Page 2 of Playmaker

Ivan Petrov, our starting goalie, was a Russian behemoth. He was afraid of no one.

“I’d pay to see that.” JJ gave one of his rare grins.

“You won’t have to pay. Just show up. What are you doing in the offseason?”

“Some family stuff in Victoria. My grandmother isn’t doing well. The rest of the offseason I’m back here to work out—maybe I’ll become a lethal weapon too.”

Ducky held up his hand for a high five. “You know it. Next year…”

Next year was going to be different. Coach had told us to use the pain of the loss to push through to win next season and we were damned well going to do that.

The rest of the guys shared their plans: family, vacations, working out. Most would be out of the city and come back in September. Our long playoff run made the offseason short. If we’d won the Cup, it would all have been worth it. Without that…it felt like a waste.

Ducky nudged me with his elbow. “So, Captain, you spending the summer with a special lady?”

I rolled my eyes.

Oppy chuckled. “Nah, that would be many special ladies.”

“They’re all special.” More laughter.

Two guys didn’t speak up. Crash, still blaming himself for missing that pass, and Mitchell, the backup goalie who’d let in the winning goal. Those two and JJ were the ones I was most worried about. JJ had been on my radar since he was traded to Toronto, but he was so quiet and self-contained it was hard to get him to open up. I knew him as well as anyone on the team did, and on the ice we were in total sync. Not after our skates came off.

“You’ve got your camps, right Mitch?”

Mitchell nodded. I wasn’t sure if he was holding back because of the loss, or because he was new. He’d been called up from our farm team when we lost a goalie after the trade deadline. Now, he didn’t know if he was staying up or playing with the Inferno next season. Part of that depended on whether our regular backup was returning. Also, once the draft at the beginning of July rolled around, the Blaze could trade for a new backup, or move Mitchell elsewhere.

“Yeah. Gonna head back to Montana with Jayna and work out and try to help some kids.”

Mitchell hadn’t been drafted, partly because of the absence of opportunities where he grew up, so he and his new girlfriend Jayna Templin were running some free camps in small towns in Montana. I’d have helped out in person, but being so well known would have shifted the focus off the camps, so my contributions were only financial.

“Crash?”

He shrugged. “I’m hanging out here, family and training.”

I’d make sure to reach out to the guys staying local. We had our own training systems and places we liked to work out, but doing some sessions together would help maintain those team bonds.

“How formal is this thing tonight?” Ducky asked.

“Formal,” I smirked. The kid groaned, but he knew the answer. This was adress in a suit or tux, sit at a table with white linen and an inflated amount of cutlery while talking and dancing with the people who could afford the cost of the eventthing. We were encouraged to bid on the silent auction items, but at least we weren’t being auctioned off. “And we’d better get our asses in gear. Some of you need time to look good.”

Lots of chirping back at that, but I was the best-dressed player on the team. My looking good was a given. I’d worked on these guys, and we were finally approaching the best-dressed team title that existed only in my head. Some of the suits these guys wore when they’d started… I’d had the privilege of money growing up, so I was sympathetic to the guys who’d never been able to pay for quality tailoring. But once they were with the team, it was time to level up.

Mitch hung back as I signed for the bill. “I wasn’t invited?”

I’d missed that. But it made sense. He, however, was reading more into it than existed, as far as I knew.

“This was arranged before you were called up. Don’t overthink it. You know how the PR department has been shaken up lately.”

His eyes widened. Thanks to how the people at the top of the Blaze organization’s PR department had handled some issues with Mitchell and Jayna, we had new people being put in position. It wasn’t surprising that some things had fallen through the cracks. And the outgoing people might have been happy to “forget” updating the new staff about Mitchell.

“Okay.” He smiled. “Sounds like I’ll have a better evening than you all will anyway.”

* * *

Callie

This dress might have beena mistake.

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