Page 91 of Hockey Bois
“He’s texting you right now, isn’t he?” Jenna asked.
Nick’s head snapped up. Both of them were giving him disapproving looks, though one was definitely more sympathetic than the other.
Maybe “pitying” was a better word for it.
“Do I need to say it?” Jenna asked. “I’m sure you already know it, but would hearing it help?”
“We’re friends! Friends text each other!” Nick said and held his phone close to his chest in case she planned on stealing it.
Jenna looked unimpressed.
“He’s got a point,” Terry said.
“How many other people on the team do you text?” Jenna countered.
“Text? Specifically? Uhh…”
Technically, he’d had text conversations withseveralteam members. Benns, obviously, from early on when he joined the team and needed to coordinate ordering a jersey, asking about different rules, general commentary about big games, etc. Then there was Lexi, who’d texted half the team for help when he couldn’t find the Columbia rink, but that was nothing more than Lexi’s panicked message followed by Nick sending him a GPS location. There was an old conversation from October after the team trip that was just GG’s five-paragraph text analysis of the Caps coaches in the last decade. Nick had never replied. More recently there was one from Gail that was nothing more than three tophats in honor of his hat trick. So hehadmessages… but he knew they weren’t what Jenna meant.
“We talk on Facebook messenger… in our group chat…” he said lamely. “Look, I get it. I’m in control here, I swear. No heart breaking, no high expectations, just a hot guy I’m friends with.”
“So you’re not interested in him anymore?”
Nick made a face. “Interested? Of course I’minterested, but after PA…” He shrugged. He decided to answer with the laid-back attitude he wished he actually felt. The more he acted nonchalant, the more true he hoped it would become. “I’d be skeptical if he started flirting again. He’s cagey, which I knew, and I don’t know how to navigate it.”
“Talking,” Jenna said. “Talking’s how you navigate it.But, since I know you won’t, and it doesn’t seem like this Brady guy will either, I approve of your current attitude. It’s the most mature you’ve acted about the whole thing. But I still want to go to a game, both in support of your hockeying and to give this guy the stink eye.”
He squeezed his phone in his hand, remembering Brady’s message. “My next game’s this Thursday.” It was difficult to keep a straight face. Hopefully if Jenna noticed anything weird, she chalked it up to his discomfort.
“Good. Time? Place?”
Terry perked up. “Can I come?”
“Nine-thirty in Laurel. Yes, but no flirting.”
“Awesome. We’ll be there.”
*
They were both waiting for him by the sign-in tables. Terry had a collection of food he’d clearly snagged from the vending machines, and he was busy flattening out a dollar bill to collect more goodies. This was typical Terry behavior, and although he’d gathered a small crowd of children who watched with wide, impressed eyes, it wasn’t unusual.
And then there was Jenna. She was chatting with Donno, who seemed baffled by this strange creature accosting him with questions about things she shouldn’t know about. This was also typical Jenna behavior, which didn’t make it less alarming.
“Does Nick get enough ice time? Is he trying out new positions? How is Benns’s coaching style helping the team? Do you do special teams or just whoever has the next shift? How was the PA tournament a few months back? Hey, is Brady a competent defenseman, and has he already arrived?”
Definitely typical questions for a complete stranger to ask.
Nick let Donno suffer a few extra seconds before rescuing him.
“Glad you guys could make it,” Nick called loudly. “Donno, I see you’ve met my cousins.”
Donno mumbled something Nick couldn’t hear and fled once Jenna’s attention was diverted.
Nick did his best to suppress a laugh. “You’re a menace, you know that?” Nick said as he signed in.
Jenna watched like a hawk and then pointed to Brady’s name with a line through the signature box. She tapped it. “What’s this mean?”
Ofcourseshe’d figured out the sign-in sheets faster than he had. Either that, or it was one of her earlier questions to Donno.
