Page 103 of Slick Handling

They needed to play the game. This was their dream and as much as I liked the idea of all of us naked together in my nest, I wasn’t going to be the reason they missed games.

“Win the game and come home after. With pizza. Pepperoni, pineapple, and jalapeños please. That’s my favorite.” Vaughn smiled wider.

“That’s my favorite too. I’ll bring you the game puck. See you soon, cherry girl.” He kisses my cheek before stepping back and letting everyone else say goodbye to me.

As we head out my eyes start to close. I just needed a little rest.

CHAPTER 34

GRIFFIN

We couldn’t tell Vaughn about his dad and Terry. That was something that we would also need to let Clover know not to talk about either. She wouldn’t mean to upset him, but hearing that they were at the game was a sure fire way to bring Vaughn back into a spiral.

He was just starting to get better. It was like they knew that he was doing well and had to show up to ruin everything.

Why would his father think that it was okay to show up?

Terry was a bitch. Her showing up was par for the course.It wasn’t enough for her to break Vaughn’s heart. She wanted to rub it in at every chance that she got..

His father? That just seemed like a low blow to pull on your son. Especially since he had tried to talk to his son before.

Vaughn had been close to his family, too. They had sort of the white picket lifestyle that made me a bit jealous growing up. It was all a facade obviously. Things had fallen apart spectacularly over the summer. It had nearly broken my best friend. I would never let them hurt him like that again.

Of course, now Clover is going into preheat.

Of course it was the weekend Apollo wasn’t around to be reasonable and Vaughn wasn’t acting like his usual reasonable self.

He had licked her. Which had made me nearly combust because I also wanted to taste the sweet Omega.

Maybe I should wipe out my cup and jockstrap between periods just in case it really is giving me jock itch. I don’t want to have her seeing me looking like a mess.

“You’re up.” Coach taps my head and I’m jumping over the barrier, racing down the ice where the defenseman is knocking the puck over the redline.

My skates dig into the ice, snicking sounds as snow is left in my wake. My eyes just focused on where the puck is going and if I can get there without it going offsides.

It hits the blade of my skate and I dig in harder, turning as someone races towards me. The tip of my stick gets hold of the black disk as I feel the adrenaline washing over me. It’s this hot feeling that feels like a blanket going over my head. Closing out the sounds around me as I focus on the moment.

I have a breakaway opportunity.

Dangling the puck forward, the goaltender follows the move. He’s tracking me as I shift my weight, trying to get him to commit to one side and open up a slot for me to aim for. It’s seconds that feel like minutes as I watch him over extend to his left and I follow him for a second to make him think that’s where I’m aiming. I toss the puck back, between my skates, whirling my blade around to pick it up.

This could go top shelf.

He moves his position. The blocker glove coming up, towards the top shelf left where I had been thinking of slapping it home. It opens up the right bottom corner since he over extended himself further with this move.

Snapping the blade back and then forward, the puck sails over his leg, hitting the back of the net.

A goal horn goes off, the red light lights up as my team skates towards me to celebrate the goal.

I wish Clover was here to see it. I would have skated over and kissed the glass in front of her so everyone would have known this show was all for her benefit. Instead I skate back towards the bench, giving everyone fist bumps before skating to take the face off.

My eyes lift to the clock to check how much time is left in the third period.

Fourteen minutes to go. We’re up by three goals. I already know this game is going to feel like another hour.

They think that I can’t be serious. That I don’t take things as seriously as I should. I know that life isn’t a game. Though I want to play an actual game for a living.

The game ends and we get out of the arena quicker than ever before. Jumping in the car and heading home without even chatting with our teammates. It’s a couple minute walk but, since we had Clover in mind we drove wanting to make sure she was comfortable. Terrible plan since she already left and we’re now stuck in post-game traffic.

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