Page 36 of Suck My Puck

“Hell yeah, Blomdahl!” Theo yells.

I fight a grin. It feels good to kick ass after sucking so hard for so many games.

“Keep it up,” Coach Porter says to me. “I wanna see more of what I saw tonight.”

“Will do, Coach.”

He leaves, and we all strip off our gear and get cleaned up. I finish getting dressed and grab my gear bag.

“Drinks at Spanky’s?” Theo asks. I tell him I’m in. Xander and Del say they’re in too.

We head out of the arena to our cars in the lot.

“You were a brick wall tonight, dude. Holy shit,” Xander says.

“Yeah. What was up with that? You doping?” Theo jokes as he nudges me with his shoulder.

I laugh and roll my eyes and laugh. “I guess I’m finally out of my rut.”

“What do you feel like drinking tonight?” Xander asks me. “You’re the one who’s on fire, so you get to choose.”

“No more vodka. Please,” Del says.

I chuckle. “Okay, no vodka. How about the usual: beer for you guys and Scotch for me?”

The guys all say that sounds good to them. Del’s phone buzzes, and he pulls it out of his pocket. He glances at the screen, then looks up at me.

“Ingrid says you’re dominating social media,” he says.

“Really?”

Del shows me his phone, and I skim a bunch of the comments under the most recent post on the Bashers’ Instagram account. It’s a photo of me mid-save during the game.

Blomdahl is back!

Did you see that glove save? What a beauty!

Goalie is on fire! Hell yeah!

Blomdahl was out for blood tonight. Love to see it!

Now THAT’S the Blomdahl I remember from last season. Let’s fucking go, Bashers!

I smile, pride and relief surging through my chest. Tonight is only one game, but it’s enough of a boost to pull me out of the spiral from the last few months.

My performance tonight is proof that I’m not washed up. I’m not on the downslide.

I’m still a good goalie. I can still go out there and play my heart out. I can still help my team win.

“I’m fucking dying for a beer,” Xander says as we reach our cars. “My trainer’s got me on this new clean eating diet and I’m not allowed to have beer at home.”

Theo pats his shoulder. “We’ll load you up tonight.” He turns to me. “That pretty bartender that hates you isn’t going to spit in our drinks, will she?” he teases.

I chuckle. “I don’t think so.”

Thankfully none of them saw me kiss Bella the other night at Spanky’s. When I left the bar with her, we went out the back, so no one saw us then either. I texted them that I wasn’t feeling well and decided to go home. I felt kind of bad lying to them, but I didn’t want to tell them I was leaving to hook up with Bella. Not that I’m ashamed of what happened. I’m not. But what happened between us is private, and I don’t think I should be telling my teammates about it.

“So she accepted your apology then?” Del asks.

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