Page 47 of The Draft

Looking at my teammates, I was surprised at how happy they were. Yes, he was a good player, but how were we going to break it to them that we had a traitor amongst us?

Or at least another one, since I was currently the biggest traitor this team had ever seen.

As Henry talked to a couple of our teammates, Cade pushed past me and skated toward him. When he got close enough, he barged through our other teammates, taking Henry by surprise.

“Oh, Cade. Hi,” Henry said as Cade skated closer. So close that Henry had to skate backward and ended up hitting the board.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Cade gritted out. Scotty was by Cade’s side and pushed in front of him, making himself a physical barrier between the two players.

“What the fuck are you doing, Bright?” Scotty glared at Cade in disappointment. Cade was breathing so heavily, I could see hisshoulders moving under the padding, and he was gripping his stick like he was trying to hold himself back.

Henry rounded his shoulders and adjusted his jersey before cracking his neck. He was shaken, but as he stood taller in his skates, I could tell he was trying to hide it with bravado. “We’re old teammates,” he answered to the group.

“Guessing it didn’t end well,” Scotty mumbled.

Henry ignored Cade’s snarls and slid forward, holding his stick with more confidence now. “He hates me because I dated his sister a few years ago. Don’t see what the big deal is. It was just a couple of dates. She’s over it. I’m over it. It was nothing special.” He shrugged it off, and I couldn’t think straight. All I could see was red, because now it wasn’t just Cade who wanted to kill him.

It was me.

Nothing special? Madison was extraordinary, and no one got away with talking about her like that. I hadn’t really registered what I was doing until Henry let out a strangled groan as his body slammed against the plexiglass.

“Whoa,” Erik breathed out, and I turned to see everyone glaring at me.

Whoops, did I do that? Well, shit. Now I needed to come up with a plausible explanation for why I held a grudge against him too.

“He slept with my girlfriend in high school,” I quickly said to no one in particular.

It was then that the whole rink took a simultaneous intake of breath. “Ouch,” Erik muttered with his hand over his mouth. Leaning in, he elbowed Alex and whispered, “Dude, this shit is better thanThe Baseball Bachelor.” Did he really think we couldn’t hear that in a quiet, echoey rink?

“Sleeping with is a little dramatic, don’t you think?” Henry retorted.

Why was this kid not scared of us? Had he grown some balls since we last saw him?

“I was a gawky sixteen-year-old, and a popular senior girl asked me to kiss her under the stairs. I only realized she was your girlfriend after you broke my nose. You didn’t exactly show her off.”

“He broke your nose?” Erik asked in shock. Really? Was it that surprising? We’d done worse on the ice last week.

Henry nodded and pointed to his rearranged snout, giving me a momentto admire my handiwork. I didn’t usually take pride in giving guys deviated septums, but he deserved it, and I really liked that it knocked off the symmetry of his face.

“Please don’t tell me this is something I’m going to have to tell Coach about.” Scotty sighed. “Because we’re a team, not a reality show.”

“You don’t need to tell Coach Hansen anything. It’s fine. Nothing we can’t get over,” I replied curtly.

“We can be friends, I promise.” Henry’s words sounded like a taunt, but I’d give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

“Why are you here, Newman?” Cade sneered.

Henry wasn’t riled by Cade. Apparently, he’d grown a backbone since we last saw him. “I’m here for the same reason as everyone else. I want to play hockey and win games.”

Scotty pulled Cade back, giving Henry space to stand on his own two skates. “But weren’t you at Southern Collegiate? They win all the time. Why would you transfer here?”

“Because, unlike most of you, I wasn’t eligible for the draft in high school. I don’t have four years to build up a camaraderie with my teammates. I need to prove myself this year, and if I want to do that, I need to find the right team.”

“And you thought a team with me and Cade was your best bet?”

“Believe me, you’re better than the assholes over at Southern Collegiate. We might not be besties, but you can’t deny that we played well together.”

Although his reasoning made sense, I didn’t believe him. How could I? He was a cheat and would have fit right in with those idiots at SoCol. In fact, I had no doubts that he probably arranged this with that college just to fuck with our team dynamic.

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