Page 22 of Hockey Bois
Brady Derek Jensen:??
Chapter Three: October
His next game couldn’t come quick enough.
Nick was still reeling from the quick transition between seasons. They’d only had a couple weeks off before they went back at it, but he’d missed the short time away from the team. It was so unlike the NHL; he hadn’t expected the constant stream of games to abruptly end and then so quickly start up again.
Gail was in the parking lot when Nick pulled in. The petite defenseman had always taken him by surprise on the ice, her small stature in complete opposition to her large (and very vocal) on-ice presence. There was a reason she was usually paired with Brady: the two of them were the Jagr Bomb’s shutdown defensemen.
She saw him pull up a few spots down and waited.
“You ready to try some clean, by-the-book zone breakouts?” she teased. It was word for word what Benns had messaged them earlier that day, and he laughed.
“I don’t know about you,” Nick said and slammed his trunk shut, shouldering his hockey bag and balancing his stick, “but all I’m gonna do is break out of the zone. I don’t actually plan on even trying to score goals. After a successful breakout, I’m just gonna hand the puck to the other team.”
She snorted. “You been giving these tips to Lexi? ’Cuz I swear to God, if that man turns over the puck one more damn time,I’mgoing to run him into the boards.”
“You’re never on the ice with him. Possibly because Benns knows you’d do that.”
“Fuck, you think I care if I’m on the ice? I’ll jump the boards.”
“Why are we jumping boards?” Brady asked. The October chill was enough for both Nick and Gail to be in hoodies, but Brady had on his customary T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. In another week, Nick would need to dig out his Under Armour for runs, and Brady looked like he was about to head down to the beach.
“Because Lexi can’t hold onto the puck to save his life,” Gail said.
Brady nodded as though this made perfect sense. Hell, maybe it did. The two of them spent a lot of ice time together, they might have anti-Lexi chats all the time. Or Brady could be used to Gail saying crazy, random shit.
“You all right?” Gail asked as she gave him a once over. “You don’t normally get here so late.”
Following her gaze, Nick took in Brady’s appearance. He looked tired, maybe, and his shirt was a little wrinkled, but otherwise Nick didn’t see anything off.
Brady shrugged. “Long day.”
The three walked in, though Nick and Gail didn’t talk about Benns’s strategy plans anymore. He had the sense that Brady would approve of Benns’s efforts and would not approve of the joking spirit. Hockey was, after all, serious business.
“If this is beer league,” Gail said, “how come we don’t drink on the—?”
“Hey bro!”
“Mother fucker,” Gail said under her breath. The path to the locker rooms was blocked by a couple jocks, muscled, tall, and tan like they’d walked into a CrossFit studio, not a hockey rink. They were attractive, but Nick got that sinking feeling in his stomach he used to get in middle school when one of the older kids stalked over to give him a hard time.
Great.
“Ignore them,” Gail said under her breath and tried to walk past them. They didn’t move to make room for her. Gail gave exactly zero shits and steamrolled through the little opening they had left her.
Nick wanted to follow, wanted Brady to come with them and ignore whatever trash these guys were trying to stir up, but his sheer size made it impossible for him to try. If he did, someone would legitimately get knocked to the ground, and he wasn’t sure he’d come out looking good either way.
So instead he stood his ground at Brady’s side. Supportive teammate and all that.
“What?” Brady asked with barely concealed exasperation. In that moment, he looked ten times more tired than he had in the parking lot.
“Saw the stats for the Jagr Bombs,” the taller one said with a fake smile. “Saw you’re points leader again.”
“Great,” Brady said with so little enthusiasm it was almost funny. “Look, we got a game in a minute.”
Neither moved.
“You ever feel like stepping up a division, we got a spot for you.”
