Page 49 of Playmaker

Worth a try, though.

In the next room, I heard Faith’s kids squeal in delight over the phone, their voices distant and tinny, and I smiled to myself. I envied the marriage and family she had.

On the other hand, I had no idea how they did it. Elena was playing for Seattle while Faith worked for Pittsburgh, so they spent the season living apart. The kids stayed with Elena because her parents lived locally and could take them whenever she was on the road. Neither of them had any family in Pittsburgh, so they wouldn’t have that support network here. Keeping the kids in Seattle was a no-brainer.

They seemed to do all right with that arrangement, but it had to be hard as hell. I’d never done a long-distance relationship, and I wasn’t so sure I was wired for it. Then again, if I was in a relationship with someone and our circumstances changed… Well, I’d either have to rewire myself for the long-distance thing or let her go. I couldn’t imagine Faith letting go of Elena, and their separation wouldn’t be forever. So maybe LDRs were one of those things you didn’t necessarily sign up for—you just dealt with it if the circumstances arose, kind of like how I dealt with my knee problems now that I had them.

It occurred to me that if I pursued Sabrina, and if I somehow managed to pull a miracle out of my ass and charm her into hooking up with me or dating me, we might have to do the long-distance thing at some point. Hockey was a fickle thing, and there was no guarantee either of us would stay in Pittsburgh.Trades. Free agency. Anything could happen. There wasn’t even any guarantee we’d both see the end of the season with this team; there’d been an absolute storm of trades last year right before the trade deadline, and that could happen this year, too.

There was also another expansion coming in the next couple of years, and the team would only be able to protect so many players. They’d probably put Sabrina on the protected list, but me? I kind of cynically wanted to think no one would snatch up me and my knee for their expansion team. I was still amazed Pittsburgh had signed me at all, so I wasn’t banking on that lightning striking twice, either as a UFA or during the expansion draft. But if it did… where would that leave me and Sabrina?

It was so much easier to not like her, but now I did like her. I liked her a lot. I’d misunderstood things about her, and I’d unfairly disliked her, and now… God, my tune had changed about her, that was for sure.

It didn’t help that I waspainfullyattracted to her. And, I mean, okay, Faith was right about Sabrina being my type, but there was more to it than that. Sabrina didn’t just check all my boxes—she was like the gold standard of all of them. Now that I wasn’t determined to despise her, I was lucky I could think around her, never mind speak or skate. When I’d still hated her, I’d been annoyed by how much the camera loved her smile. Now, I completely understood why the camera was so infatuated with it. Who wouldn’t be?

The competency kink Faith had mentioned—I couldn’t deny that either. Both that I definitely had one, even if I hadn’t realized that was what it was, and that Sabrina personified the kind of competency that made my pulse race. Now that I wasn’t watching her through resentment-colored glasses, and now that I knew the truth about her rise to hockey stardom, it was impossible not to see how incredible she really was.

Even if her fatherhadconnected her to the best hockey coaches on planet earth, genes and mentors could only take someone so far. The way Sabrina saw the ice? The way her mind worked? You couldn’t teach that. I’d been so angry that her name had given her an express ticket to the top of this sport, I’d never stopped to realize that Sabrina trulywasa generational talent. Not a dynastic one—her gift had nothing to do with her father and everything to do with her hockey IQ and her work ethic.

That level of competency? Oh, yeah. That did it for me.

And now that I knew just how much of an uphill battle it had been for her to get here? How little had been handed to her and how much she’d been held back? How intensely stubborn and fiercely determined she had to be to fight through all of that to earn her place as a hockey star?

Oh, hell. There was no pretending I didn’t admire that… or that I wasn’t ridiculously attracted to it.

I swore into the silence of the living room and rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. Hating her for what had turned out to be nothing had been easy. Being this stupid for her? How the hell was I supposed to function like this?

And what was I supposed to do with it? Approach her? Have… Well, have faith in Faith that she knew what she saw and that this attraction was mutual?

The thought made my heart race. I wanted to do that. I wanted to know what Sabrina looked like when she was flirty. When she was flattered. When she was so turned on she didn’t know which way was up. I wanted all of that.

But… was I setting myself up for heartbreak? Either because she wasn’t as into me as Faith somehow thought she was, or because we’d wind up on different teams and wouldn’t be able to weather the distance? What if we got together and then—

Yo. Lila. Get a grip.

I took and released a deep breath. I was getting ahead of myself. Way,wayahead of myself.

Instead of thinking about all the reasons Sabrina and I would inevitably break up, I needed to think about beingteammateswith her. Beingfriendswith her. Making up for the incredibly bumpy start we’d had because of my stupidity. See if she actually liked me after the novelty wore off that I wasn’t being a complete asshole to her.

Then, and only then, maybe I could see if I was imagining this spark.

Chapter 18

Sabrina

WHPL EXPANSION TEAMS PROVING TO BE SOLID CONTENDERS

Pittsburgh, Alburquerque dominate their divisions while Nashville and Denver make strong cases for wild card finishes

DENVER – Four of the six expansion teams added to the Women’s Hockey Professional League this season are proving their mettle right out of the gate. Five weeks into the season, the Albuquerque Ice Crystals (12-4-2) are just two points behind the Las Vegas Saints (13-2-3) in the Southwestern division.

In the east, the Pittsburgh Bearcats (14-3-2) are solidly number two in the Great Lakes division, and a mere two points behind the Toronto Ice Queens (14-1-4) in the Eastern Conference. If Toronto continues their current skid (four losses in a row) and Pittsburgh extends their five-game winning streak, we could see the new team taking that number one spot.

The Anaheim Blizzard (4-9-5) and Cleveland Rebels (5-8-6) have struggled to find their game. Cleveland appears to be rallying, winning three of their last four after an abysmal start.Anaheim seemed to do the same in late October, but after blowing three multiple-goal leads in recent games, it’s clear something needs to change for this team.

Both the Denver Stampeders (10-3-5) and the Nashville Outlaws (9-6-3) have established themselves as strong contenders for their respective wild card spots. Denver started their season weakly, recording three regulation and two overtime losses in their first six games. Since their disastrous 7-2 loss on October 15, the team has surged, boasting a record of 8-0-2 in their last ten, landing them firmly in the Western Conference’s second wild card position.

Nashville lost their first five games in regulation. General Manager Toni Cochran swiftly demoted head coach Lena Talbot to assistant head coach and hired Kristen O’Connor to the team’s helm. Under O’Connor’s leadership, the Outlaws have played 9-1-0 in their last ten games.

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