I took an empty seat next to Elliot at the long table where the boosters had planted themselves and wrapped my hand tightly around a water glass. Across the room, Aleksey sat crowded around a smaller table with Perez and a few other scholarship guys. He leaned back, his broad shoulders stretching the fabric of a worn dress shirt, as he laughed at something Perez said.
He seemed completely relaxed. Yet, seeing him casually joke around, effortlessly shutting off everything that had happened between us, sent a flare of anger across my chest.
I was barely holding my own act together, and he was just sitting there like I didn’t exist. I bit down on the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste blood.
Trenton dropped into the empty seat beside me. The chair scraped the hardwood floor. A hand clapped my back hard enough to jolt my water glass before he settled in with a practiced smile that stopped well short of his eyes.
“Rough one out there today,” he said. He reached for the bread basket without looking. “You were skating like you had cinder blocks in your boots.”
“That good, huh,” I replied absentmindedly.
Across the room, Aleksey leaned back in his chair, laughing at something Perez said. The worn dress shirt stretched across his shoulders. Easy. Relaxed. As if nothing had happened.
Trenton tore off a piece of bread. “Don’t beat yourself up. It happens. First full season at this level, living in that drafty dumpwith the rest of them?” He chewed thoughtfully. “There’s a lot of dead weight in that house.”
“Okay.”
I let the silence after my single-word answer stretch long enough to make Trenton shift in his chair.
A short huff escaped him, loud enough to draw my attention. He gestured toward the crowded scholarship table with his bread crust. “You’re sleeping three doors down from guys who’d shove you into the boards for a roster spot. No wonder you can’t focus.”
The glass in my hand was cold. I loosened my grip before it cracked.
“I’m focusing fine.”
“Sure.” He washed the bread down with a sip of whatever was in his tumbler. “You know your old man used to sit at this exact table. Back when he captained the team. Different caterers, same bullshit speeches. I heard he hated these dinners.”
The mention of my father landed like a fishhook under my skin.
“I’m not my father,” I said.
“No. Obviously not.” He smiled again, wider. The kind of smile that dared me to take offense. “But you’ve got the name. That counts for something. The guys whose families built this program have to stick together.” He leaned back, swirling the ice in his glass. “We just want to make sure you’re not going soft on us.”
My fingers tightened again around my glass until water sloshed over the rim and bled into the tablecloth.
“Who exactly is‘we’?”
Trenton shrugged. “The guys who actually belong here. Not the charity cases soaking up our ice time.”
Aleksey’s laugh carried across the room again.
“I’m doing great,” I said, meeting Trenton’s gaze without blinking. “But since we’re looking out for each other, you should probably worry about your own game. It must be embarrassing, losing senior ice time to guys who actually have to work for it.”
The entire table froze. Guys stopped eating, their forks hovering over their plates. Trenton stared at me, the casual friendliness vanishing instantly. His jaw locked, and he went dead quiet. He opened his mouth to reply, but he didn’t get the chance.
Elliot immediately stood up, flashing a strained, polite smile at the rest of the table. “Excuse us. It has been a long week.”
He clamped a hand on my shoulder, steering me away from the table. The second we hit the quiet hallway outside the dining room, he let go and turned on me.
“What the hell was that?” Elliot asked. He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up in the front. “You do not blow up at a senior in front of the boosters.”
“I just told Trenton the truth.”
“No, you are picking fights over nothing.” Elliot stepped closer, lowering his voice. “All week, you’ve been acting like you’ve got your head in the clouds, Karter. If something is happening, you have to tell me.”
“Nothing is happening.”
“Right. So now you are just magically forgetting how to skate and snapping back at your teammates?” He watched me carefully. “Is someone messing with you in the Ice House? Because if one of them is taking their issues out on you...”
