Page 68 of Hockey Halloween
“Really?”
Kelli shrugged. “Only for a while. I wasn’t that good.”
Mom shot me a glance. “But you are very pretty. I enjoyed making your costumes.”
I thought Kelli was blushing, but it was impossible to tell beneath the makeup. “The costumes were beautiful. More than my skating.”
I bet Mom had pictures somewhere. She took them of all the costumes she made. Maybe if I saw one, I’d remember Kelli. “Do you have plans for the night?” If she agreed to come with me, at least till we got something worked out about the key, I wouldn’t be late. I was never late—Mom and Dad had drilled that into me.
“I was going to handle the trick-or-treaters till Mom could get home.”
“Yes, she’s at the wedding show.” Mom and Kelli’s mother were friends because they both sewed. “Give me your phone.”
Kelli passed it over.
Mom hit a few buttons, then started talking. “Dylan, this is Mrs. Han. You are an idiot, so your sister has to go with my son to his hockey thing tonight. You will handle the candy for the children and find that key.” A pause. “Your girlfriend may call me and I will explain how you were an idiot and now you cannot go to her party until youfind the key. Maybe she can help you. Call as soon as you succeed.” She passed the phone back to Kelli. “You should go so you’re not late.”
I smiled at Kelli, and found I wasn’t that angry with Dylan after all.
Larry
Anything but sexy
Five minutes later we were standing by my Porsche. “We’ll both have to get in the same door.”
She looked through the window. “I do yoga, so should I go first? Through the driver’s door?”
I did some yoga too, but watching Kelli crawl across the front seat sounded appealing. She sat in the driver’s seat, then twisted her legs over to the passenger side. Her dress rucked up, but there were so many petticoats I still had no idea what her figure was like.
My mom would give me a slap on the head if she knew what I was thinking.
I slid in the driver’s seat after her and turned the car on. I put my right hand on the stick, and Kelli tried to levitate her hand to stay close enough to let me shift.
“You ever driven a manual transmission?” I asked.
“Nope.”
“Consider this your first lesson.” I reached for her hand and set it on the shifter, covering it with mine. Then I pressed the clutch and shifted into reverse. With her.
Again, it was intimate, shifting together as we drove through the city. Kelli was stiff in her seat, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the awkwardness of driving or from being together like this. A school crush didn’t mean she wanted to spend time with me now.
When we got to the arena, we had to shimmy out of the car in reverse. Kelli’s wig was a little crooked, so I helped her straighten it out then pulled my nose out of my pocket and headed for the door. I recognized some of the vehicles in the lot as belonging to my teammates.
The arena itself was a little old and not as well maintained as the ones I’d gone to as a kid getting into hockey. The door was open, so we went in, finding some of my teammates gathered around in the lobby. There was a pile of hockey sticks, helmets and gloves, as well as hockey skates and figure skates in a variety of sizes. The guys were dressed in a hodgepodge collection of clown costumes.
“Hanny? Is that you?” Crash asked in surprise. “What the hell?”
“Long story,” I answered.
“Oh no, you’re not getting out of it. What’s with the baggy costume and Raggedy Ann?”
Kelli turned to me and shrugged.
I sighed. “So, the shop had a Chucky costume for me.”
“That’s not Chucky,” said Luke Walker, another defenseman.
“I know that. I specifically asked themnotto give me a scary costume. But the only other clown one they had left was this, in a 3XL. I went to my mom’s to get it fixed, since she sews.”
