Page 20 of For Puck's Sake

Derrick tips his bottle in my direction and grimaces. “I’m just glad it wasn’t me. I’m too pretty for a black eye.” He laughs, then raises his hand to his eye mouthing ouch. Devan huffs and points at Derrick.

“Be glad you’re a goalie, youngin’, I uphold the laws of hockey sanctity. If you weren’t, I’d spend your rookie season making you pay anytime we shared the ice,” Devan taunts, making Bast and I reply with resounding hoots of laughter.

Derrick holds up his hands in surrender, eyes wide in terror. “I didn’t mean it, I mean.” He looks at me and then Bast but gets no back up. If he is going to give Devan shit, he has to learn to accept the consequences. “Those kids were scrappy. I was just saying I was glad I didn’t get caught up in a melee of peeweegladiators. Did you see the way they slid between your legs to get to one another. Little gloved fists laying into each other. It was brutal. They were like slippery fish, and when you fell on your ass, I was like dammmmnnn. You didn’t stand a chance, the way the one kid threw his stick like a javelin and hit you in the eye?—"

“Stop while you’re ahead, Baby Shaw. Devan here is not all teddy bear, he is an enforcer for a reason,” Bast warns Derrick with a pat on his shoulder. Derrick’s head snaps to the spot Bast touches and his brown skin reddens a fraction. I raise my eyebrows and look around the table, but no one else seems to notice. Well, I guess someone does indeed have a little bit of a crush. Interesting.

“I don’t think any one of us could have dodged a stick to the eye. Gloves were everywhere, little bodies were colliding and throwing punches. You two,” Devan points two fingers at Bast and me as he uses his second beer to rest against his swollen eye. “We are teammates. What happened to you having my back? I expected help. Wait until I tell Tor. You bitches will need me before I need you.” He points to Derrick, then to himself. “And I’m too pretty to have a black eye.” He huffs again, and I can’t help myself, I’m clutching my stomach from laughing so hard. The fight was comedy gold. What Devan doesn’t know is we recorded it all and can’t wait to show it to the team during training camp.

Bast coughs. “I could have dodged the stick easily.” He adds with a good-natured grunt as he smirks at a fuming Devan.

Devan throws his hands up in the air, beer sloshing out the top of his long neck bottle as he gestures animatedly. “You’re a goalie. It’s your job!”

Bast shrugs. “True.”

I’m in hysterics over their exchange, I don’t notice Red’s approach until she’s dropping more beers off at our table.

“Looks like the first day of hockey camp was a success.” Her eyes cut to Devan in sympathy, as she sits a Ziplock bag full of ice down along with his new beer. She takes our empty bottles, placing them on her empty tray and props it against her hip. Devan thanks her, taking the makeshift icepack, tilts his head back and lays it over his left eye. Thank goodness we have medics on hand, and they were able to check him over. The stick will only leave a bruised eye, nothing Devan hasn’t had before in a game. But I was biting my nails there for a bit. Coach would kill us if he got injured during summer break.

“Tell me, which one of you told councilwoman Brookes off so thoroughly you left her speechless and running back up to her goblin cave.” She looks at each of us expectantly and I snort. Goblin cave, that’s a good one.

“That would be Sebastian here. He’s a man of few words, but when he uses them, they cut deep. Who knew?” I throw my thumb in Bast’s direction, he nods his head and bows. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed him so carefree. He’s spoken more words today than he has in months. It’s good to see him relaxed like this.

“You did the people of this town a favor. Word spread all over town and a lot of people are gearing up to be at the next town meeting to address the issue of housing. Your drinks are on the house, Bast.” She winks and taps the table with her fist. “Sometimes you only need one person to shed light on things in order for people to act. Looks like hockey players are a good boost for morale around here.”

“It appears so. Tor and his merry men.” Devan chuckles, bringing his head up, catching the icepack in his hand. “I think Alexis needs a new story idea,” he says as he pulls out his phone and starts tapping away. I have no doubt he is sending a text to Paris.

“I can’t believe you guys know Jaz Starr, I mean, Alexis. I’m so jealous. I love her books. Keeps a girl company on those lonely nights.” She chuckles and turns to leave us. “Brea’s on in five,” she says as she tosses up her hand in goodbye and heads back downstairs.

“Smut is the way!” Devan shouts with a whoop. Looks like the beer is finally starting to affect him. I don’t have the heart to stop him, but he is going to pay for it tomorrow when he’s stuck with the kiddos again. I won’t rain on his parade tonight though with that news.

Derrick tilts his head and narrows his eyes at Devan. “So, the rumors are true. You read romance novels and host a podcast where you talk about them?” he asks curiously.

“Not a rumor. It’s true.” Bast rolls his eyes. “He’s more obsessed with Alexis than her fiancé, and that’s saying something.

Devan’s mouth parts in shock. “Hey, I’m obsessed with her writing. She’s a smutty genius. My eyes are well and truly on—” he stops himself and looks at me, then closes his mouth.

I narrow my eyes, and he looks away just as the stage lights dim and the crowd begins to clap and cheer.

“Whoa! Brea!” Devan hollers then wolf whistles as she walks out on stage already strumming her guitar softly as she walks toward the mic.

I smirk at the back of his head as he claps enthusiastically. Clearly he is happy for the distraction, but I have a feeling I know exactly what he was going to say. His eyes are well and truly on my sister. I’m okay with that, but I do love the idea of making him sweat though.

“Good evening. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Brea Brookes,” she says as she continues to play. The audience goes wild, and so do I. I stand and clap, fighting the urge to goto the balcony rail and camp out there so she can see me. But I refrain.

“I’ve never seen her before!” Derrick shouts over the noise and Bast shoots him a genuine wide-eyed look of surprise.

“You’re in for a treat, Baby Shaw,” Bast says with a wink. He winked. Is he flirting?

I turn my attention back to Brea, too stunned by how comfortable Bast is with Derrick to tease him about it. Maybe later. Bast doesn’t make friends so easily. He’s even calling him Baby Shaw, interesting. Hell, it took us an entire year to melt his icy façade.

“Tonight, I’m going to do something different. I’m going to play some of my favorite songs for you. How do you feel about that?” Brea asks the crowd. Shouts of yes, yeah, and sing Brea can be heard from various people around the bar. Brea smiles at the replies as the chords she’s playing get louder and I recognize one of my favorite songs. The familiar lyrics leave me stunned as Brea begins to sing the opening verse of ‘Sparks’ by Coldplay.

“Oh, come on, Luna, you can’t discount the rest of the album. ‘Everything’s Not Lost’ is not the only good song on the album,” I said incredulously as Brea laughed from the passenger seat of our SUV. She knew I loved Coldplay, no, I was obsessed. Coldplay wasn’t a band, they were a feeling. I still rockedA Rush of Blood to the Headfor my pregame warm up. I was like their uber-fan.

“If you say ‘Yellow’ one more time, I’m going to scream,” she said as she hung her head out of the window, her locs blew in the wind as she screamed into the sky. Leave it to Brea to be over the top. I couldn’t love her any less. I found myself looking at her more than the road. God, I loved this woman. But she was loopy if she thoughtParachuteswas not one of the greatest albums ever made. Okay, it was definitely in my top one hundred.

“Okay, so ‘Yellow’ was overplayed a bit?—"

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