“My omega brothers are single. I’ll introduce you,” Xavier said.
“Don’t let him do that,” Geoff said. “He tries to set everyone up with his youngest brother.”
Xavier smacked Geoff’s bicep. “Dammit, don’t ruin this. I need to get the kid out of my basement.”
“Does he play hockey or know the sport?” I asked. As if I was actually going to entertain the idea of dating anyone.
Xavier snorted. “No, I don’t even think he’s put on a pair of skates before.”
“Yeah, I doubt I’d have anything in common with him,” I said. But again, maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. I couldn’t imagine being with any omega besides Elliot. The idea of it hurt my stomach.
“I’ll introduce you.” Xavier lifted his bottle and clinked it against mine. “We’ll be in Maine in a few weeks. That’s where I live when we aren’t traveling all over the continent.”
I took a sip of my beer. The alcohol tasted too good on my tongue, anything to wash away Elliot. I almost never drank. Now I was trying to stop myself from doing anything stupid.
“Who do you think is taking home the cup this year, Silas?” Geoff asked.
I shrugged. “Not sure. There are a couple of teams that have a real shot at it.”
“Badgers, for sure,” Colin said. “Elliot on center and Evan as his wing, they’re unstoppable. And Nix is kicking ass in goal this year.”
“Yeah, the only other team that would give them any challenge is Seaport. They play nasty, though. I fucking hate that defenseman of theirs.”
I knew exactly who he was talking about. Shane Sleeseman was known for his hard hits and bad attitude. He’d sent Elliot into the boards more times than I could count.
“C’mon, guys. We don’t need to spend the whole night talking shop. Surely Silas has other things he likes to talk about,” Colin said.
I really didn’t, but the alternative was listening to them talk about how amazing Elliot and his team were.
“You guys see any good movies lately?” I asked.
Chapter 9
Elliot
The headphones did their job of drowning out the noise as I stepped into the locker room, everyone around me was gesturing, talking, having conversations with one another, tossing tape back and forth as they worked on their sticks, lacing up their skates, and getting ready to go onto the ice. Any other day, the air would be electric, and I would be in the middle of it, with the team, hyping each other up. Instead, I felt none of it. The only noise in my ears was the focus music blasting through the headphones. Smiles were flashed, high fives, and slaps on the ass were sent in my direction, but I ignored all of it.
The past two weeks, I had played the best games of my life. Two hat tricks. I don’t even know how many assists. Not a single penalty. I dodged more attacks from defensemen than I could count. Someone somewhere told me I was on my way to beating my record from last year. I didn’t actually care. We were kicking ass, and there was already talk of us taking home a championship. We were going to win that cup. And I just did not care.
Evan was suddenly in front of my face, snapping his fingers just inches from my eyes. His mouth was moving, but I didn’t hear the words. He got flustered and ripped my headphones off, and I was inundated with a ton of noise. Somebody was playing music. Everyone was talking. It was all too loud.
“You all right, man?” He eyed me carefully, as if he knew that I was not all right.
I was fine. I was just fine. Everything was just fine. “Yep, ready for tonight,” I said. I couldn’t even fake any enthusiasm. My voice came out flat and without life.
“You’ve been playing great,” Evan said.
“Yep.”
“Your attitude off the ice is shit,” he said.
I shot him a glare. What did they want from me? I was playing without a heart, without a soul, and no one to share any of this with. But I still put up the scores, won the games, entertainedthe crowd when the moment called for it. “Fuck off.” It wasn’t his business what my attitude was. It was nobody’s business. I didn’t drag the team down. I treated them all just fine. It was me that was dying inside.
Just like before I had met Silas, I could do this. I could live my life without sharing anything with anyone. I still had my parents, of course. I was ignoring their calls at the moment, but I sent them text messages to let them know I was fine. I knew my mom would just want to talk about Silas, and I did not want to do that. I didn’t want to hear the sadness in her voice when she told me everything would be okay. She wouldn’t take sides. She never would. She loved Silas. She loved me. She knew how important hockey was to me, so she would understand why the two of us couldn’t be together. I just didn’t want to hear it.
“We appreciate you playing so great, Elliot. You’re always a team player. We know that we can count on you out there. I’m just wondering if we can count on you in here.”
I glared, my face going as cold as the ice we were about to skate on. “Fuck off, Captain. I’m not a pet project. I’m not your little Rowan. I’m not a replacement for your little buddy. I come out here, I win hockey games. That is the end of it. Alright?”
