“Just not being able to see each other every day, but she works so hard and she’s a fucking rockstar. Honestly, you should see her in the hospital, she absolutely bosses it. It’s so hot.”
He laughed, looking over to where Cooper was still watching what Huck was doing with the eagle-eye of Gordon Ramsay with his arms crossed over his chest, then lowered his voice.
“Is it weird?”
“Sex?”
He nodded.
I grinned. “No. I thought it might be but it’s never been weird at all, it’s like she was made for me. I didn’t know it could be like this, and I’ve no fucking clue why weren’t doing it all along.”
He knocked his bottle against mine. “Good, you deserve it. I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks, bud.” I sipped my water as I looked at him. “Hey, have you ever thought about what you’re going to do after hockey? Or when you’re going to retire?”
He let out a deep breath, rolling his lips. “Have you?”
I scratched through my beard. “I dunno, I mean, I never have before, but I’m starting to. I’m not indestructible anymore. What if my knee doesn’t make it? Or what if it goes again and then takes longer to heal?”
He held my gaze. “Where’s this coming from?”
I shrugged. “I dunno. Sitting on my ass all day gives me time to think. I just don’t know how badly I want it anymore. There’re more important things, you know?”
He nodded, because he did know. Ever since Emerson had come back into his life, the away games had become a dreaded part of our job for him. I hadn’t really understood it before, but hearing Nora say I could go back on the road hadn’t filled me with the excitement it should have done. And I knew that in no small part had to do with Molly.
“When you stop, I stop.”
“Drew...”
He shook his head. “I’m serious. I’m not playing without you. And if the last few months have shown me anything, it’s that I don’t want to. We’ll do something else. We can start a foundation or coach or do anything we want.”
A foundation. That was a thought. The right type of foundation with Drew and me behind it, coaching kids to be the best players they could be. That would be fucking awesome.
“What sort of foundation?”
He stared into space, thinking. “Anything. Kids? Underprivileged kids? Kids from broken homes? Girls?”
“Hmm, I don’t know.”
“We’ll brainstorm it then. But let’s talk about it properly, because I meant what I said.”
A lump formed in my throat. I would never find anyone as loyal as Drew and he couldn’t be more of a brother to me if we shared DNA.
“Thanks, buddy.”
“What this about underprivileged kids?” Huck pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Have you thought about what you’re gonna do when you retire?”
He scoffed before sipping on his light beer, leaning back in his chair. “Fuck, no. I’ve still got years left. Why?”
I wasn’t about to tell the motormouth of the club that I wasn’t excited about coming on the road, because it would spread faster than Cooper moves at the puck drop.
“Jas’ last game is coming up.” I shrugged. “We were talking about what we’d do.”
“What’s Jas going to be doing?”
Coop walked over and joined us, grabbing a handful of chips. “He taking a year off, going to England for a bit, then he’ll be back on the coaching staff, being a pain in our asses.”
