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When Eli sent me a text letting me know something was wrong with Artie, I didn’t see it for almost an hour.
Curling practice had been brutal with Coach Tyrus more irritated than normal with our progress and making sure we paid for it on the ice as he barked orders.
“You’d think we were in a hockey practice,” Raleigh grumbled in his thick Southern accent.
“Shh, don’t set him off,” Albie groaned as we finished another lap around the ice.
Not much actual curling seemed to be happening today and I wasn’t sure if anything would be happening for the rest of the week if we didn’t get our shit together.
“We wouldn’t be in this position if someone came to practice on time,” Albie continued, hissing over at the fourth member of our team who was lagging behind us.
At first, I thought he was talking about me. My memories of my old curling team weren’t all bad, but it was still hard to shake the last conversation we had where they laid out all of the ways I’d failed them.
But Albie’s words weren’t directed toward me. They were directed at the youngest member of our team.
“Who has curling practice at ten in the morning anyway? Back in Colorado ours didn’t start until after one,” Peter grumbled with a yawn.
He was the newest recruit that Colt pulled into what he hoped would be an all-star team when the time came for the next Olympics.
Judging by the dysfunction, though, that dream was still very far off.
“That’s not how it works here, man,” Raleigh bit back. “If they tell you to show up at ten, you show up at ten.”
In contrast to Peter, Raleigh was the most seasoned member of our team and had spent the past two months trying to get us all working together like a team should.
“Aw hell,” our coach grumbled loudly from the sideline. “That’s it for the day. Hit the showers and you all better be here on time or else you’ll never touch another stone again! That last bit is specifically for you, Peter!”
Peter, seemingly made of Teflon causing all of the coach’s words to bounce right off of him, just grinned. “Quittin’ time! Not a moment too soon because I have got a date.”
With that the lad skated off of the ice as if he hadn’t just caused the practice from hell for us.
“I’m gonna kill him,” Raleigh growled and tried to go after him, but Albie caught his arm.
“Not worth it, Ral, just let the system work him out the way it’s done for everyone else.”
I’d very quickly gotten the idea that there had been a constantly rotating door of potential curlers that had come through the Complex since the team was formed two years ago.
Raleigh and Albie were the core members that had stuck, but no one else seemed to work out.
After a beat, the two finally seemed to remember that I was still, in fact, right behind them and they both turned to offer me sheepish smiles.
“No offense, of course,” Raleigh told me as we stepped off of the ice and collapsed onto the bench together.
“None taken,” I said with a grin as I unlaced my shoes and pulled them off, groaning at how sore my feet were after that workout. “Though I might run screaming for the hills anyway if Tyrus does that again.”
Albie’s eyes widened. “Nope, you can’t leave us. Absolutely not.”
“We haven’t had a solid teammate like you in a while.” Raleigh’s groan was similar to mine as he took his skates off and chucked them at the half-wall. “And if you leave we’re stuck with Peter the frat guy.”
I laughed at that, reaching into my bag for my phone. Hopefully Artie wouldn’t be mad because I was running behind, though I highly doubted it.
In the few days since Enzo left for California, Artie had lingered longer at his practices talking to Ciara as much as he could.
I’d been trying to ignore the sneaking suspicion that he was fixating on her more than usual because he was so close to his heat.
But he swore up and down that it wasn’t his heat, but he was still running me ragged at night before appearing totally fine in the morning. Though this morning he was bright red like a cherry tomato and had insisted on going to practice anyway.
Turning my phone on, I frowned at the first text message that popped up.
