Page 12 of A Little Puck Luck

I giggled. “Trees?”

“Yup.” He pulled out his phone and started scrolling. Eventually, he found what he was looking for. “Here, watch.”

It was a video of a guy who seemed to be built like a hockey player and was incredibly drunk, asking a tree he’d dubbed as Sabrina to go home with him.

I couldn’t stop giggling, but it fucking hurt to laugh like that.

“I get discharged from here in the next couple of days. Is that too soon for me to come to your place? Should I get a hotel?”

“I ordered a bed to put into the guest room for you. It should be here in a day or two. So just come to my place. We’ll figure something out if it’s not here in time. Here’s the address.”

He handed me a piece of paper.

I was relieved to have a place to live, even if things could be super awkward.

Chapter 8

Scuba

ThiswasthedayI was claiming my son. I just hoped that Eric would be okay moving home with me.

I hated to uproot him again. He'd had such a tumultuous year, but I was going to do everything in my power to give him a home where he didn’t have to move out again.

The thought of moving Eric brought up the one fear that most hockey players had—getting traded. I could always do what my pal, K, did and pay for two places. With Annie moving in once she got out of the hospital, she and Eric could live in my home, and I could get an apartment for whatever team I played for.

But I wasn’t going anywhere. The team was too good right now. Besides, I had a limited no-movement clause built into my contract. The Legacy could still trade me, but it would have to be one of seven approved teams, and I had the right of refusal to any trade offer. Not to mention, thanks to the flat cap situation, there was almost no chance in hell that half the teams on my list could even afford my contract.

Thank you, Petey, for securing me up.

And rumor had it, he wanted to get one of my buddies from the Sound, too, as a way to get his family closer to home in a year or two.

Pulling into the driveway, I heard pucks being shot on the hockey net. I had a pretty good idea who was doing that. My kid, since most pros didn’t spend all night shooting on the net since we all needed a break from work sometimes and to let the muscles relax.

I just went straight to the backyard and watched my kid’s shot. He didn’t have any flashiness, but he had solid wrist strength. He was still trying to get the basics down and figuring out how to put the oomph into it. It was a heavy shot that was more similar to Spencer’s than mine. Hopefully, I could help the kid find his sauce and get some silky mitts, too. “Hey there, kiddo.”

Eric smiled and said, “Can I shoot the last five pucks before we go to your place?”

That was nothing. Although, instead of freaking out the kid by watching him, I figured I could at least load up the car while he shot the pucks for a little bit.

“Sure,” I replied. “Is Spencer inside?”

“Nope, but Miss Natalie is.”

While I shouldn’t have been surprised that Natalie was at Spencer’s place, I was really hoping to be doing this with my teammate, but oh well. I pushed open the door.

Natalie was furiously typing on her phone, so I went to the fridge and grabbed some water. She didn’t look up.

“So, in addition to moving your kid in, you decided it was a good idea to move in with your ex?”

I couldn’t tell if Natalie approved of the idea or not. If she had looked at me, I could have read her facial expressions a little bit better.

“Isn’t that better than splitting her and Eric up or leaving her on the streets?”

Natalie shook her head and took a sip of the Diet Coke that sat in front of her. It was almost as if I was missing something clearly obvious, but I didn’t understand, so I just stared at her.

“Have you ever lived with an ex?” she asked.

I shook my head. Annie was my only official ex. Everyone since then had been casual hook-ups and puck bunnies. No one caught feelings more than platonic ones. Hell, I’d become solid friends with Ally, Gweny, and Tonya over the years. But we never lived together.

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