Page 11 of Snapping the Ice
Slowly, Mason said, “He was taking pictures of you. How can he do that without looking at you?” His brow arched.
“That’s basically what Ezra told him.” I brushed my fingers up and down my glass. “When he caved, the guy backeddown. He looked so…sad. We had a blast, fucking around and laughing, and then this douche came in and ruined it all. It was like this dude sucked the life out of him.”
“He probably is.” Mason lowered his brows. “You can’t let this happen, Lucas. You’re a Hopkins.” He jabbed his finger at the table. “We don’t let injustice go in our family. Maybe Ezra needs a friend to talk to. Maybe you could be that friend.”
I stared at Mason, my pulse waking. “Won’t that piss off his boyfriend?”
“So?” Mason scoffed. “Where do you think Jett would be right now if I’d let shit go?” he glanced at Jett, who grabbed his hand over the table and smiled softly.
“I guess I can try.” I drank more of my Mai Tai. Mason was right. Ezra might look for a way out.
“One thing abusive people do is isolate their partners. Make him see he’s not alone. Try starting there.” Jett leaned back as the server dropped off plates of food.
“I’ll stop by the studio tomorrow.” Spooning rice onto my plate, I clenched my jaw. I’d help him. “He took some special photos of me, so I’ll say I want to see them.”
“Special photos?” Mason smirked. “Naked or?”
I scoffed. “No, close ups of my face.” Jesus, his mind was always in the gutter.
The next day at the morning skate, I worked on quick twitches with Evan to learn how to better stick to the opposing team’s players. I tossed my stick to the boards and held my gloved hands on his back. “You’re not getting away from me this time, Crosby.” I’d been learning all his moves.
“Yeah? Think so?” Hunkered over, he pivoted and took off like a shot, skating up theside of the rink.
“Fucker!” I caught him, slapping my hands on his back, matching my strides with his. “Gotcha.” He wasn’t getting away from?—
His skate caught mine, and he stumbled.
Flailing, I fell backward, my ass smacking the ice and then my back. “Fuck.” I lay there, staring at the rafters in the arena.
Coach Sullivan’s helmeted head appeared in my vision. “You all right there, Hopkins?”
“Yeah, just decided we needed a snow angel.” Might as well make fun of my fall. With a sharp snort, I spread my arms and legs out, swiping them over the thin powder on the ice’s surface.
“Jesus Christ. Get up. We’ve got work to do.” Coach scoffed a laugh and shook his head.
I popped onto my skates and rose. “Where’s Crosby?” I looked around the rink and found him chatting with our goalie, Gagnon, at his net. Did he even understand what Gagnon was saying? His Quebec accent was so thick, he hardly made any sense to me. I skated to them. “Hey.”
They both looked at me. “Are you ready to be serious now?” Crosby smirked.
“Only if you are. Do the fucking drill the right way.” Though, in an actual game, I wouldn’t be able to predict the opponent’s movements.
“Did you shoot?” Gagnon asked, his dark gaze meeting mine from under his facemask.
“Shoot? We’re not doing puck drills right now.” I furrowed my brows. Did I even understand his words?
“No, camera. Did you shoot camera?” Gagnon dropped his stick and held his gloved hands to his face, mimicking holding a camera and pushing a button.
“Oh, yeah, we did that yesterday.” I pursed my lips. I’d head to the studio today and check on Ezra.
“I shoot today.” Gagnon gave me a wide smile, one of his front teeth missing.
“Cool. You’ll do great. Just maybe don’t smile, okay?” With a snicker, I patted Gagnon’s helmet. Would he wait out the season to get his teeth fixed? It would drive me crazy having a tooth missing. And how the hell did it happen while wearing a full face mask on his helmet? He’d been like that since before training camp started.
“No smile?” He glanced at Crosby, who was chuckling.
“Don’t worry, the photographer wants us to look tough, so you’re not supposed to smile, anyway.” Crosby tagged my arm with the back of his hand. “Come on, let’s go. Coach is glaring at us.”
I peeked at Coach, hands planted on his hips and focused on us.
