Page 212 of One Winter Knight
“How are things going?” Grif asked. “Especially going from living by yourself to being in a houseful.”
“It is a little bit of an adjustment. I keep having to remember to put pants on,” I admitted.
Dean laughed. “Just make them get used to no-pants Carlos.After all, our team got used to Nakey.”
Nakey threw a towel at Dean. “You alllikeseeing me naked.”
Our defender had earned that nickname because he liked to be naked all the time.
We finished getting ready and went out on the ice for practice. Tomorrow we had an away game.
A few new people were on the ice along with Coach Atkins and Coach Kirov, who was the goalie coach.
“Listen up. We have two new EBUGs who will be joining Arden, since Tyler and Gwen have both left us for professional teams.” Coach Kirov sniffed dramatically, but we all knew she had a huge soft spot for the EBUGs. She told us a little bit about the new EBUGs, then added, “Be nice to them or I will tell Gwen on you, and she will hit you with her hockey stick the next time she sees you.”
We all chuckled because we could all see that.
“Welcome, EBUGs, please don’t bring animals to the rink. Especially random strays.” Coach Atkins rubbed the bridge of his nose.
The EBUGs looked a little perplexed. Honestly, I’d miss Gwen bringing random animals to the rink. Had the Tigres made that a rule yet?
“I’d also like to welcome our new forward, Ivan Ivanov, who comes to us from Russia,” Coach Atkins added.
“Do we have to be nice to him? Also, can he bring stray animals onto the rink?” Anders asked.
Coach Atkins just gave him a look. “Since Anders wants to be snarky, we’ll start with sprints. Now.”
We set off, skating across the ice, touching the line, and sprinting back. Coach liked to make us do this as punishment. When I’d gotten arrested, thanks to my ex, he had all of us doing this forever.
After a couple of minutes, he blew his whistle and had us start drills.
Every time there was a break, Ivanov tried to speak with Dimitri. Each time, Dimitri found very clever ways to not talk to him.
Interesting.
“Do you think they know each other?” Clark whispered to me. “I know he said they’d run across each other, but it looks like Ivanov really wants to talk to him. “
“Maybe they were rivals back in Russia?” I replied.
“Or lovers?” Grif added. “I’ve never known Dimitri to date or mention anyone, and I always sort of wondered if he left someone in Russia.”
I thought about that for a moment. “I don’t know.”
“Oh. Please remind me to give you the cake pops. It’s very important you get them so no one is sad,” Grif said.
I brightened. “Really? I thought that me and her brother mating would mean no cake pops for us ever. I mean, she did say so.”
Grif shook his head. “It’s fine. She’s been making spreadsheets for Hale.”
We finished up on the ice and then changed to go have a team meeting about the game tomorrow, and watch some videos of the opposing team.
Ivanov cornered Dimitri and said something in Russian. Dimitri walked away. Ivanov put a hand on his shoulder. Dimitri turned to him, scowled and said something else.
With a heavy sigh, Ivanov added something. Dimitri growled and the two of them started to argue loudly. Ivonov snapped at him. Dimitri pushed him and shouted back.
Wow, I wished I knew Russian.
“Break it up. Now.” Coach Atkin stood there, looking unamused.
