Page 5 of Your Pucking Mom

After getting a stare-down from my two teammates and friends, I finally stood, but not without letting out an exhausted sigh.

“Welcome to the team, Austin,” I said as I extended my hand to the child. This seemed to warm him up, and a grin spread on his face.

“Thanks, man.”

I gestured to the empty folding chair next to me. “Why don’t you take a seat here?”

Another frantic nod. “Yeah, I’d love that. Cool. Thanks.” It took everything inside me not to roll my eyes, as his words came out like anxious spurts.

Coach came over, assessing the situation, but I was relaxed as Austin pulled up the chair next to mine to sit in.

“Oh, good, Austin, you’ve met Cole, our captain.”

“For now,” I mumbled. Because earlier, I’d begged to give up my position, insisting that since it was my last year, I wanted Alex to take over. He’d worked his ass off to be in the position he was. Not that all the guys didn’t also kick ass, but Alex deserved the fuck out of it before any of us.

Coach gave me a pointed look before I settled back into the seat and relished the quiet. I was about to start daydreaming about the girl in the hooded jacket when someone interrupted what would have been a pretty damn good thought.

“So, what’s it like going on the road? Are there a lot of girls?”Oh, fuck me.I leaned back, running my fingers through my hair.

Alex, who was sitting across from us, stifled a laugh, knowing how much the child would piss me the fuck off.

“Not for you,” I lamented, shoving pizza in my mouth, hoping this would be the universal signal that I was unable to have any further conversation.

“But like, do they come to you, or like, the puck bunnies just hang around the rink?”I guess the fuck not.

“Listen…” I leaned forward, putting down my plate yet again. All I wanted to do was eat my goddamn pizza in peace. This was why I didn’t want to have any family dinners, especially in my personal space. Yet another reason I had no desire to be captain this season. This doling out advice was as frustrating as all the politics that came along with leading a team. “Your first year on the ice should not be about finding puck bunnies. You are fresh, and we’ve seen your talent. You have a shit ton of it. But being on a team is about working together. If you get sucked in with the drama of the ice rabbits, then we all suffer.”

Was ice rabbits a nice term? No, but I was trying to drill it into the child that I was the wrong person to be asking these questions, and he needed to focus on hockey. The whole reason his contract was larger than some of the other players on the team was for hockey. “I will get fucked. Your team will get fucked. Everyone will get hurt if you start messing around with those girls.”

He leaned back, then looked ahead at Alex, who was wide-eyed due to the palpable tension radiating between the two of us. “So can I get a beer at least?”

Fucking. Idiot.“No.”

Coach interrupted my thoughts. “Thank you for coming to the first dinner of hopefully many this year…”

I leaned back in the chair, half listening to the speech he’d given the past few years at these things. The woman with blue eyes came to the forefront of my mind again.

Fuck, why was I like this? I wasn’t celibate by any means. Despite what the child might think, I thoroughly enjoyed the company of a puck bunny or two after a game. I’d earned my bragging rights, and with all the adrenaline pumping after a win, channeling it into something aggressive in bed was sometimes just what I needed to keep my head in the game.

I’d never had a girlfriend and never—ever—let myself get attached to anyone because everything in life was temporary. The only thing I’d ever let myself clutch onto was hockey, which was why I thought my life was over when I tore my MCL in my right knee last year. Knowing this may be the last year I would ever have in the League had me wanting to crawl into a dark hole and never come out.

But the woman on the street? The one who was full-blown crying while every person walked past her as if she was a piece of trash on the sidewalk? Something about her forced me to stop—forced me to see her, acknowledge her. She left me with a feeling that was anything but temporary.

Ugh. I needed to get over it. It had to be because it was a shit day, and I was blaming my weird obsession tonight over this entire dinner.

“Everyone, give our captain, Ledger Cole, a huge round of applause, and thanks for supplying us with pizza and beer.”

“Hear, hear.” Coach finished his beer, excusing himself to go back to his penthouse.

“Now, who’s getting the new guy a fake, and when can we go slay some pussy?” one of the younger players, Zane, shouted as soon as Coach left. Looking over at Alex, I slumped in my chair and let out a good“Fuck me” as the guys crowded around the kid, trying to figure out how to get him into their favorite bar across the street.

“One more year,” I whispered to myself. One more fucking year.

3

auburn

“I’m so fucking late,” I shrilled into the phone as I frantically threw my underwear around my small studio apartment while trying to find the right pair.

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