my choices.
He was my biggest weakness. More so than chocolate or wine.
Eyes closed, he pressed his face into the side of my head. He breathed in my hair and placed a gentle kiss on the shell of my ear.
“Fine. I get it. It’s been a fucktacular day, and I know we both had a lot of shit thrown at us. I’m not giving up. That’s a promise.”
One last kiss, and he helped me to my feet and opened the door. My brother stood there, taking in our disheveled appearance with narrowed eyes.
“Nice meeting you,” Alex said with a nod to Jake and let himself out.
My brother turned to me.
“Your boyfriend is Alex Kosinski?”
I rolled my eyes.
“The Mountain”—Three Days Grace
My brother lined up some of the ol’ ladies from his club to help with Hank Isaac. Mattie babysat for Thursday’s game.
Sydney didn’t show, and I played like absolute shit.
“Get off my fucking goalie, you fuck!” I yelled as I jerked the player off Beck. No, the guy didn’t mean to land on our goalie, but the end result was the same. That the refs allowed the goal was a shit call, but they called the shots. Dickwads.
“Fucking bullshit!” Beck roared as he snapped his stick on the poles. He was right, their winning goal was a bullshit deal, but there was no helping it now.
We lost, and Coach was pissed. Rightfully so. It wasn’t only me. Everyone seemed off their game, as if we fed off each other’s shit until it was a gigantic snowball. We were four weeks into the regular season. Still time to pull our heads out of our asses, but it didn’t matter. We were all disgusted with ourselves.
Saturday’s game wasn’t much better. Again, we lost by one point. Some might say it was a close game and be happy. I wasn’t. None of us were.
We’d lost. And on home ice.
“We’re gonna hang out at McGregor’s tonight. You game?” Beck asked. I almost said hell yes, then I remembered Mattie was at my house with the baby.
“I’ll have to take a rain check,” I muttered on a sigh as I dried off after my shower.
“Oh. Shit, yeah, I forgot.” Beck and McGregor exchanged a silent look that clearly said they were glad it was me and not them. It rankled, but I understood.
“When are you supposed to hear something?” Baranov asked as he tied his shoes.
“Simon said they were supposed to have the results by now, but the lab they used had half of the staff out sick so shit got backed up.” I pulled on my T-shirt and shorts, then threw a ball cap on backwards.
“That sucks. Have you figured out what you’re going to do if it’s yours?” Baranov asked.
“Fuck, no,” I replied as I shoved my suit and tie in my bag. The bigwigs could fuck themselves; I wasn’t putting that shit back on after the game we’d had. Besides, it was a home game and we were all going to our houses.
I sent off a text to Sydney.
Me: Not sure if you saw the game or not, but we lost
There was slight consolation that she answered immediately.
Sexy Sydney: I saw. Sorry, I know that sucks
Me: Can I call you on the way home?
Sexy Sydney: yes
Me: Talk soon
“I’ll catch you guys at practice Monday morning.” I tucked my phone in my bag and hefted it to my shoulder. After several conciliatory pats on the back, we dispersed our separate ways.
As soon as I was in my car, I called her. She answered on the third ring.
“Hey,” she said, her voice hesitant. It could’ve been from our strained relationship, or it could’ve been from the game. Hell, it could’ve been both, but either way, I missed the easy banter we’d had before this shit.
“Game sucked, huh?” I asked her.
“Well, I’ve seen you play better, but you’ve had a lot going on,” she said, obviously trying to make me feel better. It actually caused me to chuckle because it was so ridiculous.
“Syd, you can say it—we sucked monkey nuts out there tonight. The only reason it was such a close game is because Beck is a fucking wall most of the time. At least when he isn’t being buried in the damn ice.”
“Oh my God! I know! I saw that!” It kept the smile on my face that she was adamantly jumping to our defense.
I’d hopped on I-35 to try to get home quicker, but there was an accident, and I was stuck in damn near