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I tilted my head to the side. “What?”
“Did you get dropped on your head as a baby?” Lincoln asked him. Both of our facial expressions matched with our eyebrows pinched and eyes narrowed.
“Cole, Sullivan, and Matthews!” Coach Anderson called from where he was standing. “Stop gossiping and get the fuck out there!”
Shit.
The three of us separated and we all began to file back down the tunnel to the arena. The last thing I needed was to be on Coach Anderson’s shit list…
Especially because there was a chance I’d be begging him for forgiveness in the future.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JULIETTE
Isettled back in my seat, looking out through the glass as the players got into position on the ice. It was the first professional hockey game I had been to in quite some time and it was my first in Orchid City. My father had been bothering me about coming to a game and I finally caved. I knew how much it meant to him for me to come and watch. There was a lingering sadness coupled with a touch of jealousy as I watched the puck drop and hit the ice.
Times like this were when I really felt the loss. It was part of the reason why I avoided coming to any games. It was a different experience watching the kids that I was coaching rather than watching professionals playing at a much higher level. I missed the competitiveness of it. The aggression. The fast pace. There wasn’t a single part of it I didn’t miss.
I pushed away the feelings of sadness as Lyla returned to her seat next to me. I wasn't going to let my emotions bring me down anymore. I couldn’t, or it was going to destroy me. It had already caused so much turmoil in my life, and it wasn’t worth it anymore. I deserved to find some shred of happiness, regardless of how my future looked.
“That line was absolutely insane,” Lyla huffed as she handed me a hard seltzer. “I thought I was going to miss the whole game waiting there.”
I laughed softly and took a sip before setting it in the cupholder in front of me. “I told you I would have waited for them so you wouldn’t miss anything.”
Lyla waved her hand at me. “Girl, I don’t understand the first thing about this sport. I’m just here because it sounded like a good time. Plus, I heard there are a lot of hot hockey players, and your girl here is a single Pringle.”
“Trust me, you don’t want any of these guys,” I told her as I stared at the backs of their jerseys in front of me. I spotted Mac toward the end of the left side of the bench. Sullivan. Number 13. “They are arrogant grown children with inflated egos and they all smell.”
I could feel Lyla’s gaze on the side of my face and she shrugged when I directed my attention back to her. “I never said I liked good guys.”
We stared at each other for a second before we both busted out laughing. Lyla never ceased to surprise me. When I met her that first day of orientation, she appeared to be this innocent little creature. She had a habit of apologizing for being outgoing and rambling. After I assured her that she didn’t have to apologize, that I just wanted her to be herself, she didn’t bother holding back.
I learned quickly that when she let her guard down, she didn’t have much of a filter. She also wasn’t this innocent little person like she appeared to be. Turned out, she had quite the wild side. We had only hung out a handful of times, but Lyla was more of an open book than I thought she would be. And she liked to have a good time, and that was the kind of positivity I needed in my life.
“We have a lot of catching up to do. Since you left the hospital, I feel like I have no idea what is going on in your life.”
I shrugged. “There’s not much to tell. I’ve been busy at the rink with my new position there and with coaching.”
“Do you miss working at the hospital at all? I know you said it wasn’t really what you enjoyed doing,” she said as she looked back out at the ice. Her eyes followed the play as it moved down toward the opposing team’s goal. “How the hell do they follow the puck? It moves so quickly, I feel like I keep losing track of it.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “It’s just almost second nature. You learn to follow the movement and your body kind of moves on autopilot. There are definitely times when things happen so fast that the players even miss it.” I paused before touching her first question. “And I don’t really miss the hospital, honestly. I’m really happy with what I’m doing now. I always wanted a career in hockey, so it works for me.”
“You said you used to play, right?”
I nodded. “I started playing when I could walk. My dad got me into it as soon as he could and when he realized how passionate I was about it, my parents ran full speed with it.” I took a sip of my drink and my eyes followed Mac as he climbed over the boards and headed out onto the ice for his next shift. “I was playing at a very high level in juniors and college in the hope of going further. But then I made a stupid mistake that ended my career.”
Lyla looked over at me with a touch of sadness in her eyes. “Was it something bad?”
“I got in a car with someone who was driving drunk. We got into an accident, and that’s basically the end of the story.” I cut it off short, not wanting to go into the painful details. That trip down memory lane wasn’t one I liked to do often and even though Lyla was empathetic, she wouldn’t fully understand it.
“Damn, that really sucks,” she said with a solemness laced within her words. Her eyes filled with pity and it was the exact look I tried to avoid from people. It was the most common response when they heard the story. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
An exasperated sigh escaped me and I forced a smile onto my face. “It’s fine,” I dismissed. The conversation needed to head in a different direction. “I’m finally starting to feel happy with what I’m doing now. I get time on the ice, I get to work a job around the sport I love, and I get the perks of coming to games like this.”
We both turned our attention back to the ice as Mac slammed one of the other players into the boards. The glass rattled and he stole the puck before skating in the direction of their net. I rose to my feet, Lyla following suit as we watched Mac pass the puck to Nico Cirone. Mac moved off to the right side of the net, receiving a pass back from Nico before sending it right over the goalie’s shin pads and into the net.
Everyone jumped to their feet as the crowd grew loud. The horn echoed throughout the arena as everyone cheered and high-fived the people around them. Mac celebrated with the guys on the ice before skating past the bench, dapping everyone’s gloves.
