Page 14 of On Thin Ice

Or text her.

Yeah, I was a fucking asshole.

I’d spent more time than usual at the gym in the last week trying to work through everything zipping through my head, and all I got for my efforts was a slight twinge in my ankle after I stepped off the treadmill wrong.

Fuck.

Getting hurt before training camp even started would be a disaster. Our trainers would have my ass, so I needed to get my head in the game right now.

Which is why I was currently sitting at Tipsy Steer and drinking my favorite IPA. Yes, drinking wasn’t the answer, but hanging out with my teammates was.

“Did you see who I went home with last night?” Xan said, nudging Haldy in the shoulder. They’d been my linemates last year, and we’d gelled on the ice, but they were fucking babies, so confiding in them was out.

Not that I was ancient, but there was a difference between my twenty-five and their twenty-one and twenty-two. Usually, Flower would’ve been my go-to on something like this because he was a father, but we’d been teammates on the Strikers, and there was no way in hell I could talk to him. It would be way too easy for it to get back to Ethan or one of the guys on the Strikers. Ally was their collective little sister, and they’d come hunting if they knew I got her pregnant and then fucking disappeared.

Not like I’d known, but I maybe understood why she hadn’t told me right away.

“I bet you didn’t even know what to do with her,” Haldy replied to Xan, drawing me back to the conversation around me.

“What about you, Dom?” Xan asked.

“What? Nah. I’m not discussing my hookups with you two. Unless you need some advice or something, of course.” I easily fell into my player image. Hell, it wasn’t actually an image. I’d definitely had my fair share of fun since I entered the league. Yeah, it’d been a while, but they didn’t need to know that.

Xan smirked. “Looks like someone needs to get laid.”

“I need no help in that department, assholes,” I boasted, finishing off my beer. I grabbed the bartender’s attention, and within minutes, another IPA was placed in front of me. “Now, if you want to talk game, I’m a wealth of information.”

“Pretty sure I hold that title,” Harry Sinclair said, stepping up next to me at the bar. The man had earned the nickname Sin repeatedly if the stories were to be believed. “Now, pull up a seat, children, and I’ll share my wisdom.”

I rolled my eyes and stepped away from the group. I definitely wasn’t in the mood to hang around and listen to them.

Soon after, I found myself sitting with a couple of the other guys, talking about our summers and the upcoming training camp. I forced myself to focus on the conversation and not on Ally and how my life was going to change, whether I was ready or not. Yeah, she’d given me an out, but was I really enough of a dick to take it? And if I didn’t, what was I supposed to even do next?

Fuck, my head was a damn mess.

***

“You okay, Dom? Looking a bit slow there when Haldy beat you to that last puck,” Micah said the following afternoon as we cooled down in the cardio room after a quick scrimmage.

Training camp officially started tomorrow, but since a bunch of my teammates were already back in town, we’d had anunofficial practice today. I needed to get my head on straight and back in the game; no way in hell was I going to skip skating with my teammates.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “Just helping the kid build up his confidence.”

Micah snorted. “Yeah, sure. Try again.”

I shrugged.

Micah arched his brow at me. He was part of our top D pair and we’d clicked over the last season, probably more than I had with most of the other guys. He came off as quiet and reserved, but he was smart as fuck, and little got past him.

Where I could be loud and over the top, he was the opposite. Not that we typically sat around spilling our guts to each other, but I felt like I was crawling out of my skin with no one to talk to, and I was losing my mind. Definitely not how I should be going into a new hockey season. Micah would be unbiased because he wasn’t a former Striker, and he didn’t know Ally. But I wasn’t typically a guy who confided in people. Didn’t want to look like I couldn’t figure out my own shit.

But as this week progressed, I clearly couldn’t figure out what the hell I was supposed to do.

I glanced around the room. Sweets and Tyler were on the opposite end of us, and there was no one else in here.

“Get it off your chest, man. Or not. Just make sure it’s not on the ice,” Micah said, drawing my attention back to him.

“Fuck. Fine. I just got some unexpected news last week,” I started.

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