Page 65 of Goalie Interference

“Understood,” he says and puts the water glass he just picked up back down. But he is still smiling, so I doubt he minds.

“Don’t even think about it, Ander,” Brandon says. “You’ve been too damn big to fit under the table for at least a decade.”

“As opposed to you who can just walk underneath it.” I grab a roll—still warm from the oven—and toss it at him.

He catches it, then tears a piece of it off and eats it. He hums as he chews. “Mom. These are fucking delicious.”

“No hockey mouths at the dinner table,” she scolds.

“Since when?” I laugh.

“Since it’s Christmas,” she says. She locks eyes with me and gestures around the very full table. “And we have guests. Let’s not scare them away.”

“It’s nothing we haven’t heard in the locker room,” Cole says around half the dinner roll he popped into his mouth.

“And it’s nothing compared to what we say to each other on the ice,” Brandon says. He looks at me. “Right, shit head?”

“Definitely, fuck face.”

My mother shakes her head, then turns her attention to Nikolai. “My apologies for my boys, I promise I raised them right.”

Nikolai’s foot taps mine under the table, and he knocks our knees together. His forearm moves ever so slightly as well, bringing it to rest completely beside mine from elbow to wrist. It thrills me.

“I spend more time with them than anybody else,” he says. “I know how well you raised them.”

His comment makes my mother beam with pride as everyone at the table begins to load their plates up. My dad uncorks the wine and fills everyone’s glasses except for David’s and Cole’s.

“Yeah,” my dad says, looking back and forth between me and Nikolai. “How is it that the two of you have become so close?”

I need to gather my thoughts on this before I answer his question. Because honestly, I don’t really know how to explain it all. I take my first bite of pot roast. It melts in my mouth while I think it through.

They know he came to my cup party. And they saw him in Buffalo after my disastrous game against the Mules. But other than that, I don’t think they realize that we’ve seen each other while on the road, and they definitely don’t know that I’m in contact with him almost every day. They certainly don’t know that he’s the reason I’ve been able to get my head back in the game as well. As our friendship has developed, so has my save percentage and winning record.

“We are both goalies,” Nikolai says. “We have lot in common.”

“Not that much in common,” Brandon grumbles.

“Maybe more than you think,” Ryan says as he takes a sip of his wine.

I narrow my eyes on him. At this moment he’s reminding me of Connor.

He stares right back at me and smiles like the devil.

Damn him. Just like with Connor, it’s as if he sees right through me. I’m hot all over and the room suddenly feels smaller.

It’s funny. When Connor figured me out, all I wanted was to be near Nikolai even though the prospect of that terrified me. But now, with Ryan looking at me like he wants to dare me to make a move, I want to be as far away from Nikolai as possible.

This is the curse of my parents’ house though. I can’t get away from him. I’m stuck at this table. I’m stuck in this room. And what’s worse, this is all my fault.

“Are you alright?” Nikolai asks me. His voice is low and soft. I turn to look at him and realize he’s leaned in close. Under the table, he’s placed his hand on my thigh.

I swallow and I feel the panic that was rippling through me subside as I look into his green eyes.

“I’m good,” I say and actually mean it. Maybe this wasn’t all a mistake. Maybe he’s feeling the same as me after all. I mean, Ryan’s my friend too, and he’s not placing his hand on my thigh to calm me down.

Feeling embarrassed, I look away and go back to eating, though my appetite is gone. I hate what I’ve become. I hate that out of nowhere I went from being goofy, unflappable Ander to a complete mess of a human being who can’t even make it through dinner on my favorite holiday.

At the end of last season, I was fine. On top of the world even. I had just won an Olympic gold medal and the Stanley Cup for the second time. I was ready to spend the offseason preparing to win it again this season. And then, something in me switched. I can’t exactly pinpoint when or how. I just know that somewhere along the line everything about my life changed.