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“Sutton,” Coach Moss says. “You’re out.”
My body tenses as I turn to him with my pulse thundering. I’m already amped up from getting the puck stolen and now this. I’m getting pulled from the game for the first time in my life.
“You’re pulling me?” I growl. “Are you fucking serious?”
The coach sighs. “We’ll say it’s your elbow.”
“Fuck that,” I shout as I throw my water bottle at the bench. I slam my stick onto the boards and storm off the ice into the locker room as a mix of cheers, laughs, and boos rain down from the crowd.
“You fucking idiot,” I grumble as I watch myself slamming my stick onto the boards on my huge flatscreen TV.
I’m sprawled out on my couch with bags of ice on my knees and one on my elbow.
“Is Harris Sutton at the bottom of the pack in San Antonio?” the announcer says as he replays the incident over and over. “He got chippy with Coach Moss and stormed out of the game. The Hyenas ended up losing six to one in tonight’s game in San Antonio. Let’s jump to the panel.”
I sigh as four suits appear on the screen.
“What do you guys think? Has the Flamethrower finally been extinguished for good?”
I grab the remote and turn the TV off.
“Fuck!” I shout as I launch the remote at the couch. It bounces off the cushion and lands on the ground.
I know it’s time to think about retirement, but the truth is, I’m scared. Hockey is all I have.
Nothing else has gone right.
If I don’t have hockey, what do I have left?
The image of Fiona’s beautiful face pops into my mind.
“Stop,” I grunt as I squeeze my eyes shut. “Don’t start.”
It’s always when I’m at my loneliest that she comes. She’s like a ghost from my past coming to haunt me.
It was just supposed to be one night. I knew that. She knew that.
Five years ago, I was on the road in Kansas City playing the Hammerheads. We crushed them and the whole team went out to celebrate after.
I saw her dancing on the dance floor and was transfixed. She didn’t look like the type of fake Barbie girls who are always hanging around the team. She looked like the girl next door. She looked like she could have been best friends with my sister or been working as an elementary school teacher in town.
It was her smile that got me. I spent half the night staring at her in awe until one of my old teammates pushed me off the bar stool and told me to go talk to her.
We connected immediately. It was like two lost souls finding each other and I fell hard.
The night flew by. We talked, laughed, and danced until the lights came on and the bouncers kicked us out.
Fiona came back to my hotel room and we had a night that still gives me shivers.
And then…
I never heard from her again. She was gone when I woke up and no matter how hard I tried to find her, she remained a ghost.
She disappeared without a trace and I’ve never been the same again.
I sigh as I head over to the fridge and grab a cold beer.
I take a long swig as I look out the window at my giant infinity pool all lit up beautifully in the darkness.
