Page 33 of Puck King
“I do.” The snow crunched under our feet as a few runners jogged around us. “I mean, I used to.” She sighed.
“Me too.” I don’t know why, but I patted her hand. “I was thrown. I was going on a trail ride with my mom and wanted to ride Roger. He was new to us at the time and I’d never ridden him before. My mom was nervous, but I wouldn’t let it go.” I didn’t tell Alison that I’d thrown a spoiled teenager temper tantrum to get my way. “Something spooked him when I wasn’t paying attention. I don’t remember the fall, just my mom holding me until the ambulance arrived.”
“That must’ve been scary for a kid.” Her eyes seemed kind.
“Yeah.” I coughed. “It would’ve been scary for a kid, but I was fourteen.” I almost didn’t tell her that last part, but around Alison I found it easy to open up about things I hadn’t talked about for years, if not ever.
She raised her eyebrows. “Fourteen is still a kid.”
“Not in the King household.” I laughed. “I’d already been away at boarding school and European hockey camps for years. I don’t remember ever being a kid.”
Alison was silent for a second. “And you didn’t get back on the horse…”
The proverbial saying. “I haven’t been able to ride since. At first, I used hockey as an excuse. I still do, actually. But…” A nervous laugh escaped, surprising me. “I’m just scared to get back on.”
“That’s sad,” she murmured.
I cleared my throat. “I’m sure I’ll do it one day.” Standing a little taller, I puffed out my chest. The moment of weakness was uncharacteristic, and I wished that I could take the story back.
“I’m sure you will ride again, Colton. I meant that it’s sad you don’t remember having a childhood.”
“Right.” I pursed my lips and nodded.Enough about me, I thought to myself. “What about you? Why don’t you ride anymore?”
The sparkle disappeared from her eyes and she looked to the ground. “I don’t have…” she looked away from me and then crossed her arms as though hugging herself, “time.”
“Maybe one day we’ll ride off into the sunset together.” I bumped her with my shoulder and she took a couple of steps to the side to recover. I had to grab her arm to stop her from falling. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
“I wasn’t ready.” She laughed. Alison was a tall and strong woman, but she wasn’t a hockey player. She looked around. “Do you know where the photographers are hiding?”
I had been lost in the conversation and completely forgotten that we were supposed to be putting on a show for the cameras. “I think they’re waiting at the exit.”
“Good.” She grinned.
“Why?” I was confused.
“Then they won’t see this.” She scooped up a mitten full of snow, then quickly balled it up and whipped it at me, hitting me smack in the middle of my chest.
“What was that for?”
“Who says you can’t be a kid now?” She had already formed another snowball and was patting it into a more solid ball. As it sailed towards me, instead of dodging it, I reached up and caught it.
“Now you’re in trouble.” I packed it in my hands. Alison squealed and darted off down the pathway. I aimed at her puffy coat and let it rip. “Ow.” She squealed and lurched forward as though she’d been shot, but then turned with a huge grin on her face, and dropped down to scoop up another pile of snow. Only instead of making it into a ball, she tossed it at me. The cloud of sparkly snow fell over my head.
“It’s going down my neck.” I swiped at the melting snow and cringed as a drop of cold water ran down my spine. “Oh, you’re going to get it.” I was so busy making another snowball, I didn’t see her charge. She grabbed me around the arms and the two of us tumbled into the snowbank. Luckily it had snowed over two feet in the past week, and it wasn’t rock hard.
“If we were high school kids, I’d rub snow in your face to show that I liked you.” She laughed.
More runners passed by, and I was thankful that there wasn’t a flicker of recognition. They only saw a cute couple horsing around in the snowbank. Something was happening to me, something good. And it had everything to do with the beautiful woman who was lying on top of me in a snowbank. We were both panting from laughing and running, and with the snow already in my hand, I knew what I had to do.
I rubbed the handful of snow in her face.
Sixteen
Alison
There wereother physiotherapists and trainers on the New York Thunder’s team that were more experienced in competitive sport than me, which meant I could attend the games as a spectator. The acute nature of on-ice injuries wasn’t my favorite thing. I preferred preventing injuries before they happened.
After the walk in Central Park I was really confused. We’d both been acting out a role, but in that moment, when Colton and I had been lying in the snowbank, I wasn’t pretending.
