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Kingston tugged off his skates and stood. “Again, why me? Frey is a thousand times more amicable than I am.”
Coach waved him off impatiently. “Frey is too green. If they weren’t injured, I would have assigned Stanton or Hall and let them all bond over their weird goalie shit. But they’re out right now, and I saw the way you helped her with the press last night. I think you two are agood fit.”
Kingston grunted, and I eyed him skeptically. Why would Coach think that? Kingston barely spoke to me. Even during our short practice, he only spoke whenspoken to.
“Take her to your charity event on Sunday, and get to know each other,” Coach continued. “You never know; you may grow to like each other.”
Kingston grimacedat Coach.
I held in my huff and tried to act like an adult. “What kind of charity thing are you doing?” I asked Kingston with the least amount of attitude I could manage at the moment.
“I coach,” Kingston said shortly.
“It’s with kids,” Coach interjected, and I perked up in interest. “Your Seattle PR manager said you volunteered with kids a lot, Warren.”
“Yeah, as much as I could,” Iconfirmed.
Kingston’s head whipped to me.
In Seattle, I volunteered and donated gear for kids who wanted to play but couldn’t afford to. The thing about Hockey is it’s hella expensive. Skates and pads cost hundreds of dollars, and then you have to get new ones whenever you hit a growth spurt. It was rough on people financially, and I tried to help where I could. It was the one thing I hated about leaving Seattle. I didn’t get to see the kiddos anymore.
“That’s perfect. Sebastian donates pads and skates to kids and runs drills with them when he can. You can tag along and maybe teach the tiny goalies a thing or two.”
I softened a little. I didn’t know Kingston did that. He didn’t really seem like the kid-friendly type. I was surprised they didn’t run screaming from his gruff face. He could be a scary bastard, especially on the ice.
“They probably need some help. I doubt Kingston could teach a brick wall how to stop a puck,” I teased Kingston, and he shot me a narrow-eyed look. See what I mean? Scary bastard!
But then Kingston’s hard face fractured, and he threw me a tiny smirk. “I could stop any of your shots.”
I snorted. “That’s not saying much. A two-year old could shut me down.” I’d tried offense a couple times over the years, not thinking it was that hard. It was. I couldn’t get a single shot past Mason. He still gave me shit about it, but I’ve threatened him with bodily harm should he tell anyone else about myfailures.
“So, you’ll take her with you, Sebastian?” Coach asked.
Kingston stood from the bench. “Yeah, she can come. I’ll get a kick out of watching a bunch of pre-teens wipe the icewith her.”
I fought the urge to stick out my tongue like a pre-teen myself. On the inside, I cracked a smile. Kingston seemed, if not pissed, not entirely put out about me joining him.
“Great.” Without another word, Coach left, no doubt eager to escape in case we changedour minds.
We were silent as we gathered the pucks and dumped them into a bucket. Then we grabbed our things and made our way to the lockers.
“So, my new mentor, huh? I bet you wish you hadn’t stayed to help us practice now,” I teased, determined to keep the tension at bay as we wobbled our way across the rubber mats.
Surprisingly, Kingston shrugged. “Ehh, you’re not so bad, Warren, and I enjoyed the distraction.” At my raised eyebrow, he elaborated. “My girlfriend bailed on me.”
“Oh? Agirl?”
“Yeah, a girl.” He didn’t soundenthused.
“Must be a pretty special one to get Sebastian ‘The King’ Kingston to leavethe rink.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “I think the extra time at the rink, the workouts, and the practices are the problem. She doesn’t really like my hours and gets annoyed when I spend more time away from her than I’m required to. You know how it is.”
I nodded. Ididknow how it was. I struggled to date in Seattle, and I wasn’t even going to try to start a new relationship now until I get myself established on the Blizzards. With the way Coach and Mason were echoing each other, bonding with my team needed to become my top priority. And I had a feeling this season would have enough drama without adding another person into the mix.
“Why are girls so weird and complicated? I’ve dated a lot of women, and just when I think I’ve got them figured out, they completely change. This chick, Sarah, we started dating, and she loved that I was a hockey player. She used to come to all our home games and team events, but now she’s complaining about my hours as if she didn’t have a problem with them a month ago. I think I need to break it offwith her.”
I had to take a second to recover from the shock; I’d never heard him talk that much uninterrupted. I shrugged off the astonishment at his tiny speech. We reached the locker room, and I held the door open for him. He gave me an amused look at the action but stepped through.
