Page 37 of Rowdy Hearts

Except I wasn’t. Not completely. But it’d pass. It always did. Just part of living in a small town.

The Colonel gave me another long look before he nodded, not so much accepting but agreeing to let it go. For now. I figured my mom would be checking in sooner rather than later. If I was lucky, I’d take a hard hit in the game tonight, and Momwould take pity on me. Maybe I’d get some sympathy from another pretty woman, as well.

At least I’d gotten her to agree to go with me to the afterparty, even if that meant having it with the entire team and family, friends and fans.

“This season’s gonna be one for the books, Pop.”

“This jock’s too damn small.”

Raucous laughter bounced off the cement walls of the locker room followed by increasingly ridiculous and profane suggestions of what Denny should do with the allegedly too-small protective gear.

“You sure you don’t mean too big?”

“Are you sure you’re putting it in the right place?”

“Maybe you need help finding your dick. Let me get you a magnifying glass.”

“Dude,” I said, “your brain’s not that big. It’ll fit.”

Denny held up his hand with the offending equipment. “I don’t wear it on my head, asshole.”

That prompted another round of laughter, mostly from the guys who got the joke. Denny just looked at me like I was an idiot. Which made me laugh all that much harder.

As the guys continued to razz the rookie, I just shook my head and continued to get ready.

The first game of the year was always a fun night for the guys. It was a clean slate and a leap into the unknown. Anything could happen. Hell, we could start with a win and maybe have a winning season.

Not that it’d happened for a while, but there were more important things than winning,

Like women. And tonight, that meant only one woman.

“Rowdy! You planning to go out there in your jock? I mean,the crowd would love if you did it again, but maybe wait for the middle of the season when we’ve lost a couple games.”

I didn’t give my brother the dignity of a verbal response, I just flipped him the finger and went back to dressing.

“Hey, man, never known you to have opening night jitters.”

I shook my head at Bobby’s quiet comment. My longtime teammate, who’d earned the nickname Bonesaw for using his stick like a precision instrument to slash and sometimes score goals, sank onto the bench next to me.

Bonesaw was the only one of the guys who’d actually played in the NHL. Before his demons got the worst of him. The Colonel had signed him the month he’d gotten out of rehab.

“No jitters. Just ready to get started.”

Bobby kept staring at me. “Or ready for the game to be over. Hear you have a date afterward.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.“Dude, who are you? My mother? And where did you hear that?”

Bobby smiled, white teeth gleaming against his dark skin. “So, you do have a date?”

“No. It’s not a date. I just invited a little girl and her mom to the afterparty.”

“Little girl, huh. Must really like the mom if you’re willing to spend the night with someone else’s kid.”

I figured I should take offense to that. “What the hell, man? I like kids.”

“You don’t usually like women who have kids.”

Okay, valid point. Still…

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