Page 14 of Game On

Me too, little guy.

Okay, maybe TJ was right that I needed to get laid.

Not gonna lie, V’s friend was smoking, and my internal caveman beat at his chest when I saw her holding Liam like he was her own. I couldn’t go there, though. Veronica might stab me with her tattoo machine if I slept with her friend.

When I met Lily last summer at Blaise’s barbecue, there was something familiar about her. At first, I thought it was because she had blonde hair in the same bright-white shade as TJ’s girl, but when she spoke, something inside me calmed. Like I had heard it before. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about her gave me a sense of déjà vu. I’d never met her until that day, though, so I didn’t understand it. Maybe it was because she looked like all the other WAGs – blonde and petite. That had to be it.

“He’s good,” Blaise reassured me.

I nodded and looked at Lily from behind the glass. She shrugged and looked down at the little boy in her arms. I hoped he didn’t call her mama again. Any blonde woman he came in contact with, Liam called her mama because he missed his own, and I didn’t know how to keep telling him Rose was gone.

Lily got him to turn around, and his eyes lit up when he saw me. He waved to me, and I waved back. I gave him a thumbs up, and he nodded before curling up into Lily’s neck again.

I owed her a drink for that.

Blaise and I did a couple more laps and stretched out on the ice. I shook my head when Blaise started chirping the captain of the Montreal Saints, who was his oldest brother. Fans loved a sibling rivalry story, so tonight’s game would be fun.

We went back into the locker room for a bit and amped ourselves up for the game before going back out. I stood behind the bench during the national anthem until the first line started it off. I sat on the bench next to Blaise, watching my team trying to set something up at the other end.

“Come on, boys!” I called out in encouragement.

I watched in amazement as Noah finessed the puck on his stick and got it away from the Saints d-man. Him, TJ, and Benny on the ice were a dream line. With Riley and McCarthy backing them up on D, it was a strong opening shift.

Blaise and I hopped over the bench on the shift change, and we skated our hearts out as we chased after the Saints, trying to make sure we didn’t lose our steam. It was scoreless so far, but I definitely wanted to change that. I could defend our net, but I also wanted to score the game-winning goal. That’s why Blaise and I worked well on the ice together. He was a traditional defenseman protecting the net, while I was aggressive on the puck, wanting to put it in play. We filled the holes in each other’s game to be successful on the ice.

The Saints had our number on this shift. They went hard at the net, forcing Blaise and me to work for it to get it out of our zone. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the puck past the Saints all shift. When the shift changed and we hurried back to the bench, I hung my head in defeat.

“Good work, boys!” Riley called to us.

It didn't feel like good work if we were still scoreless.

I wiped a towel on my eye shield and stared out at the ice. Instead of studying my teammates and looking for the holes in our game to fix in my next shift, my eyes wandered over to the section where the WAGs sat.

What was my problem? Lily was hot, but not hot enough that I lost my head during a game.

“Dude, head in the game,” Blaise muttered next to me.

I nodded in agreement. I needed to be in tip-top shape tonight.

Our teammates set up the play on the other end of the ice. Hallsy passed it to Mac, and then the big guy flung his stick back and took the risky shot. The whole bench erupted into cheers and stood up when the red light behind the Saints’ goalie lit up. The Philly crowd was going wild as the in-game announcer told them who scored the first goal of the game.

Mac and Hallsy came back to the bench, where they skated down the line, giving us all high-fives. Determination coursed through me as I watched the next shift change. I had to prove my worth to Philly, and I was about to do that, no matter the cost.

“Fuck yeah, that’s how you do it, boys!” TJ danced into the locker room at the end of the game.

It was still early in the season, but a 4-0 shutout win was nothing to sneeze at. Especially for Metzy.

“Wait!” Riley yelled at us. Coach handed him the silver helmet we always gave to the player who played the best in a game. “Before you assholes try to slink out of here, we have one thing to do first.”

Riley handed off the helmet to our goalie. “Metzy, you fucking beauty, you played your ass off tonight!”

Metzy put on the silver helmet while the rest of us whooped and hollered at him. “Well, boys, I had a good D in front of me tonight. Let’s do it for the rest of the season.”

“Atta boy, Metzy!” TJ cheered.

I stripped my jersey off and gave Metzy a nod of approval. I wasn’t sure I played my best in front of him, but once I got that burst after my first shift, I skated my ass off. I didn’t score any goals, but I kept a lot more out, and that was my job.

“Yo, Holmsy!” Cally called to Blaise.