Page 18 of No Pucks Given
Carter really was the perfect boyfriend—trying to get Stephanie to like him without undermining my authority, but that wasn’t too surprising. Nope. All in all, he was amazing, and I could see why Natalie joked around about him being too perfect.
Chapter 18
Carter
Thanks to Natalie’s help, my car was stuffed with all the supplies needed to fix Siobhan’s house. All I had to do was provide the muscle, but thankfully, the guys on the Legacy didn’t often say no to their captain when I asked them to do me a favor. Spence and I were in my car while the other Spencer drove with Scuba. Even Hallsy joined the effort when he realized we were cleaning up Siobhan’s place.
As we pulled into the driveway, Suzuki went, “Fuck, that’s even worse than I thought.”
“Oh, it’s bad,” I said with a nod. Then I realized something else. There was another package on the porch.
I cursed. I really hoped it was a poop-laden box with dead roses in it and not a bomb.
I texted Siobhan.
Expecting any packages today?
Knowing she was busy on set, I just shoved my phone in my pocket, hoping we wouldn’t have to call the police again. I hopped out of the car, opened up my truck bed flap, and reached in for the buckets.
Of course, Nat taped a note for me with instructions. I was about to throw it out, but I decided to take a look at it just in case she had any idea how to go about this.
Start with soapy water. Don’t use too much dish soap.
Then try vinegar and baking soda.
If all else fails, try the graffiti remover. Use the masks if you have to use this one.
I shook my head. Nat sometimes had no faith in me. I knew what to do. Sure, I liked to play hockey and was willing to pay for people, mostly Natalie, to do my shopping, cleaning, and any other task that could pull my focus away from hockey. But that didn’t mean I was incompetent.
It was unusually warm this November. I peeled off my shirt and tossed it into the truck bed since I knew I was only going to get warmer with all the scrubbing we would be doing.
Spence shook his head and said in a teasing voice, “You already got the girl, so you could stop being a walking thirst trap.”
I scratched the outside of my nose with a very clear middle finger. That got all the guys laughing. After Spence rolled his eyes in return, I told him the truth. “She’s not here, and it’s hot as balls today. If you want to sweat to death, by all means, keep your shirt on. But I’m going to work in comfort.”
That got Suzuki laughing, but he also tossed his shirt next to mine. Then he reached for one of the bags that Nat had in there. It was full of cleaning supplies like sponges, dish soap, baking soda, and vinegar. Suzuki threw sponges to each of the guys.
I reached for the dish soap and squirted a little bit into each bucket before heading to the spigot. The guys all grabbed a bucket as I filled them and got to work on one area of paint.
From there, we worked on scrubbing the house. Thankfully, the paint started to lift with some elbow grease. However, the paint was being stubborn and not lifting all the way off.
We were working in relative silence, although there was music playing from a Bluetooth speaker that Scuba had in his SUV.
Scuba seemed to be allergic to silence, even if there was music playing in the background, and he looked my way. “So, where’s your girl?” he asked.
I shook my head. Siobhan was officially off limits to the guys. It would be all about privacy protection for her and her kid. Maybe once we figured out who the hell was messing with her, I’d be more open to sharing what she was up to.
“Can’t say.”
“Leave him alone,” Spence said in his'don’t mess with me'tone.
I loved how Suzuki always had my back, and it carried over to my whole family. It didn’t matter if we were on or off the ice. That loyalty mattered to me big time, and I was so grateful that we were drafted to the same team. Not many people got to play with their best friend from basically the moment they turned pro.
I kept an eye on him since I wasn’t going to let him take things too far with Scuba. Although it seemed like Scuba was smart enough to back down. He was still one of the new guys on the team.
Scuba held up his hands in the classic 'I surrender' pose. The sponge dripped dirty water down his arm as he said, “I get it. Just trying to make conversation. You said so yourself, he never dates. And when this happened, it would trigger his hero complex. So I’m just surprised we’re here if she’s not.”
I shot Suzuki a glare since I didn’t like being told I had a hero complex. I was just a normal guy who liked to be the best, and the guys normally looked up to me. I didn’t seek out the limelight. It was just there.
