Page 63 of Forbidden Puck
“Minus the media jerks, yeah, it was fun. Good job scoring those goals.”
“Thanks.” Lance turned to his teammates and grabbed their attention. “Everyone, this is my sister, Ella. She'll be joining us for dinner.”
“Hi Ella,” twenty-some deep voices boomed back at me.
“Hi,” I answered meekly.
“This is your sister?” another voice asked. “The one you left alone? WithRadar?” another voice joked, and the whole room suddenly exploded with laughter.
Gulp.Maybe it was my turn to turn bright red? I hoped no one would notice.
“Shutup,” Radar growled at the perpetrator from his stall in the locker room. “Don't joke about that. It's not funny.”
While everyone else looked joyous and triumphant after their win, Radar looked like … well … like he'd just suffered through another game entirely; a bad defeat. His brow was heavy, his features dark. He tore off his shoulder pads and angrily stuffed them into his locker. I watched as he struggled to get his sweaty under-shirt off his body. My eyes swept up and down his muscles for the last time.
Ialmostwanted to tell him what had happened in the press box with those reporter jerks … but I was giving him the silent treatment, after all.
Lance turned to me. “Anyway. We have to shower up and do some media interviews, but we'll be ready to go in an hour or so. You can kill time in the club room if you want. There's a bar, internet, TV, whatever you want.”
“Sounds good, Lance. See you later, boys.”
“Bye Ella!” all twenty voices boomed at me as I left the room.
Chapter 22
Take it to the Grave
Radar
“Huh, Lance, your sister's kinda cute,” Ilya joked. “Lucky for her, she doesn't look a thing like you.”
Everyone busted up into a great big belly laugh.Ha ha ha ha.
Everyone but me. I'd played a lousy game and I didn't feel like I deserved to bask in the good vibes of our victory.
Lance rolled his eyes. “Oh,haha. By the way. If any of you guys think you're hot shit and try to flirt with my sister tonight? I'll personally ask the GM to trade your ass to the coldest fucking city in the league. What's that, Winnipeg? Winnipeg, boys. That's where you're heading if you even look at my sister the wrong way.”
I didn't laugh atthatjoke, either,for obvious reasons.
Lance strutted by and patted my shoulder. “Tough game, Radar, but you'll bounce back.”
“Yeah.”
It killed me to think that Ella had been somewhere in that crowd, watching me suck all over the ice. She probably enjoyed it, too, after what I put her through.
We did our media interviews, hit the showers, and then dressed for team dinner.
“I don't feel like going,” I muttered. “I'm feeling all fucked up. You guys go without me.”
Everyone booed and hissed.
“It's a team dinner, Radar,” Shea began. “If you go home, then someone else has a reason to cut out early, too. And then suddenly everyone else on this team has some other place they'd rather be. Then it's not much of a team dinner anymore, is it?”
I sighed. “Yeah … I'm just really not feeling well.”
“Order a pepper vodka, then,” Ilya yelled. “That's what we do in Russia when we're not feeling well. Oh, and go to the sauna!”
“Pepper vod—” I made a horrified face. “You know what, I'll be fine. Where are we going, anyway?”
