Page 14 of Of Pucking Course

I tell myself that I’m excited because I’m helping a friend. I tell myself that I’d be just as excited if it were Del or Xander or Theo or Blomdahl moving in with me.

Ha. Fucking liar.

“Thanks again for letting my sister stay at your place,” Del says to me. “I know you told her that she doesn’t need to pay rent, but I’ll pay it for her.”

I shake my head. “No, you won’t.”

He frowns at me from his locker, which is next to mine.

“I’m serious,” I say to him. “I don’t want your money, Del.”

“Dude, come on.”

“Nope.” I yank off my pads. “Helping your sister is the least I can do after all that you’ve done for me,” I say in a low voice so only he can hear me.

Del keeps his serious expression trained on me. I know what he’s thinking about. I’m thinking about it too.

“How many times do I have to tell you? You don’t owe me,” Del says.

I set aside my gear and grab my towel. “Yeah, I do. I wouldn’t be here right now, playing on this team—playing at all—if it weren’t for you and what you did.”

Del opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it. I know he wants to fight me on this. I know he doesn’t agree with me. But he’s wrong. I wouldn’t be a professional hockey player if he hadn’t put everything on the line for me in college.

I walk to the showers and clean up, then get dressed.

“Have a beer for me,” I tell Del, Theo, and Blomdahl as they leave the locker room.

Xander claps my back. “You’re getting drinks with us after the game on Friday, no excuses.”

I catch Camden looking over at us from across the locker room, almost like he wants to join in on the conversation but doesn’t know how. He looks down as he pulls on his sneakers.

I think back to when I was a rookie, how I felt like an outsider until one of the more experienced guys on the team invited me to hang out with them.

“I’ll only go if Connors goes,” I say.

Camden looks up, his eyes big. “Really?” His voice hitches up like he’s surprised and excited.

Xander glances over at him and grins. “Yeah, okay. You’re coming out with us for drinks after the next game, rookie.”

Camden grins wide. “Cool. Thanks.”

We all walk out of the locker room.

“Thanks for that,” Camden says to me.

“Sure thing.”

We walk down the hall toward the parking lot. Will, the equipment manager, passes us and says hi to Xander and Camden. When he sees me, he frowns before looking away, saying nothing.

“Damn, dude. What’d you do to piss Will off?” Xander says.

I shrug. “No idea.”

Will’s been frosty to me ever since I joined the team after being traded from the Seattle Sea Monsters. Not sure why. I was polite when we met and always made it a point to say hi to him. I tried talking to him a few times, but he was always pretty curt.

“Maybe he hates the Sea Monsters,” Camden says.

Xander wraps an arm around my shoulder. “Aww how could he hate this guy? He’s the gentleman defenseman. Everyone loves Sam.”

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