Page 14 of Pucking the Team

Selena puts the stew into bowls for us, and then we move over to our cozy couch to eat dinner. She blows at the steam coming out of her bowl and then gives me a more somber glance.

“And how is it, being back there?”

My heart pinches in my chest.

Selena, of course, knows everything about my family. We met our freshman year of college, so it had been a few years out from my parents’ deaths, but I was still a wreck. I fucked anything that walked out of a need to feel something, and shied away from any attempts from guys to have a real relationship with me.

Part of me was—still is, I think—afraid of getting too close to anyone, in case they disappeared on me too.

Turns out, it’s not that easy to get over your only family dying in a horrific plane crash at an impressionable age.

When they died, I moved in with my Nana, my mom’s mom. She was wrestling with her own trauma over her daughter’s death, so she was never a great caregiver.

Nana blamed the team. My parents were alone on the owner’s private jet, heading to one of the games, when the engines failed.

It was a freak accident. A tragedy. But Nana and I grieved in different ways.

For me, I became even more obsessed with hockey. It was my last remaining link to the people who meant everything to me. Nana, on other hand, never wanted to hear about it again. We had constant arguments about it.

So Selena knows that going back to the Blizzards’ facility after all this time…yeah, it’s a charged situation for me.

I take a long sip of wine, staring into my kimchi jjigae as if it holds all the answers.

“It’s…weird. Surreal, I guess? Walking those halls again, seeing the locker room, the ice…” My voice wavers, and I clear my throat, willing the tears not to fall. “Part of me half expects to round a corner and see my dad striding toward me, larger than life like always.”

Selena reaches over and squeezes my hand. “I can only imagine how hard this must be for you, Em. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

I blow out a breath, considering her question.

“Honestly? I don’t know,” I admit with a wry smile. “But I do know that I love this team. I love this sport. And more than anything, I want to make them proud. My parents.” I meet Selena’s eyes, my voice steadier now. “They poured their hearts and souls into the Blizzards. It was their dream. And now...now it feels like I have a chance to be a part of that dream. To carry on their legacy, in my own way.”

Selena raises her glass. “To legacies, and to forging our own.”

I clink my wine glass against hers. “I’ll drink to that.”

But even though I try to make my voice sound confident, I wonder: Am I truly ready?

Can you ever be ready to confront the ghosts of your past?

CHAPTER 6

ALEX

The fluorescent light flickers overhead as I squint at the screen, rewinding and replaying the same sequence for the hundredth time. The Blizzards’ defense crumples under the onslaught of the opposing team’s offensive line. Pucks slide into our net with sickening thuds.

Dammit.

I pound my fist on the desk, making the keyboard jump. The bitter sting of that playoff loss still burns in my chest, even months later. I should’ve prepared the guys better, drilled them harder.

This season has to be different.

It will be different, even if I have to whip every single player into shape myself.

As I scribble furious notes, I can’t stop my mind from drifting to the encounter earlier today. That new social media girl, Emma. The instant spark when our hands touched. Those striking blue eyes boring into me, seeing straight to my soul.

The way that dress hugged her lush curves in all the right places.

My cock twitches as I imagine peeling that tight dress off her body, exposing her smooth flesh inch by aching inch. I picture her squirming under me, panting and begging as I take my sweet time tasting every part of her. Flashes play through my head of her pouty lips wrapped around my thick shaft, her tits bouncing as I pound into her tight heat.

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