Page 49 of Shootout
On the night before our last road game, I sat in a bar with a half dozen teammates. We won all four regular-season games so far, and the guys were cocky as fuck. The mood was jubilant and the beer was flowing freely. We were only one door away from the hotel, so no one was driving. I’d have been more in the mood if I’d been satisfied with my game, but I wasn’t. I played mediocre at best.
I’d fended off a few scantily clad women, noting Wild disappeared with one on each arm. Whatever.
Cave and Wilcox debated some inconsequential facts, which they seemed to do with regularity. Felix, with his blond good looks and slight Swedish accent, was a favorite of the ladies. He was currently making out with a buxom blonde, ignoring our constant shouts toget a room.Yuri, who barely understood English, didn’t have a problem communicating with the ladies and was out on the dance floor, showing his outdated dance moves while sandwiched between two women. Drager Chowoski, another new member of the team and a savvy veteran defenseman, was also on the dance floor. He wasn’t dancing, more like grinding against a willing participant. The remainder of the guys at my table had their eyes glued on a hockey game, making comments every now and then.
“Isn’t Chow married?” I asked Steele, one of the most serious guys on the team.
Steele’s eyes narrowed and his lips tightened into a disapproving line. “Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard, but you wouldn’t know by watching him on this road trip.”
“Asshole,” I muttered.
Steele shrugged, but his disapproval was obvious. “I guess you don’t have to like a guy’s morals to win with him.”
“I guess not.” I’d had married teammates before who screwed around on their wives, but most of them had the decency to be more discreet. I caught Ziggy watching me with interest.
“What?” Annoyance crept into my voice as his expression was one of knowing superiority, and it grated on me.
“You’re not what I expected.”
“And what did you expect?” My tone was defensive, and I tried to temper it. Ziggy’s remark hadn’t been hostile. In fact, quite the opposite.
He grinned, not caring if I was offended. “I expected you to be the guy who’s cheating.”
Now I was pissed. “Why the fuck would you think that?”
Ziggy held up his hands, palms out. “Hey, calm down. No offense meant, but your reputation precedes you, just like mine did me. I recognize the signs. You’re lost without her. You’re counting the minutes until our plane lands in Seattle. And you’re not interested in another woman, no matter how impressive their, uh, assets.”
I opened my mouth to protest but snapped it shut. Why dispute what he said? I should be patting myself on the back for my incredible acting job, made easier by how much I wanted Jessie’s body.
“Honestly, nothing I’ve heard about you would’ve made me believe you could fall in love other than seeing it with my own eyes.”
In love? Shit, I was a better bullshitter than even I’d given myself credit for. “Well, when you meet the one…”
“I hear ya. I was like you until I got forced into a fake relationship concocted by Darcy and my agents to bolster her waning popularity and reform my party-boy persona.”
“I think I’d heard something about that.” Ziggy had met and fallen for a reality show star, and they’d been together ever since, from what I recall. “Most of the guys on this team seem happily married. Must be something in the water.”
“Yeah, that good ol’ Puget Sound salt air.” Ziggy grinned at me and held up his glass. We toasted each other, and I was fairly certain I’d won him over to my side.
I drained my beer and filled my glass from the pitcher on the table.
“It’s funny, almost everyone on the team was single in the beginning. One by one, each guy fell in love and never looked back. I swore it’d never happen to me, but love hits you when you least expect it.”
I nodded as if I understood what he was talking about. I’d never been in love, and I never planned to be in love. I controlled my emotions. They didn’t control me. I wasn’t succumbing to something I wasn’t certain I believed in, even if the rest of these poor saps did. I shifted in my seat, feeling as if Ziggy wasn’t the one I was actually deceiving.
“Did you get your gala tickets yet?”
“Gala?”
“Yeah, where’ve you been? It’s a big deal that the Parkers put on each year, and every Sockeye is expected to attend.”
“Somehow I missed that.”
“Well, you’d better get on it. I’m surprised Jessie didn’t mention something. All the girls have been talking about it.”
“Yeah, me too.” A rock settled in the pit of my stomach. Perhaps Jessie didn’t want to go to the gala with me.
“Mina, Parker’s scary-as-shit assistant, has the tickets.”
