Page 23 of Two for Holding
Breezy bounced up to Luca, interrupting Tom’s thoughts.“Hi!Mazetti, right?”
The differences between the two young men were shocking.Breezy’s appearance matched Tom’s image of a picture-book defenseman to a tee, his stature tall and thick.His floppy brown curls and big brown eyes made him seem so harmless, but on the ice, he could take a man down.Next to him, Luca appeared elfin.Waifish.Other adjectives Tom rarely had cause to use about a hockey player.
“Yes, that’s me.”
God, even his voice was handsome, low and musical.He had an accent.
“Awesome!I’m Chris Calabrese, but everyone calls me Breezy.Anyway, it’s so cool you’re Italian!So am I!”
Luca studied him.“You…are?”
“Oh, yeah, my great-grandparents on my dad’s side are from this town near Cosenza, and my mom’s mom is from Vibo Valentia.Have you ever been there?”
“No.”
“Cool, cool, yeah, me neither.But now I’m earning NHL money, I can totally go.”
“Right.”Luca gazed around the room as if trying to establish if they were all insane.
Tom walked over to interrupt before things could get worse.“Hi, Luca.I’m Tom.”
“I know,” Luca said.“You are a little famous.”
Breezy cracked up.He clapped Luca on the shoulder.“Man, it’s great to have you on the team.”
So much for Tom’s authority.
With the ice broken, the rest of the team introduced themselves in fits and starts.Hayes had been in the weight room with Trout, poor man, so he only met Luca when they got out on the ice, though he and Luca would definitely be working together on the D-core.
Jax was particularly welcoming.Tom couldn’t help watching him shake Luca’s hand enthusiastically and clap him on the back.Did they need to be touching so much?Or was Jax just being himself?He had certainly treated everyone else on the team with open friendliness.Tom had gotten off on the wrong foot with Jax for reasons of his own making.He shouldn’t assume a romantic interest on Jax’s part just because Luca was objectively gorgeous in a way hockey players usually weren’t.Neither of them could help it.
He did wonder why Jax didn’t sleep with hockey players though.Was there something wrong with them?Or did he prefer men who were as skinny and blonde as the women hockey players tended to date?
Jax was blond.
“Crowler!Joining us today?”
Coach Morris’s voice snapped Tom out of his unfortunate thoughts.This was what happened when he stepped out of his comfort zone and started talking to the rookies and changing the team drills.Nothing fit his routine, and he got lost in his head.
Maybe that was the problem.Maybe he had to stop getting lost in his head.He’d never had a great time there, only made himself miserable.
He squared his shoulders.“Sorry, Coach,” he said and glided out onto the ice.
Though the surface was smooth and clean, Tom couldn’t shake a sense of unease as he cast his gaze around the stands at the Liberty Center.Some rinks felt wrong.Calgary had shitty ice and worse locker rooms, Toronto claimed the prize for worst media and closest proximity to Tom’s parents, and Philadelphia just made Tom’s skin crawl for no discernible reason.All the same, practice went well.Despite his size, Luca excelled.He was fast; he didn’t mind using his stature to slip around and under where no one expected him.His stickhandling was ridiculous, delicate and skilled in a way Tom rarely saw from defenseman.More commonly, forwards used finesse to get the right angle at the goal.Having a D-man with skills in stripping the puck off the opposition and then using it himself was an advantage, no two ways about it.
Tom made sure to tell him as much when they finished practice.
He was unprepared for the full force of Luca’s determined expression when he met Tom’s eyes.
“Thank you,” Luca said in his lyrical voice.“I have been waiting a long time to prove I can be here.”
Tom thought of Jax, who showed his true self so unashamedly, so proudly—who toughed out hateful language from opponents and his own team with a belligerence that showed his desperate desire to prove them wrong.
“You came to the right team,” Tom said firmly.He would make sure they had a place for Luca; he would make sure they had a place for Jax.He would make sure they still had a place for Phil when he was ready to return.
Tom had stepped out of his comfort zone, and he refused to go back.
During the bus ride to the hotel, he held on to the thought.
