AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It wouldn’t be fair to either of us, you know? What makes this so good, so safe, is that both of us know who we are on a fundamental level to the other.”
“Friends.”
“Friends.” The closest of friends, having the kind of fun I would never be able to have with someone who wasn’t Rux. “It’s enough.”
* * *
Rux
Something’s off tonight.The locker room talk around me is more subdued than usual. Conversations happening around me in voices lower than you generally hear before a game and it’s screwing with my mojo. I try rousing the guys with some tunes and trash talk, but it doesn’t work and shit—I need to get my head in the right place before hitting the ice.
Checking the clock, I’ve still got a few minutes. I pull out my phone to call Cammy—not check out the picture she sent me last night. I’m not gonna look. That picture was hot enough to melt the ice in the arena, and no way I’m opening it with the guys from the team everywhere.
Besides, O’Brian’s the guy who gets wood in the locker room thinking about his girl. Not me.
Fine, not that I’ve been busted for anyway, and I’d like to keep it that way.
Nah, tonight I just want to talk to her. Hear her voice. Find out what she and Matty are doing while I’m waiting to play. I want to hear whether she finished the project she’s been working on for her boss at the hospital and if the shoes she ordered from Zappos were as cute as she thought they would be and what the kitchen looked like after Matty made spinach shakes for breakfast.
I want that grounding sound of her voice and her laughter soothing my soul.
Only when I head out of the locker room trying to find a spot where I’ve maybe got a chance at a little privacy, my call goes straight to voicemail.
I text her instead, telling her I’ll talk to her later.
That I miss her.
Yeah, I’m a softy. Big surprise.
When I look up, Bowie and Kellog are waving me over from where they’re parked at one of those folding tables set up for cards. I hold out my fist and bump with both the D-men, dropping into the open seat.
It’s Kellog who asks, “You hear about Baxter?”
Pretty sure we all know what’s coming, but, “Nah, man. What’d you hear?”
He leans in, looking around before answering. “I heard they’re making an announcement after the game. He’s out.”
It feels like I just took a puck to the gut. I knew it was coming. But not tonight.
Though maybe I should have. I had a missed call from Greg this afternoon, but couldn’t get a hold of him when I called back.
The guys nod, their faces drawn. This is what’s off tonight. The weird vibe I was getting in the locker room. The reason the coaching staff has been huddled up all day.
“How’d you hear?”
“Bowie heard it from Static, who got it from that reporter he was banging last year.”
“Christ.”
They nod, both looking disheartened. And I get it. It sucks losing a player so central to the team. Losing our captain.
I leave the guys to it and try Baxter again. Voicemail. I call Julia. The same.
And then Cammy even though I already called. But this time, she picks up, sounding breathless and happy. “Ooh I thought I wasn’t going to get to talk to you again until after the game!”
“Yeah, I had a minute and figured I’d give it another try.”
There’s a beat of silence and then, “Rux, is everything okay?”
