Page 81 of Playoff
Shit. Maybe he could think of a way to salvage this.
JJ turned his attention back to his twin. “Grandma is dead. Your phone showed me you were here. Check your messages.” He turned and walked out. The door slammed behind him.
Jess looked back at us, mouth open to say something, before she turned and ran after her brother. I stood, rooted in place, as the door opened and shut again.
“Well, fuck.” Fitch expressed it well. “Sorry—he must have used the key I gave him for emergencies. I didn’t think about Jess being here…”
Something twisted inside me, making me want to punch the wall, or get really, really drunk. I clenched my fists but refrained from venting my feelings on the drywall.
“Now you don’t have to sneak around.”
I turned slowly to him. “What?”
“Maybe you’re not fucking it out. Maybe you can see if there’s something there.”
What was he talking about? “You think JJ is going to give me his blessing to be with his sister?”
“It’s not up to him, is it?”
It was, and it wasn’t. JJ wouldn’t ask, but Jess believed she owed him. “Doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
“Are you sure?”
Oh yeah. Jess would always go to her brother. Always.
I waved toward the door. “She made her choice.” She was gone. Just like my parents and sister had left, like the teams who traded me— I wasn’t the kind of person you kept. Time to remember why I didn’t do relationships.
Damn it. This one had snuck up on me.
I shrugged at Fitch. “Game tomorrow. We’d better get some sleep.”
I didn’t hear from Jess that night. I hadn’t expected to, but I was still sucker-punched when I checked my phone. Should I text and ask her how her family was doing? How she was doing after losing the grandmother she loved? But why would she want that from me?
I’d gotten too invested. We were never long-term, never in a relationship. Just an extended hookup. Despite our pillow talk, we weren’t friends outside of the bedroom. I was sure Jess had managed to fuck me out of her system after last night. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten there yet. But I had to, fast. I wouldn’t have her in my bed again.
That night was not my best sleep, since my mind kept replaying our time together. I woke up tired but I had a job to do. I drank extra coffee and caught a ride with Fitch to the arena.
Between games, we worked out and trained at the practice facility, one of the nicer ones in the league. Advantage of playing for an expansion team with less than twenty years of history. Practice on game day was at the arena we played in, so that was where we were this morning. We got the first time slot and Carolina followed. The stands had more than the usual number of press on hand, trying to get the scoop on the lines for tonight. Playoffs were just around the corner, and we were in, barely.
There wouldn’t normally be much doubt. Petrov would be in net, since Mitchell had gotten the last start and he was our backup. If it wasn’t for the news JJ had been given last night, the starting lineup would be me, Deek and Oppy with Cooper and JJ defending. But JJ would be on a plane to BC, so there’d be some shakeup on the D-line. Had the press heard about the passing of JJ’s grandmother?
I finished my warm-up on the bike and came back into the locker room beside Fitch. He pressed an arm across my chest to hold me back.
I followed his gaze. JJ was changing at his locker. I shot Fitch a glance and he shrugged then pushed me behind him. Once we were in the hallway, he spoke quietly. “Let’s give him time to get out on the ice.”
“What’s he doing here? I thought he’d be on his way to Vancouver by now.” From what Jess had said, their grandmother had been as much of a mother to the twins as anyone in their lives.
“Maybe there’s a problem with flights. Maybe he wants to help win this game so we’re in good shape for the playoffs before he leaves. Maybe he processes grief this way.”
My fingers itched again to message Jess. To ask if she was okay or if she needed something. Was she still here, or had she flown out? Was she alone? Because she shouldn’t fucking be alone right now. It felt wrong, that I didn’t even know what province she was in.
But we were done. I let Fitch keep watch till JJ headed for the ice and then went in and dressed, distracted.
Morning skates were for loosening up and light drills. Review anything special we wanted to do with the team we’d be meeting that night. LA had dropped the practice of game day skates, and it was optional for the Blaze. But everyone from the team was here. This game mattered.
Coach called us in to a circle before we left the ice. “Some of you have heard, JJ’s grandmother passed. His sister is on her way to BC, and JJ will be traveling back on Seattle’s jet after the game.”
That made sense now. Seattle was playing our crosstown rivals. But why wasn’t he traveling with his sister? Was it because of last night—because of me?
