Page 67 of The Hockey Grump Saves Christmas

Christ, my subconscious got the better of my mouth.

“Yourgirl?” he spits. “Nat is yourgirlfriend?”

He shifts his dilated pupils to Natalie. “You’re his girlfriend? He’s your boyfriend? You two are like…” His sentence trails into disappointment more than outrage.

“I…no…” Natalie looks from him to me, back to him, then back to me, her expression a mixture of shock and disbelief. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. ButI don’t know.”

She doesn’t know? Does that means she’d be okay with it if she was?

“Well, fuck this,” Wyatt says, throwing up his hands. “I’ve got training in the morning. And you know who our next game is against, Nat?”

She shakes her head.

“The Apollos, that’s who. And without your boyfriend here…” He pokes me in the bicep, and it’s all I can do not to grab him and toss him to the ground like I did to Nat in her bunny costume. “We are going to thrash the living shit out of them.”

I stare at his finger on my arm and replay Natalie’s reaction when I said, “my girl.” She didn’t recoil or look horrified. And that takes the sting out of me.

Instead of snapping Wyatt’s finger in two, I lower my tone. “It wasn’t all my fault, you know. It was you who stopped answering my calls.”

He pulls his hand away and snorts.

“I’m out.” And he turns and heads back toward the street.

“Merry Christmas,” Natalie calls after him.

And we stand in silence, side by side, until he gets into his BMW and drives away.

Then I turn to Natalie. “Did you really never think to tell me that he’s your cousin?”

“Like I said, I was about to that ni?—”

“Then we came to the fallen tree, yes. But, like, after that. You just never thought to mention it and see if I might know him? Seeing as how we’re professional athletes in the same sport in neighboring states?”

“I forgot he used to play for the Apollos. And I didn’t even know what team he’s with anymore.” Natalie is a picture of frustration. “We’re not really in touch. Just seeeach other at weddings and funerals. And I don’t watch hockey. Don’t care about hockey. Don’t even know the rules. And you and I haven’t even talked about hockey, so it hasn’t come up.”

Maybe that’s one of the amazing things about Natalie. That she’s from a completely different world and has absolutely zero interest in what I do. Isn’t impressed by it at all. I know she’d support me and root for me, but she’s not a fan. Not like my nightmare ex.

I sigh. The damage has been done. Wyatt’s backed up the awful stories Natalie’s already read. And there’s nothing I can do to fix it at the moment.

“At least now I remember who mentioned Warm Springs to me all that time ago,” I say. “It was Wyatt’s comments about it being a nice small town close to the city that came back to me when I was looking for a place to escape to.”

“Oh.” Natalie claps a hand over her mouth. Her eyes glisten at me. “So Wyatt is the best friend you fought with?”

I dig my teeth into my top lip and nod. It sounds so pathetic when she puts it like that. Like we’re two kids who got put on opposing sides in a schoolyard game and suddenly became mortal enemies.

“It never even crossed my mind to mention him,” she says. “I wish it had. Then this wouldn’t be so weird.”

Christ. I can’t let that jackass wreck everything. “I’m not who he said I am.”

She nods and thrusts her hands into her pockets, putting distance between us without taking a single step.

My chest twinges with the need to close the gap.

“Anyway,” I say with forced jollity. “Don’t we have to get going to my first ever annual piglighting festival?”

My attempt to raise a laugh fails and falls like a wet rag splatting on the snowy ground between us.

There’s just a small smile, and even that seems strained.

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