My idol is leaning against the boards and resting his chin on his stick, watching the rookies play with a pained expression on his face. “That man never should have been on this team.” I feel sick saying it, but it’s true. “They gave him a pity contract.”
“He’s fine if he’s not drunk or hungover.” Ellie grabs my wrist and slaps something into my glove.
I stare down at the handcuffs gleaming against the fabric.
“You know, princess, this really feels like you’re coming on to me. I might need to file a report with HR.”
Ellie sighs. “HR quit. Dana refused to give her Christmas off.”
“Maybe I should quit too.”
“No!” Ellie yelps. “Just…” She grabs the front of my jersey, pulls me down.
“You’re the alternate captain. It’s your responsibility to keep Zayne Murphy sober for tomorrow’s game. That’s the only way we stand a chance of winning.”
“You can’t do it?”
“We’re dividing and conquering. Or you can take the rookies. They keep talking about going to clubs. There’s talk of sneaking down the laundry chute. I’m organizing a board game night. Maybe that will keep them occupied.”
“I don’t think half of them can read, so good luck with that.”
“Please,” Ellie begs. “I don’t want to lose again.”
“This team? That’s all we do, Candy Cane.”
She grabs my arm. “Please, please, please.”
“Fine. Only if you make Cookie play.”
Ellie makes a face as we look across the ice to Cookie, who is slowly spinning around in a circle, staring up at the ceiling.
“We are so fucked.”
I can’t even enjoythe perks of finally being in the NHL, because I have to babysit.
Zayne Murphy heads for the lobby bar as soon as we shuffle off the bus in front of the Soundview Hotel.
“We should go over plays for tomorrow,” I say desperately, “and watch game tapes.”
“Yeah,” Zayne says, “yeah, I guess we should.”
I round up Bramms, Carlsson, and the Finn so that it doesn’t look like I’m trying to manage Zayne.
“Got anything of the good stuff?” Bramms opens up my minibar fridge.
I wince as the little glass bottles clink together. “Let’s just see if they can send up some room service or something. The team is paying.”
The Finn says something garbled and shoves a menu in my face, pointing at the steak tartare.
“Yeah, yeah, you want your raw egg and meat. I got it.”
We eat steak, watch old Orcas games, and do a deep dive into Ellie’s proposed plays.
“No, man, like this,” Bramms is saying, demonstrating with his stick, pretending the desk chair is the Orcas defender.
Zayne keepsnotlooking at the fridge—like, he’s looking everywhere but the fridge.Keep him sober.“Protein bars,” I say loudly. “Protein is good. It’s better cold, though.” The fridge door slams open, and I grab all the bottles out of the fridge.
“I’m just going to take these to management. Ellie’s got cheese I can put there instead,” I say lamely so it doesn’t look like I’m treating Zayne Murphy like a child who can’t control himself.
