Hooking - Kristine Allen Page 0,56

and in a decent area. I’ll be moving out soon.” Despite being a grown woman, I still cringed a little at the hurt I knew my mother was about to experience. She’d had a hard time with each of my brothers as they grew up and moved out. I was the baby and the only girl. Well, technically, Jake and I were the same age, but he was born first, and he’d gotten an apartment in Austin while he was in school, so our parents were able to adjust to his leaving easier.

Her sharp inhale told me I was spot-on. “You know there isn’t a rush,” she began. “You’re more than welcome to stay here as long as you need to.”

“I know, Mom, and I appreciate that more than you could possibly know, but I need to do this for me. I need to experience the real world, complete with my own bills and everything.” I attempted a smile that I was afraid may be more of a grimace, knowing my mother would’ve been happy if I never left.

“Oh. So you haven’t met someone? I thought maybe…. I mean, I hoped….” Hope shone in her eyes. Other mothers might be concerned their daughter was moving in with a guy when they weren’t married. Not mine. Mine had been trying to marry me off to someone from her crowd since I turned eighteen.

“No.” I sighed. “It will just be me.”

“Oh,” she said as her shoulders drooped slightly.

She visited for a few more minutes and then got up to go to bed. I stood up. “Love you, pretty girl,” she said as she hugged me. My arms squeezed tighter around her.

“Love you too, Momma.”

She left, and I sat on the bed holding my phone.

Tempted to do a search, I plugged in my phone and instead sent Alex a text telling him good luck at his game.

It was going to be a long week.

“Back In Black”—AC/DC

Sweat dripped in my eyes, and I took my helmet off and wiped it away. We had just switched lines, and I was feeling it. Shifts are thirty to forty-five seconds for a reason; that’s usually when fatigue sets in and it’s time to get fresh legs out on the ice. We knew our limits.

Things had been intense, and we were working our asses off. I grabbed a bottle to waterfall a drink, then sprayed my face with it.

“Fuck. What’s their deal?” McGregor asked as he toweled his face.

“They probably have it in for us because of Kosinski and Ritchie getting into it. Fuckers,” muttered Halvorson, but it wasn’t said in a shitty way. Surprise hit me. Granted, we usually played well together despite our personal differences, but I was shocked to hear him sound like he was backing me.

“It’s like they’re trying to pick fights tonight,” grumbled Baranov as he dropped to the bench. The defensive line switched out right after we did.

“No shit,” agreed Kalashnik.

It was only the first period, and I’d been on edge since the second I stepped out on the ice. For one, we were playing my old team, which was always weird. For two, I still wanted to kick my own ass for what I’d allowed to happen when I was drinking.

I’d already had a penalty for hooking, and almost got into a fight with Ritchie, my old teammate. He’d always been a bit of a dick to other people, but we’d played well together when I was there. At one time, I would’ve said we were friends. Tonight it was like I had a target on me. I’d been slammed into the boards so many times, I was already feeling the bruises.

“Fuck, most of them used to be my friends. Hell, I hung out with a couple of them over the summer.” They were acting like they hated me.

“Well, it probably doesn’t make them too happy that their former teammate just scored two goals against them.” Halvorson snickered. Again, the surprise hit me when he held up his water bottle to toast mine.

“Well, fuck. Did they expect him to go easy on them? None of us play to lose.” McGregor huffed.

“Hell, I don’t know. Maybe that’s exactly what they thought, and when he outplayed them, they got pissed because he’s no longer on their bench,” Halvorson said with a shrug.

“Like that’s my fault?” I snorted.

“Who the fuck knows? No offense, Kosinski, but I hated playing y’all last season. They’re a bunch of dicks,” piped in Kalashnik.

It had me frowning and wondering