I admire his bravery in taking shots at a guy who outweighs him by fifty, Dylan appears like a stoic voice of reason. “He’s not worth it, Blaine. You just focus on you, your game, and getting back to a hundred percent from your groin pull. You let me worry about him. Me and Spencer. He’s our problem.”
“You two taken him under your wing yet?” Max jabs, rolling his eyes.
“He’s a little big for that.” Dylan’s judgmental eyes follow Kane as he wheels around the ice with surprising speed and agility for a towering hulk of a man-boy. I don’t even think he shaves yet. “But my skate is at the perfect angle to kick him in his ass.”
Max snorts. “That I’d like to see. Please make sure you sell tickets before that show. It’s one I wouldn’t want to miss.”
“Does he annoy Spencer as much as the rest of us?” I ask.
“Adam’s got a wife, a new baby daughter, and is constantly worried about blowing his knee out again. I told him I’d deal with all things rookie this season. I just want him to concentrate on keeping himself healthy so we can win the division. Kane may be a pain in the ass, but the team still needs him. If that changes, I’ll talk to Coach.”
After a stern nod, Dylan skates away.
I stare after him. “Kane’s dumb as fuck.”
Max raises one eyebrow. “That’s an insult to fuck.”
My chuckle gets lost in the humid air. “Kane needs to learn that if you’re gonna stir the shitpot, you better be prepared to take a taste.”
“Is Cora coming to the game tomorrow?” Max asks.
“Yeah, I think so. My mom and dad already left for their condo in Florida. I guess I’ll have to text her. I’ve been kind of laying low since the ‘my best friend showed me my own dick’ incident.”
Max chuckles. “Good. Sue loves it when Cora’s there. No offense to your folks, but I don’t think Sue gets much girl talk that doesn’t involve her customers or Julia. I think it’s good for her to get out more and mingle.”
“Cora doesn’t do much outside of school and her grandma and me. Unless she’s got conferences or an open house or something, she’ll be there.”
I sigh, wondering how I’m gonna play when I’ve got so many crazy thoughts whirling through my head. Put that on top of the groin injury I’m still not a hundred percent back from, and it’s kind of a recipe for a shitty game in front of the home crowd and my best girl. And then Max gets pissy at me, Kane rides me like a fly laying eggs on a corpse, and my normally stellar life turns into a shitshow.
I’ve got to figure out how to right all these wrongs that aren’t even my fault.
“Is it okay if I tell Sue about this?” Max asks. “You know you can trust my wife with your life. She’ll never say a word to anyone. I’m just thinking if she sits next to Cora, she might be able to talk her into deleting it and making it go away. That is—if Cora brings it up first.”
“She’ll bring it up. I think it’s the most exciting thing that’s happened to her in months outside of little Julie puking in the cubby holes.”
Max elbow bumps me. “Maybe you should make her life a little more interesting. You do realize that if you and Cora were hooking up, she’d be so busy screaming your name that she wouldn’t have enough time to do anything else.”
I roll my eyes. “I wish. But that’s never happening, so we need to just let that shit go.”
“Why is it never happening? I used to think that about Sue, but look at us now. Wedded bliss and all that. I used to not be able to imagine life with a wife, and now I can’t imagine my life without one. Sue just makes everything better. Brighter. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.”
Why don’t all these assholes realize that I do want to try it? But Cora doesn’t and I have to respect that and her. As her lifelong friend, I can’t cross that line.
But that doesn’t stop a sizzle of heat from bolting down my spine when my eyes drift to Cora’s usual seat in the arena at the same time my mind automatically goes there. In my favorite naughty fantasy starring my best friend, she pulls off her glasses and carefully places them