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When we’d made it to the other side of the lake, I took out my phone and looked up the score of Ford’s game. I smiled when I saw they’d won 3–2.
“You really like him,” Luke said.
“Yeah,” I said, sighing. “So what do we do now?”
He gave me a wry smile. “I go to this mother nature rehab place for a ninety-day ass-kicking, and you fall for the hot hockey player.”
“I think I can manage that.”
“Asshole,” he said, laughing.
I took his hand in mine, eager to talk to Ford. I wasn’t going to text him about this, though. This needed to be an in-person conversation. One I probably needed to buy new lingerie for.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Ford
“I’m not fucking movingto Texas,” Sal Morris, our goalie, grumbled. “Fuck that. It’s hot as shit there and I’m not wearing cowboy boots.”
“Austin’s not that bad,” Colby said. “They’ve got great food.”
Dom scoffed as he laced up his skates. “You move there, then. I’m sure as shit not going to.”
The news of other cities scrambling to put together incentive packages for our team had been not-so-mysteriously leaked to the press. My teammates were pissed, to say the least, about hearing the news on Twitter.
“I told you guys, don’t sweat it yet,” I said. “We’re a long way from relocating to Austin.”
“Is that when you were going to tell us?” Dom asked. “When it was time to pack our bags?”
I glared at him. He’d never let me forget that I hadn’t told my teammates other cities were being considered, and it didn’t matter to him that I’d been told to keep it quiet by our team owner.
“Did you hear Quebec is one of the cities?” Sal asked. “Would I have to become a Canadian citizen?”
“No, dumbass,” Dom said.
“I’m a dumbass?” Sal demanded. “You’re the one who asked why stores sell a ‘zero’ birthday candle when no one can turn zero years old.”
Colby howled with laughter. “I forgot about that.”
“I was trashed,” Dom said defensively.
“Remember when he posted that pic of a meteor shower but he spelled it m-e-a-t-i-e-r?” Beau asked, laughing.
“Oh shit,” Sal said. “I screenshotted that so fucking fast.”
“I’m a bad speller,” Dom said. “I’m still smarter than you, Sal.”
“Let’s go, ladies,” I said. “We’ve got practice.”
The light mood disappeared immediately. Everyone was tense, because the city council had scheduled a special meeting to vote on the proposed arena deal. If they voted it down, Mila would begin negotiations with other cities, and from the sound of things, there were some cities willing to compete hard to get a pro hockey team.
I’d moved around a lot, playing for Chicago for two years, New York for two years, and Minneapolis for two years before landing here in Denver. I was a high payroll player, and my goal was to settle in somewhere and be part of the backbone of a solid team.
If we left Denver, we’d inevitably have a shakeup of players. Some guys had said they’d retire and others would end up on other teams. We’d just started gelling as a team after nine grueling months. I wanted to see it through.
And I hoped for a chance to see where things with Elle could go, too. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her in the few days we hadn’t talked. She’d come to my game, and that meant something. She was just letting her head sabotage things.
We did a round of shooting drills, no one’s heart in it today. Even our coaches and trainers were tense. There was a big social media campaign from our fans with the hashtag SavetheCoyotes. People were posting stories about how long they and their families had been fans, and how much going to the games in their city meant. The posts from families of the people who died in the explosion were the toughest to read. They wanted us to stay and rebuild. We all wanted that, too, but we had to be careful what we said about it publicly. No one wanted to risk Mila’s ire.
