with apprehension, I become fully engaged.

“I’m getting a roommate.”

I furrow my brow. “Uh, alright?”Why the fuck do I care?

River lives in the apartment below Malaki and me, so unless his roommate is planning to throw ragers the night before our games, I really don’t give a shit. Now, if he wants to throw ragers on our off nights, thencheers.

A steady breath leaves me when I realize there’s no talk of Daisy or anything like that. I sit back in the driver's seat with my car idling and turn on my heated seat, hopeful it’ll ease the throbbing in my legs. “You worried I’m going to force your new roommate into my game superstitions or something?”

“Now that you mention it…” he jokes.

I shrug, although he can't see me. “Better warn him. You know I don’t make the rules. If you’re up, and it’s the night before a game, we do what we need to do.”

“You’re fucking nuts,” he laughs. “Wait…are you still stepping left skate first when getting on the ice for warm-ups?”

I remain quiet because, yeah, of course I am.

“I bet you’re still wearing that hair tie around your wrist during games too. Aren’t you?”

My jaw clenches with the subtle reminder that comes with said hair tie, yet I still wear it.

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