Page 10 of Puck Drop
I don’t respond to that. Instead, I walk over to a table where one of our teammates is waving us over.
“It looks like Karl started the celebrations early,” Sebastian mutters.
I chuckle at that because he is right. Karl Gustaff, who is a giant of a man, looking every bit the Swedish Viking that he is, is unnaturally happy when he motions for us to join him at the long table. There are ten seats around it, and all are taken except for two. Both me and Sebastian pull the chairs out at the same time.
As soon as our asses hit the seats, a bucket of beer bottles is placed closest to us, igniting a wave of cheers from the people already at the table.
“This is our newest addition to the Aces,” Karl speaks to no one in particular while pointing at me. “He came from New York, so he thinks he’s a fancy man,” he continues. “We’ll have to get him accustomed to the Texas way of living.”
“Says the man from Sweden,” someone comments from the other end of the table, making us all laugh.
“Logan,” one of them calls out to me. “The new team nutritionist is from New York, too. You should talk to her, you’ll have something in common.”
“I can do that,” I nod in confirmation. My right hand goes for a bottle of beer, with my left hand at the ready to twist the cap off.
“Once you talk to her for a bit,” the guy continues, “make sure to introduce her to the rest of us, too. We’re all interested in our diets, more so than before,” he adds.
I grin around the bottle of beer, my lips wrapped around the top as I take a couple of long sips.
“Her name is Elizabeth.”
Beer splatters all over the place when I choke on my sip. The liquid gets stuck in the back of my throat for a brief second before it decides to go down the wrong pipe, and I am struggling to catch my breath as I cough up a storm.
“The fuck are you doing there, Mantei?” someone slams me hard on the back. “You need a sippy cup or something?”
I’m not sure how long it takes before I can finally breathe normally, but the back of my throat still feels like it is on fire, and my eyes are watery from the trauma I just put myself through.
“Where’s the new girl?” I manage to ask, my voice sounding extra gravely.
Karl looks at me like he is trying to figure out if I have any mental disability going.
“The nutritionist?” he asks. “She’s at the table behind you.”
I turn in my seat so fast that the chair almost flies out from under me. With my heart beating out of my chest, I frantically look around, premonition taking residence in my stomach.
I first notice her dark hair that falls down in waves over her shoulders. It is as lush and vibrant as I remember. Then, I finally meet her incredible green eyes.
“Elizabeth,” I somehow manage to choke out.
She gives me an awkward smile before lifting her hand to wiggle her fingers at me.
“Hi, Logan.”
FOUR
Elizabeth
The last fewmonths have been some of the most stressful of my entire life. In fact, I was never stressed before I found myself in the middle of such turmoil. I didn’t know how to react to any of it.
To start, my relationship with my father is pretty much nonexistent right now. After spending a couple of weeks trying to convince him that what I had with Logan was real, and that he shouldn’t punish him for being with me, I realized that my efforts were futile. In that moment, I shut down, especially after I figured out that he’d messed with my cell phone by calling the carrier and blocking any calls from Logan.
I was absolutely devastated when I heard the news of him being traded to the Aces. I thought my life was over, and that we’d never see each other again.
“What I would do if I were you,” my friend, Mona, commented in her always laconic tone, “is follow him there.”
I stared at her in surprise, almost unable to process what she was telling me.
“My father would never allow that,” I argued at the time. That only made Mona roll her eyes at me.
