Page 105 of Ruin The Friendship
Calvin rushes up to us, offering Dylan a hand. The kid stares at him with those wide eyes as he takes off his glove to shake his hand.
“Nice to meet you, kid,” Calvin says.
“You too,” Dylan replies, voice cracking. He clears his throat. “Sorry. Nice to meet you.”
“Ready to get a lesson from the best group of guys in the league?” Calvin asks.
“Absolutely,” Dylan says, squaring his shoulders and nodding. “This is… this is the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Just wait,” I say. “You haven’t even met Addy yet.”
I swear he audibly gulps.
“Come on. Let’s get you on the ice.” I chuckle, turning and heading out toward the arena.
Lydia, Zoey, and Grace are all sitting on the bench with Hattie, Dylan’s aunt. If I had to guess, this won’t be the last we see of Hattie or Dylan. I think the girls found a new friend, and I love it.
I step onto the ice, looking backward to see Dylan standing at the edge of the boards. He stops and looks around the empty arena, his eyes wide with awe.
“This is so surreal,” he says.
“Have you been to a game here?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Games are expensive, and my team has never made it to state. All my junior league games are played at college arenas. This is wild.”
Well, we’re getting him to a game immediately.
“Come on, kid.” I wave him onto the ice.
He steps on, gliding onto the blue line, the look of amazement never leaving his face. I lead him over to the net, where Trigg is standing. When I introduce them, Dylan has no words. Literally, the boy is speechless.
Trigg chuckles. “Nice to meet you, Dylan. Why don’t we do some warm-ups, then we’ll get started.”
Dylan nods, and they start their stretches, while I do a few laps and shots on the opposite end of the ice.
I do my stretches, and when Calvin finally gets on the ice, he skates over to me with a puck. “What’s Dylan’s aunt’s name?”
“Hattie.”
“I think Addy has a crush,” he says, pointing his gaze back and forth between the two.
I look over to Trigg, who is on the ice doing his hipstretches. Every few seconds, he lifts his head to look at Hattie, who is in an in-depth conversation with the girls.
“Hm. I think you may be right.” I’ll have to talk to him about it later.
“That would be one heck of a meet-cute,” Calvin says.
“Yeah, it would.”
Calvin passes me a puck, and we start doing some easy passes to each other.
“So, you told Coach your girl is pregnant, yet?”
I sigh. “Yeah, I told him right away. He was surprised, and I think I saw him clutch his chest a few times when I told him her due date. I thought he was going into cardiac arrest.”
“Can’t say I blame him. What’s your plan? I mean, chances are high that we’ll make the playoffs. First round ends in early May. If we go into the second round, it’s going to be cutting it real close, dude. And that’s just the first two rounds. If we go all the way?”
“I know.” I shoot the puck to him, a little harder than necessary. “It’s a lot. My mom is planning to come up for the birth, but I don’t want to be gone for most of her first month of life.”
