Page 50 of Zero Pucks

“Fuck no! I will have security throw you out if you let your brother anywhere near him.” Micah had a reputation for making men fall in love with him, and I was not risking that with Amedeo, no matter how much I adored him.

Jonah sagged back in his chair but didn’t argue. “He wouldn’t seduce him, you know. He’d never do that to you.”

Except half the time, it wasn’t Micah’s fault. He was just too damn pretty. “I need to figure this out before I unleash the hounds on him, okay?”

Jonah nodded. “Yeah, alright.” His serious face melted into another grin. “I’m excited for you though. You don’t like people.”

I didn’t. Not usually. Relationships were hard enough to navigate as a person. But as a disabled person who had an NHL-sized chip on their shoulder and low-key lived as a total nihilist? Not that I was a sociopath, but I rarely let myself care about anyone or anything outside of my little bubble.

“I really don’t see how this could work long term, but I think I’d like to enjoy it while he’s here.”

“And figure out why he’s got total sad Charlie Brown voice,” Jonah pointed out.

Fuck. I thought I was the only one who noticed. “If you show up tonight, be nice to him. I mean it,” I added when Jonah gave a slow grin. “Don’t say anything that’ll make him run.”

“I would never.” He pressed his hand to his heart. “I want you to be happy. I wanna hear wedding bells and pigeons or whatever.”

“You’re so fuckin’ weird.” Goddamn goalies. But I loved him all the same.

He smiled and sat back. “Tonight is gonna be great.”

If only I had some kind of faith, I might have believed him.

* * *

I struggled but managed a weak grip with my gloves in the front of Boden’s jersey. I gave a hard tug, and his sled tipped on the blades toward me. “Do you see him? Tell me you see him?”

My vision wasn’t too bad on the ice. Everything was well lit and high contrast since we shared the rink with the blind hockey team, but everyone in the crowd was a sea of blurry, flesh-colored blobs.

I couldn’t have picked Amedeo out if my life depended on it. And although it didn’t, right then, it felt a bit like it did.

Boden shoved me off, using my shoulder to support himself as he got his blades righted beneath him. “Are you smoking crack? Because I will have you thrown off the team and forcibly put into rehab.”

“I’m being serious!”

He sighed and used his stick to turn his sled toward the wall. There wasn’t a lot of wiggle room in our bench area, but he managed to lean over the wall just far enough to get a good look at the crowd across from us.

“I think so. I—oh.” He turned to me, and behind his visor, I swore I could see a look of horror on his face. “Did you send him here with Jonah?”

“Noooo,” I said slowly. “Jonah might have mentioned he was going to come by tonight and help him understand the game.”

“Brave,” Boden said, his voice a low rumble.

I felt a wave of second-guessing panic wash over me. “Jonah wouldn’t do anything to screw this up.” Right?

Boden sighed around his mouth guard, which he was biting with his molars. “No, he wouldn’t. Did you get a chance to talk to him after lunch?”

My sled was suddenly shoved forward, and I looked over my shoulder to find Ford grinning at me.

“No,” Ford said, “he didn’t. He’s grumpy right now because Amedeo and I had a long, intense, hot…conversation in my car when I dropped him off.”

Boden rolled his eyes and looked back at me. “Why didn’t you call him?”

“Because I was busy,” I defended. And I’d been avoiding any chance that would screw up tonight for me and Amedeo. I had plans. Sort of. At least, I had an idea of what I wanted, and if I let my mouth get ahead of me, there was a damn good chance he’d cancel.

That was how it always went.

“I was putting together my resume for the Legends,” I said. I’d filled the guys in on my possible job offer while we were getting dressed in the locker room, and right in the middle of Boden telling me that it was the best job I could be offered, the new coach walked up.

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