Page 16 of Zero Pucks Given
I bristled with anger. Not just at what he’d said, buthowhe’d said it, sneering at me like I was beneath him. It confirmed all my prior assumptions about the pro athlete.
“This date is over,” I said.
“Aren’t you going to wait for the doggy bag?” Grayson asked. “Wouldn’t want you to miss out on your free meal.”
I did want to wait for the food, but I couldn’t let him win another point. Not after everything he’d said. And I really didn’t want to spend another second in his presence.
“Fuck off forever,” I said, grabbing my purse.
“You too!” he called cheerfully as I fled the restaurant.
8
Grayson
As Josie stormed out of the restaurant, I felt a pang of guilt. I didn’t consider myself a cruel person, yet I’d said some awfully mean things to that woman.
She was the one who started it, though. And she had struck a nerve with me.
My family was dirt poor growing up. Dad worked part-time at a factory in a town that was slowly dying, and Mom cleaned houses on the side to keep a roof over our heads. Hockey equipment was an expensive luxury, so Mom had to practically beg the other parents for any old equipment they didn’t need. When I started getting good at the sport, Dad took a second job to pay for everything. Pads that actually fit me, a hockey stick that wasn’t cracked down the middle.
When I was a teenager, I joined a special travel league for players who were gifted. That was the best way to get enough attention to get a college scholarship, because my parents sure as hell couldn’t afford to pay for school. The travel league wasinsanelyexpensive, so my parents scraped money together wherever they could. That meant sixteen hour work days, and taking night shifts on the weekend.
They missed my travel games because of it, but I knew the sacrifice they were making.
That was what drove me: knowing they had made all those sacrifices to give me a chance at a better life. I worked my ass off at every level because I owed it to them to try my best. It was the only thing I thought about every time I laced up my skates.
I got a full ride to the University of Wisconsin to play hockey. Instead of going to parties, I spent my Saturday nights practicing at the ice rink. When my teammates took advantage of their fame to hook up with as many women as possible, I ran ten miles a day to make sure I was the fittest guy on the team. While other players had expensive cars and allowances, I had to ride my bike around Madison, and barely had enough money to pay for three meals a day. More than once, I’d pocketed a sandwich from the campus cafeteria because it was the only way to fuel myself for my training.
After years of working myself to the bone, it paid off. I won the Tim Taylor Rookie of the Year Award as a freshman, then won the Hobey Baker Memorial Award—which was basically given to the best NCAA player in the country. I was drafted by the Nashville Predators, and later traded to the team that would become the San Antonio Surge.
And when I got that first paycheck? I made sure my parents never had to work again. They’d done enough labor to lasttenlifetimes to get me where I was.
My life had been far from easy. I’d earned everything I had ever gotten.
So when Josie acted like I was an entitled asshole whose life was easy? Fuck. I saw red.
But now that the date was over and I was driving home, I couldn’t help but feel bad. I hadn’t meant to bethatharsh to her. Especially since I knew what it was like to barely scrape by, hoping that all your hard work would eventually pay off.
Whatever. I had at leasttriedto start off nice to her. She was the one who was hostile from the moment we met.
“You’re home early,” Mason said when I walked into my condo. “Does that mean the date went poorly?”
“You have no idea.”
After telling him about my night, Mason whistled. “I don’t understand why you’re so pissed off. Weren’t you telling me how you hate the way fans act around you? That you want them to be more normal?”
“I don’t know what I wanted, but not that,” I replied. “She acted likeshewas the one being inconvenienced by the date. Like it was a chore for her to get through as quickly as possible.”
“So… the same way you were treating the date,” Mason pointed out.
“It’s different,” I argued.
Mason scrolled on his phone, then blinked. “Dude. The team account posted photos from the restaurant. Josie’s hot as fuck.”
I grunted when he showed me the photo. Yeah, shewashot. Especially in that dress, which fit tightly through the waist before showing off an ample amount of cleavage. I still remembered how I felt when I first saw her, surprised and turned on at the same time. Before it all went to shit.
“There’s more to a woman than looks,” I said.
