the bone pain and bloody noses. And none of it spelled out something she wanted to haul Henrik through. He still hurt from his sister’s death. She couldn’t drag him through her illness—she didn’t want to put any of them through it.
Not again.
* * *
“Dude! Where’d you learn to play like that?” Sparks punched Henrik on the arm, grinning around his scowl.
“No shit, Roller.”
“You’ve been holding out on us,” Rylie stated.
“Damn,” Conners said. “We all lost to the Ice Queen. That burns, man.”
Hauke smack the man on the head. “That’s my wife, jerk.”
Henrik let the guys prattle on around him, still resting on the high of shoving their damn assumptions back in their faces. His skin buzzed with his success that went far deeper than his little victory. It’d felt so good to play with others—for others. It’d been so long, he’d forgotten how incredible it could be.
“I knew he could play,” Walters said, moving easily through the group of guys who parted for him as he crutched up. “Damn good too.”
“You could’ve clued the rest of us in before we lost our money to the Ic—” Feeney cut a glance at Hauke. “Vanessa.”
Walters shook his head. “And what fun would that have been?”
“How long have you played?” Hauke ask Henrik, his tone devoid of banter. There was a seriousness to it that had the other men calming down.
Henrik slipped the guitar strap over his head and used his sleeve to wipe the sweat from his forehead, feigning a casualness he didn’t feel. “Twenty years, give or take.”
“No way.” The stunned expression on Sparks’s face held a hint of hurt that Henrik didn’t get. “I skated at your side for three years, and you forget to mention something like this?”
“Not cool, dude,” Feeney said, head shaking. “Not cool at all.”
A brick landed on Henrik’s high, deflating it in a hard slam that pounded his chest. What the fuck did it matter to any of them? He glared at Feeney, more than done with the ass and his constant opinions. “Like it would’ve made a difference to you.”
“Like you ever gave us the chance,” Feeney countered, his attitude replaced by steely challenge.
Henrik leaned in, ready to let loose on the man.
Hauke was there though, in his face, hand on his chest easing him back with little more than a look. “Not here.”
Shit. The curse repeated in his mind as he took in the people filling his house. Right. Now was not the time or place for any of this.
“Are you boys going to pay up or weasel out?” Vanessa’s voice broke through the tense silence to crack the hold it held on the group.
A round of grousing went up as the losers dug into their pockets. Hauke eased Henrik back until he was once again cornered. What the hell was up with him being trapped in corners today? Walters was right there too. And great, Rylie moved in for the final block.
Henrik grit his teeth and dug deep for the patience his mother had hammered into every one of her children. Grenicks didn’t lose their shit in public—unless he was on the ice. That was the only acceptable place where he could let his aggression and energy out and the sole reason why he’d taken to the sport in the first place.
His fists ached with the force of his clenched hold, a tension that matched his pulse throbbing in his jaw. His skin was too tight, his blood pounding with the need to let go on something or someone. Both were unacceptable right now.
He sucked a lungful of air through his nose, sought a calm he was nowhere close to feeling.
“What’s going on?” Scott’s frown was loaded with concern. “Why are you so mad?”
Henrik scrubbed his face and bit back his first response, which was actually pure bullshit. What right did he have to be mad at guys who judged him based on what he’d shown them? He’d given them every piece of ammunition they used against him on a daily basis.
He dropped his hand, jaw loosening. What did he say? He was tired of pretending? He did care what others said about him? He used to think the cutting jokes were enough to feel included? To belong? They had been enough...until recently.
“We have early practice tomorrow,” Hauke said, sending a look to Rylie. The defenseman had slipped into a leadership role this season that no one questioned. It all had to do with the respect he’d earned with his play