Page 87 of Rowdy Hearts

“JJ. Hey, man. Take a breath. I know you think you fucked up, but this isn’t unfixable.”

Okay. Not cocaine. Jesus, I thought he’d snorted a few lines. But I could tell he was torn up about this. “Where are the rest?”

“In my truck. I was afraid to bring them inside with me.”

“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do.”

Over JJ’s shoulder, I saw movement. My dad, heading for thelocker room. He gave me a look that was a question. Did I need him? Did he need to get involved?

I shook my head, just enough for him to know I had this. My dad nodded back and kept going. He knew I’d fill him in later. Right now, JJ needed me.

“First, we’re gonna talk to the doc about your knee.” If it was bad enough for the guy to willingly take something he didn’t want to, then there was something wrong. “And then we’ll talk to the doc about the pills.”

Sonny Morelli had seen his fair share of addicted athletes with the Devils. Dad and his soft spot for tough cases made sure of it.

“Jesus, I’m sorry, Rowdy. It’s the second fucking game?—”

“Wouldn’t matter if it was the fifth or the twenty-fifth.” I gave his shoulder a little shake, keeping that connection between us so I didn’t lose his focus. “We’re still going to take care of this. Together. Hey, if you’d tried to deal with it by yourself and it’d gotten worse, I might not’ve been able to help. But you were smart enough to know you needed help. That’s all that matters, man.”

The look of relief on JJ’s face let me know I’d said the right thing. I could’ve fucked this up badly, but I hadn’t so I’d take the win.

“Come on, let’s go talk to Doc Morelli.”

“Hey,Rowdy. What’s up with you? You nearly let me drill you into the boards last period. Not that I wouldn’t have liked it, but you’re obviously not here, so it wouldn’t have been fun.”

I looked at Fiskers across the blue line as we lined up against each other at the start of the second period. The logic in that statement was a little twisted, but that kind of perfectly explained our league so…

“Just a lot of shit on my mind.”

The ref dropped the puck, and the teams went into motion. We’d won the faceoff, which was kind of a surprise, so I skated up ice, Fiskers on my ass. I know I’d been preoccupied the first period, the conversation with JJ and the situation with Tressy battling for space in my brain, but I thought I’d kept my distraction under control.

But if Fisky, who wasn’t the most observant guy, had noticed, I must’ve been pretty out of it. Probably why my team had been giving me some distance. They’d been way too quiet in the locker room now that I thought about it.

I had to drag my head out of my ass, or I was gonna get my ass handed to me. Maybe not by Fiskers but definitely by one of the young guns on his team. The young ones always wanted to make a statement.

Narrowing my focus back to the game, I scoped out the situation. We were in the offensive end, but we were going to lose control of the puck if I didn’t do something.

I skated into the middle of the scrum in the corner, both teams fighting for possession of the puck. I checked Fiskers out of the way, which made the crowd roar, fans banging on the glass. When I got possession, I skated behind the net, trying to shake the defender. Realizing we were in scoring position, I passed to Misha, who one-timed it at the net. The goalie was ready for that one, but I skated around to the side of the net, where I picked up the rebound and shot it over the goalie’s shoulder into the net.

The goal horn sounded, and the crowd screamed like we’d just won the fucking Olympics. And it felt good.

My team crowded around me knocking helmets and patting me on the back.

“Goddamn, Rowdy. Nice shot,” Reid shouted to be heard over the crowd. “Nice fucking shot.”

Yeah, it had been. And even though it’d been a while since I’dscored, probably sometime around the middle of last season, I still remembered my goal celebration.

First, I skated to the bench and knocked gloves with my teammates. Then I grabbed the air cannon from the equipment manager, who had a huge smile. The crowd cheered as the clip of the goal played on the screens above center ice, and I stopped to watch it along with them, my grin growing.

Last year, I’d sucked at scoring. I’d had maybe fifteen goals all season. My points total had been decent because of assists, but I’d forgotten how good it was to actually put the puck in the net and have the fans cheer.

With my goal song, “My Redemption” by Halestorm, blasting out of the speakers, I skated around the arena and shot t-shirts with my face on them into the crowd. When I got to the side with the suites, I stopped to wave to Krista, who was jumping up and down next to her mom. Tressy’s smile made everything that much better.

After sending her a wink just for her, I skated back to the bench and play resumed. When I sat on the bench, Coach leaned down so I could hear him over the roar of the crowd. “Nice job, Rowdy. Another few like that, and I won’t have to buy my own drinks for a while.

I nodded, confidence heating my blood. “Let’s blow up some expectations tonight, Coach. Let’s give them the show they deserve.”

Scotty shook his head, steel-gray hair perfectly combed, a wry grin on his face. After smacking my back, he moved back up the bench to where he usually stood. “Alright, then. Let’s get a few more, boys, and make hell freeze over.”

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