AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER34
Ronan resisted the urge to ball his fists. Calista had to know Zee through Mikah. Look at him put his hand right on her as if he had the right. Ronan tightened his jaw and paced his breathing as if he were preparing for a long game. Nope, he stepped forward.
Kiernan and Liam got shoulder-to-shoulder with him, backing him up. Together, they moved behind Calista and gave nods to the other team.
Their two teams meeting up like this was highly frowned on. Fights before games happened, but his men needed to save their hostile energy for on the ice. Ronan pulled his gaze from Callista and Zee to check out the Geels. Twenty-three players, assistants, coaches, they just wanted to move forward and get past the hold up. Only a few guys at the front had focused intent, like the way Beast was eyeing Liam. A fight could be imminent. Good thing the Canadian had restraint, but he could throw down with the worst of them. At least Kiernan’s cousin had his mouth shut. Was that a conciliatory expression on Kellan Kelchier’s face? Good, because Kiernan wasn’t over the prank his cousin had played on him on his last birthday. As captain, the best thing Ronan could do was back his two men out of here. As Calista’s man, he was going nowhere.
“I’m sorry,” Calista said to Zee, waving her arm to include his team. “We just finished renovating, and Vivien’s putting your names up on the lockers. They should be ready now. You’ll have powerful water pressure, and the hot water never ends, I promise.” She took hold of the doorknob.
Ronan reached around her and held the door for her to go through.
He gaped. The floorspace had shrunk to half its former size and smelled of new paint and construction.
“We re-did the whole locker room,” Calista explained.
The room was horseshoe shaped with a number of long slim benches in the middle lit from underneath with a glow strip in the Geels’ yellow color. Although the floorspace was minimal, the lockers were larger, and they now had full-sized teak doors. Electronic screens had been mounted five feet up on each front panel.
“This way.” Calista led them down to where her friend Vivien stood typing into a keyboard inset into the wall.
The big guys shuffled down the row until they were all in the room, dwarfing the space further.
Calista wore an expectant expression, as if they’d like the new cramped quarters. Aw, sweetheart, no.
“Pretty tight,” one of the visiting players whined.
Babies. He’d seen worse. Well, maybe not, but he wouldn’t be caught pouting about it.
“Wait for it,” Vivien said enthusiastically, typing faster on the keys.
Calista bounced from her heels to her toes, her light green eyes bright.
She wasn’t going to get a positive rave over this misstep. Someone screwed up the measurements. Damn, he should have come with her when she’d asked. Then he could have tempered her expectations. She asked so little of him, he should have given in the second she’d made the request. He was too tied up in his own head with his own issues.
Zee shouldered his way back over to Calista. A move he only allowed because Zee was Mikah’s brother.
“Got it.” Vivien hit enter.
The screens on the front of each locker lit up. Zee’s populated on the screen two feet away. “Solid improvement,” Zee lied. He moved down and slapped his hand on the panel under his name.
Vivien grinned at his praise.
Zee’s name dissolved and a group of dancing llamas took its place.
Fitting.
The Beast laughed and moved over to the screen with his own name, Arturo Bezio. “Look at them, I like llamas.” Beast imitated the llama’s dance move by pulsing his arm out. That, plus his laugh released the tension in the room. A llama populated on Beast’s screen and reared like a stallion. “Yes,” Beast said. He lifted the hem of his shirt, showing off a solid eight-pack and kept tugging upwards and doing his dance.
The llama image pawed the ground as if in encouragement and tossed its head like a frisky mount. Calista leaned down and slammed the panel over the computer controls, ending Vivien’s llama-expressed flirting. “Open your lockers, guys, we’ve kept you waiting too long already.” Enthused about her remodel, her voice was loud enough for the men to hear her at the end. “I’ll show Zee, and he’ll answer your questions, but go ahead, look in.”
Calista touched Zee’s elbow and squeezed in front of him to open his locker and slip through. Ronan got right there behind them.
Inside was a small bench with a laundry bag on a hook. The room was the size of a corner dressing room at a mall department store. The privacy was a nice touch.
Ronan stood at the doorway watching, not wanting to crowd Calista into Zee. Whether Zee was a good guy or not, there was no way he was letting Calista alone with a hyped up Geels player. He didn’t turn around to see where Liam and Kiernan were but could hear the visiting players’ comments like “whoa man” and “nice.” Any trouble behind him seemed contained for now.
Calista pointed to the laundry bag. “Your clothes will be cleaned by the time the game or practice is over.”
“Clever,” Zee said.
