Page 37 of No Pucks Given
“He’s back from Vegas, so yes, we’re going to his place tonight.”
We weren’t even halfway home when my alarm went off a second time.
I looked over at Colleen. “Please silence the alarm and tell me what’s going on.”
Colleen grabbed my phone from the console and, with a few taps, was able to silence the awful alarm.
I tried to focus on the road ahead, but everything in me wanted to reach over and find out why my security system was freaking out. Did the mask guy return?
It felt like one of the slowest lights ever, and Colleen was taking forever to give me the information about what was going on. Finally, Colleen said, “The package is on fire, and the flames are growing.”
“Fuck. You need to hit the emergency button and call the fire department to the house.”
Hearing my house was on fire was freaking me out. Despite what Russell tried to claim in court, I always worked hard, and I put only my earnings into the house. His child support wentstrictly to Stephanie’s school and activity fees. I didn’t have the money to buy another home, especially with housing values these days.
“Oh shit. There’s a half-naked guy with a hose putting out the fire!” Colleen exclaimed. “He’s hot too.”
Suddenly, I didn’t give a damn about traffic. I needed to see what’s going on for myself. I swerved hard to the shoulder and looked over.
To my disbelief, Hallsy was indeed half-naked and spraying the package down with a hose. Sure, Stephen was my next-door neighbor, but we’d barely interacted since he moved in a couple of years ago. I’d only really gotten to know him thanks to Carter, since they were teammates.
Thankfully, the fire was declining, and I heard sirens in the background.
Knowing things were in hand between Hallsy and the firefighters, it was time to get back on the road, especially since I knew Lou was ahead of me, and he wouldn’t be pleased by my delay. We drove the short distance.
As we pulled into the driveway, I got a message from Russell, which said.
Heard there was a fire. If you need a place to live, you can move in with me.
I groaned audibly. That was the worst idea ever.
If Stephanie and I were moving out of the house on a full-time basis, it would be to Carter’s place. Not to my cheating ex, who couldn’t even stomach spending three weeks with his daughter. Plus, I didn’t need to see all his misdeeds on a daily basis.
Colleen stole the words out of my mouth when she said, “What in the world? Did you tell him anything?”
I shook my head. “No! I don’t talk to him unless I absolutely have to. When I get weird texts like this, I think he’s the one trying to ruin my life.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s never liked that you left his cheating ass. I’m glad you’ve always held strong and have never gone back to him. Just don’t let him screw up your dating life. You’ve been so much like your old self since you started dating Carter.”
Chapter 34
Carter
Spence and I were working out with Scuba and Coop now that the season had ended. I had to hand it to Coop. He’d really started to come out of his shell since getting sober, and he had become a real addition to our team.
Although today, he’d been grating me with his ability to easily lift everything and make me look like a weakling. I used to have my name up on the leaderboard for squats, but now my personal best is his warm-up weight.
As we worked our way to the leg press after the jump squats and skater lunges on the jump box, Scuba looked at the three of us. “I got to do the weekly vibe check. Everyone good with their girls?”
Not surprising at all since Spence was in love and loved having a chance to talk about it, he was the first to speak up. “Nat’s the best. But you all know that.”
I moved to the leg press, and Scuba had to keep pushing. “That’s not an answer on whether you two are perfectly happy."
“Who the fuck is perfectly happy planning a wedding?” Suzuki groaned. I heard Natalie wasn’t pleased by the lack of RSVPs, but I thought things were going pretty smoothly on that front. Maybe I should check in on my sister a little bit more often.
Finishing up my reps, I stood up just in time to see Scuba peacocking over the fact that he had fun planning his wedding. I still couldn’t believe he wanted to do a wedding right as we were ramping up our Stanley Cup playoffs preparations. But he pulled it off, won round one of the playoffs, and got married during the first week of games.
Poor Coop, he always seemed to get a bit sheepish whenever Scuba’s wedding was mentioned since he got so wickedly drunk. Although, much to my surprise, he actually joked, “Probably because he said yes to everything and Annie didn’t rein him in too much.”
