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“Sure. It happens.” Foreman pointed at Kershaw. “Zip it.”
“Didn’t say a word.”
“But you were going to. Some inane Kershaw Superglutes bullshit that’s supposed to make us all laugh and forget we just played like slugs.”
“Slugs.” Kershaw grinned, then turned to Dex. “But I think we all know why that game was a disasterpiece. O’Malley.”
He jerked his head up to find the entire locker room laser-focused on him. Sure, he’d not been as in the zone as he’d have liked. A couple of missed passes on his dance card, but he wasn’t the only one who sucked eggs during the game.
Kershaw was shaking his head. “You broke up with Ashley, didn’t you?”
“We were never together.”
Kaz threw up his hands. “That’s it! O’Malley’s been playing like a demon and now he screws it up because of his love life. Perfect!”
“She was supposed to be your good luck charm.” Foreman’s tone was threaded with disgust. “Did I not say what would happen if you mess with that shit? Break up in the off-season.”
“We’re not a couple. We weren’t.” So he’d played like a donkey rather than a slug, and his argument with Ashley was definitely foremost on his mind, but he wasn’t the only player out there.
“Maybe it’s Banks’s fault,” Jorgenson said as he pulled off his pads. “He didn’t invite anyone to his wedding. That has to be unlucky.”
All eyes turned to Banks, who was busy taping his stick after the game, for some fucked up reason.
“Those All-Star games are always trouble,” Reid said, referring to the magical weekend when Banks tied the knot. Everyone was salivating for the details, which the man refused to share.
The recent groom raised his gaze to Dex and tried to fry his brain with an X-ray stare. Dex had already explained that he wasn’t the one who’d spilled the beans. Not Grey either. Someone else had overheard them in the Empty Net and tipped off the press.
“Let us know when you set up the registry, Psycho,” Kershaw said. “Make sure you put ‘sense of humor’ on it along with a tuxedo for all those fancy galas you have to attend with your socialite wife.”
Banks looked like he was considering which of Kershaw’s orifices would be most receptive to the stick in his hand when Coach came in and began a post-game blast of each of them for their ice-crimes. As Coach was going in alphabetical order, Dex got his about halfway through the litany.
“O’Malley, when I put you in, I expect you to move into position ASAP, not dawdle about posing for photos.”
“Coach, I didn’t?—”
But Coach had already moved on, for which Dex was supremely grateful. Could have been much worse.
“Petrov, you keep threatening to retire and maybe one of these days you’ll do us a favor and pull the trigger. Your modeling career will thank you. Hell, the entire coaching staff will thank you.”
“Yes, Coach,” Petrov said with a crooked turn to his mouth that said he’d heard every insult there was and nothing could bother him at this stage.
An hour later, they were in the Empty Net, stashed away in a private room that the owner, Tina, sometimes set aside for them, especially on nights when they couldn’t bear to talk to the fans. Dex would have thought no one would want to hang, but this team preferred to hash out their problems as a unit. Knowing there were a group of brothers who had a similar mindset was comforting, especially when you felt like your world had ended.
Kershaw and Bond came through with drinks on a couple of trays and set them down. “First round’s on Foreman,” Kershaw said.
“How do you work that out?”
“You were mean to me earlier, so now you’re on the hook for my drink, and the rest. Calling us slugs. Blaming Oh-Em-Gee because he has woman troubles.”
The man from Boston shook his head. “You brought O’Malley up! Sure, we’re all to blame, we win as a team, we lose as a team. But we also know that you don’t make big relationship changes right before the playoffs. It’s bad enough we might lose O’Malley to prison?—”
“Not going to prison.”
Foreman shot him a glare, unappreciative of the interruption or facts.
“But he has to compound it by dumping his girl.”
Kershaw nodded sagely. “Nah, she dumped him.”
