Page 60 of Puck King
I cleared my throat and sat a little taller. “I was just thinking about some plays. What was your question?”
“Never mind.” Coach waved at me dismissively. “Lockwood, what do you think?”
Instead of paying attention, I went back to wondering why Alison was ignoring me. We’d had to take a break from being a couple, not from being friends.
“Everything alright, Captain?” Gunnar, Mr. Serious, stared at me.
Clearing my throat, I gave him a nod. “Yeah, dude. Why do you ask?”
“You’re fucking out of it.” He slapped my shins with his stick.
Gunnar was right. This was a big night for the team, and here I was, daydreaming about a girl like I was a teenager. Not even. As a teenager, I would’ve been more wrapped up in the game. What had happened to me?
As I waited for the team to file onto the ice, I did the box breathing exercise Alison had taught me after one of our sessions. The announcer’s voice boomed and as soon as I heard our entrance song, “Enter Sandman”, I felt myself get into the zone. I burst onto the ice, knowing that this was going to be a good game, regardless of whether or not a certain beautiful woman was in the crowd.
Gunnar groanedas the dressing room door flew open.
“Nice work, boys.” Everleigh smiled and clapped before putting her hands on her hips. She scanned the room and as she looked at me, she winked. I screwed up my forehead and shot her a dirty look, but realized the wink wasn’t meant for me. I glanced to my side, and Gunnar Lockwood’s face was turning the color of the Flames’ jerseys.
I jutted my elbow into Gunnar’s side. “Watch out for that one, she eats rookies for breakfast.”
His face went white. “I wouldn’t…” The typically cocky player stammered.
“Just messing with you, Lockwood.” I laughed. Just like I had weird terms and conditions from my father, so did Everleigh. “She knows that her players are off limits.”
“Really?” Gunnar seemed uncomfortable, but shot me a smile. “You’re joking, right?”
Glancing over to ensure that Everleigh was involved in a discussion with Coach, I whispered to Gunnar, “I’m as serious as the last guy in the shoot-out.”
“Hmm.” Gunnar shrugged. “Do the other guys know about Everleigh’s rule?”
That was a weird question. I looked around the room and wondered if my sister was fucking one of the players. If she was, it would be extremely unprofessional – and surprising. Everleigh had a thing for older, richer men – richer than any of the players in the room. She had been after Jake McManus for years, but as far as I knew, he wouldn’t give her the time of day. “I don’t think it’s something that was announced, but come on man, you don’t bang the general manager.”
“Right.” Gunnar was focused on getting undressed, but as I watched him undo the laces of his skates, I noticed that the typically skilled puck handler, with the hands of a legend, was fumbling with the laces.
When I looked up, Everleigh had left the dressing room. Gunnar kicked his skate off his foot and cleaned the snow from the blade with a chamois. “A few of us are going for drinks after, are you coming?”
“I do my celebrating after the series is over,” I said. The room was filling with steam as the players started showering. “We have practice tomorrow, so don’t go too hard.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Gunnar gave me a half-hearted salute. The days when I could stay up all night partying and still be able to skate my heart out the next day were long gone.
As the room cleared out, all I could think about was Alison. I knew what I had to do.
I slapped my hands on the thighs of my pants and made my way to Everleigh’s office. She was the general manager of the hockey team, not my personal life. And the audacity of my father, a man who’d cheated on my mom basically the entire time she’d been alive, telling me what to do. It was ridiculous and it had to stop. Now.
Light shone from beneath Everleigh’s office door. She might be a spoiled little rich girl, but she worked harder than anyone I knew.
“H-h-hold on,” she yelled from behind the door.
I didn’t ‘hold on’. Taking a note from her playbook, I began to open the door, but couldn’t get it open enough to walk in before she immediately slammed it shut. “I said ‘wait a minute’.” Her voice was low and she sounded a little panicky. What was she doing in there?
Turning my back, I shoved my hands into my pockets as I waited for my sister to let me in to her office. When she did, her cheeks were flushed and her hair was on the top of her head in a loose mess. When she had congratulated the team earlier, her hair had been smooth and slicked back into a fancy looking twisty thing.
“What’s up?” She dropped into her chair and kicked her red-soled high heeled feet onto her desk.
Something was definitely up. Her computer was off and there wasn’t any paperwork on her desk. “It’s a little dark in here, don’t you think?” I turned on the overhead light and she squinted as it flickered and then blared overhead.
“You know that I hate industrial lighting. Turn it off.” She waved her hand at me and then put it over her eyes like the brim of a golf visor.
