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“I wish some of the other players were as dedicated as my brother.”
Alison laughed. “He’s hardcore, but I’ve heard that he’s no match for the guy they call Mr. Serious. No, wait. That’s not it. They call him—”
“Mr. Perfect.” I finished her sentence.
“That’s it.” She pointed at me. “Apparently that guy takes it to another level.”
“That guy has to prove himself tonight.” I wasn’t ready to say his name to Ali, especially so close to the conversation we’d just had – about him.
Alison checked her watch. “I’ve got to go. I’ll see you in the box?”
I always sat in the family’s private box and was thankful for the distance it provided me from Gunnar. The game was going to set the stage for the whole season. He needed to focus, and I needed to keep my composure. “I’ll be there.”
After Alison left, I returned to my seat at the table. “Fuck it,” I whispered to myself and finished the rest of Ali’s cheesecake.
SIXTEEN
GUNNAR
When it’s rowdy,King Coliseum is the loudest barn in the league. But that night, as we skated off the ice, the din of the crowd was quiet, the disappointment palpable.
As Colton waited for us to file off the ice, he shuffled his skates back and forth, creating deep grooves in the surface below him. Colton’s superstition was that he had to be the last player off the ice, and he glared at us as we passed by him on the way to the dressing room.
We had played like shit.
The game had started off alright, but as soon as the Lions had scored twice in two minutes, we’d lost our mojo.
The sportscasters were waiting in the hallway, and one of the newer interviewers waved me over to him. The last thing I wanted to do was give an interview, but I accepted a towel, draped it over my neck, and waited for the boilerplate questions.
“What happened tonight?” The interviewer had perfectly-gelled hair and seemed younger than me.
I launched into my usual reply. “We played hard and had some good opportunities, but their opposition was strong and took advantages of some early mistakes.”
The interviewer nodded. I took a sip from my water bottle and wiped the sweat from my forehead with the towel.
“Do you think this is an ominous start to the season?”
“Ominous?” I raised my eyebrows at the weird question.
“Ominous. It means—”
I shook my head. “I know what it means, and no. We’ve got a strong group of dedicated players, and we’ve got what it takes to defeat every team in this league. The Lions might have gotten the better of us tonight, but it’s only lit a fire under us and shown us where we need to focus. Trust me, this was a good thing. We are going to be the preeminent team in the league.”
The reporter blinked.
“Preeminent. It means the best.”
The reporter cleared his throat and I tried not to smile.
“Now that we’ve gotten the vocabulary lesson out of the way, what is your response to articles about your involvement with an adult entertainment star?”
I furrowed my brow. “I think you’ve got the wrong player.”
“So you’re not involved with Paula Linseed?”
Paula Linseed? I didn’t know who he was talking about, and then it hit me – Paula, the bunny. So she wasn’t a makeup girl after all. “I’m here to play hockey and answer questions about hockey. Have you got any more of those?” I leaned on my stick and raised my eyebrows.
The reporter looked nervous, but he was ballsy and pushed on. “You guys managed to pull things together last year, but some are calling it a fluke. What’s your opinion on your new management and how they’re running things?”
