Page 4 of Good Pucking Luck

“I’m here, everyone’s favorite Rebels player!” I joke. I don’t have to look at Mads to know he rolls his eyes.

The kids all snicker, and it breaks the ice on whatever nervousness or maybe a starstruck feeling they had when we arrived.

One of the rink managers comes and shakes our hands. “Thanks for being here.”

“Thanks for having us,” Mads tells her.

“You guys can have at it. They’ve all been excited for you to arrive.” She steps aside so Mads and I can address the kids.

“Hey! We’re glad to be here. I’m Rylan Pierce, defenseman for the Rebels, and this guy is Kason Maddox. He’s our goalie, and I’m here to tell you that yes, the rumors are true and goalies are weird.”

“Have you met you?” Mads asks, making the kids laugh even harder than when I called him weird.

“No one listen to this guy. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” I use my thumb to point at my best friend, who playfully wrestles me to the cheers and clapping of the kids. “Hey, man. Save that for the ice.” I pull away and pretend to straighten my shirt. “Who’s ready to play some hockey? I need to show Mads here what’s up.”

“Yes!” the kids shout, and I can’t keep myself from grinning. I fucking love this. Love my life.

We spend the next two hours teaching and talking hockey with enthusiastic teenagers. This is one of my favorite parts of the job. I love seeing the excitement in young people about the game, remember how it made me feel when I was their age. My parents worked their asses off for me to be able to play, and it feels good to give back like this.

When our time is technically over, Mads and I still hang out for a little while, signing autographs for the kids and the staff. Afterward, we go our separate ways, and I head straight from El Segundo to Hermosa Beach, where I bought a house last year. I always wanted to live on a West Coast beach, and now I finallyhave the chance. All the guys live in the South Bay area, except Mads, who likes to be different, and has a place in another part of LA.

I step out of my shoes as soon as I get home, my black cat, Puck, nowhere to be seen. I go to the back deck that overlooks the beach. It’s fucking beautiful, ocean and sand as far as the eye can see.

I breathe in the ocean air. My life is fucking perfect. I don’t ever want it to change.

CHAPTER TWO

Hayes

There’s a softknock on my partly open office door at work. Most of what I do is from the Rockwell regional corporate office in LA. We have three across the United States, with the global headquarters in New York, where my parents are.

I’ve spent plenty of time in here, and probably more nights than I can count. Sometimes it’s easier to curl up on the couch in my office than deal with LA traffic and drive home.

Even when I was with Malcolm, I spent a lot of time here. We rarely went out, and he was often busy. Back then I thought it was with work, but now I know he was fucking his other boyfriends. The few months since the public breakup, I’ve been spending even more time here. It’s strange being in my apartment because he always came there when we were together. Looking back, there were so many signs I chose to overlook.

I look up to see Ana. She’s been with the Rockwell for years, and she’s incredibly nice and a very hard worker. I don’t know what I would do without her.

“Hey. How are you?” She leans against the doorjamb.

“Not bad. Just dealing with a few things before I leave for Seattle in the morning.”

“It’s getting late. A few of us are going out to dinner. You should come with us.”

“Oh.” I frown, not having expected that. It’s not as if Ana never said anything like that to me before, but it’s not often, and it always surprises. “I shouldn’t…” I say, though there’s noreal reason why I shouldn’t. I just don’t. Plus, I figure they don’t really want to hang out with me. She’s being friendly, but I’m just awkward in these situations. Why ruin everyone’s night?

“You should. Come on. It’ll be fun. You work too hard.” She looks sheepish for a moment, pushing a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. “You should get out more.”

The thing is, in my head, I know she doesn’t mean anything by that. Ana is kind, and she’s only trying to be kind to me, but it immediately makes me feel she’s asking because she pities me, because she knows I don’t have much of a life outside of work, and when I thought I did, it turned out I was being used to feed his ego.

“Shoot. That came out wrong. I just…you’re a good guy, Hayes. I like working with you. I hate what happened to you.”

I shift uncomfortably. The last thing I want is to talk about Malcolm, and I sure as shit don’t want to hang out with people who are all just sitting around taking pity on me because of what happened with Malcolm.

“I can’t. I have other plans,” I lie. There’s no doubt in my mind she knows I’m lying too.

“Okay. Have a good night.”

I nod and then look at my computer. I can feel her there for a moment before she walks away. The second she’s gone, I get up and close my office door so that anyone lingering in the building doesn’t know I’m still here.

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