Page 23 of Netting the Goalie

I shot my teammate a look.Cary sounded worried about something.

“Yeah.”I frowned.“Wait, why?Did Bliss—”

“Nope.”Cary held up his free hand.“Not why I’m asking.Lucy hasn’t heard from her.I’m just…kinda worried about you.”

Okay, this conversation was heading off the rails fast.“What the hell?”

Cary shrugged.“Never mind.So, you ready to do some work?”

Because I didn’t want to talk about what’d happened, at least not yet, I grabbed my helmet and stick from the bench and headed for the goal.

For the next half hour, Cary and I ran through a series of drills meant to increase my acuity.

Cary was one hell of an offensive defenseman so he was no stranger to scoring goals and he got a few by me early, which just frustrated the hell out of me.

Cary skated in from the left circle, where he’d scored his last one.“You’re leaving that top corner open every time.You gotta get that glove up.”

I swung my stick from side to side, clearing the ice out of the crease.“I know.”Frustration made my tone sharp.“It’s always been one of my weaknesses.”

“Then we’ll work on it until it’s not.But you gotta retrain your brain so you’re not constantly thinking about that as a weakness.”

For another twenty minutes, that’s all we worked on until I knew I was gonna have to ice my right shoulder for the rest of the fucking week.

But by the time we headed for the showers, I thought I might actually have a little better handle on that corner.

“Hey, thanks, man.I really appreciate you taking the time for this.”

I was already dressed while Cary pulled on his jeans.I was ready to leave but couldn’t force myself to get off the bench and head for the door.

I’d been able to keep Bliss out of my head for the past hour while Cary and I had been on the ice but now…

Fuck, now I was having to bite my tongue to keep from asking about her.

“All right, Shane.”Cary finally lifted his head, a wry grin on his lips.“Spit it out.You should know by now that nothing you tell me goes anywhere.”

I knew it.It was part of the reason Cary had the trust of every guy on the team.

But damn, I hated the fact that I was gonna come out of this looking like a dick.I must’ve done something wrong for her to sneak out in the middle of the night.

But since I didn’t even know how to get in touch with her and I didn’t want to put her on the spot by walking into the shop where she worked…

“Can you give me Bliss’ number.I didn’t get it last night and I want to call her.”

Okay, that didn’t sound too creepy stalkerish.I hoped.

“I thought you left with her.”

I forced myself to hold Cary’s steady gaze.

“I did.But she left before I could ask for it.”

Cary’s brows lifted slightly.“Any reason for that?”

My back straightened.“No.I thought… No.”

Now Cary nodded.“I knew that, Shane.Just had to ask.Yeah, I can get her number for you.Let me text Lori.”

I almost bit my tongue through, trying not to ask the next question.But finally, I couldn’t help myself.“So is she seeing someone?”

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