Page 45 of Unbreakable
“Had a change of heart?” Jack Leroy crept up behind me, putting his face between mine and Colt’s. “What’s Jeanine think of that?”
“The more the merrier,” Colton chuckled.
“You’re still such a pill,” Stelle laughed.
“Hey, Jackie baby,” Mikey chimed in. “I miss you big, brother.”
“Aw, we miss you too,” Leroy said. “But hey, we’ll see you soon, right? Next week?”
“Yep! You’d better not beat my ass on the ice or I’ll give it right back,” Mikey warned.
“Can’t wait,” Leroy said with a grin.
“Hey, figure out a way to bring Jeanine,” Guy said, swinging the camera closer to himself as the chatter picked up in the background. “The girls miss her.”
“Women,” Mikey corrected.
I gave a wry smile, knowing how rough things were with Jeanine at the moment. “Maybe. She sure misses them.”
The boys suddenly went silent and the camera was a closeup of Guy’s chest hair. Then his mouth got close to the camera. “We’re in trouble, gotta go, bye.”
I didn’t realize how badly I missed Los Angeles until I saw all my old friends at the same time. They were still living, laughing, and loving, and I was out here trying to make a new start. By force, not by choice.
But I had to keep my chin up. I zoned out so hard during the national anthem at the game that I didn’t realize I was singing it super loud. Lindberg was stifling giggles before he jabbed me in the ribs.
“You gonna do the same for ‘O, Canada?’” he asked.
My face reddened but I tried to recover. “Guess you’ll have to find out.”
Toronto was a middle-of-the-pack team. Good, not great. Might get a playoff spot in the spring, might not.
In short, we could beat them if we got our shit together enough.
When I came in from my first shift, I chatted with my line on the bench. They were trying Garner with Korowski instead of Leroy. “Why aren’t you trying the thing? It worked in the last game.”
Garner hardly regarded me.
“I’m speaking to you,” I stated.
“Yeah, I hear you, old man.”
I glared at him. “You want to win this game? Do the things that actually score goals. What do I need to do to get you to run the play?”
“We get paid whether or not we win,” he muttered.
My head was about to explode. This team was infuriating. “Is that seriously the fucking attitude around here? Are you hearing this shit, Coach?”
“Snitch,” Dottie grumbled.
“You fucking kidding me?” I rose and threw off my gloves.
“Sorrento, Dottie, enough.”
“No, this is bullshit. If you want to keep your job in this league, stop playing selfish and start getting us wins. You need help with something, you ask. You don’t phone it in every game. That’s a recipe for us to get worse, get injured, or get fired.”
The fourth line came back in, so it was time for us to go out. And lo and behold, look who’s running the play. And also, look who’s scoring a goal. I got the assist, but hopefully this was enough to stop the shit attitude that plagued this team.
After the game, Coach called me into his office.
