Page 12 of Slapped Into Love

ChapterSeven

Ryan

“Where’s your new girlfriend?”Alec asked as we laced up our skates in the locker room. We’d been at the arena for a couple of hours already, but we’d spent most of that time with the trainers. It’s how most of the players usually started their day since we all dealt with injuries throughout the season. They’d treated Alec’s ankle and determined he was okay to skate on it today, but they wanted him to go a little easy on it so he’d be okay for our home game tomorrownight.

“She’s not my girlfriend, asshat.” Not that it wasn’t what I was aiming for with her, which was a completely new experienceforme.

“Hey, wait. What’d we miss? Yesterday she could barely stand to be on the same ice with you, and now Rourke is calling her your girlfriend?” one of the rookiesasked.

“It’s none of your damn business,” Igrowled.

“Ooohhh...he sounds super sensitive about the whole thing. Something definitely happened,” our starting goalie laughed. “It’s a good thing your slap shot’s on point since that’s the only scoring you’re going to doaroundhere.”

“I don’t know; when I stopped by this morning, they lookedawfully—”

I grabbed one of my elbow pads and tossed it at his face to shut him up. “Like I said; it’s nobody’s business but mine andTamara’s.”

I tuned the guys out and focused on getting ready. If I let them get to me, the razzing would only get worse. It’s just howthingswere.

Jason waited until we were walking through the tunnel out to the ice to ask, “Something happened,right?”

“Yeah.”

He tapped my stick with his. “That’s all you’re going to give me? You know I’m not going to give you shit. Hell, I’m the one who told you to go after her in the firstplace!”

“Coach set her up with a place in my apartment complex; two doors down from me.” I flashed him a satisfied smirk as I yanked the rinkdooropen.

“Nice. Although I’m guessing there’s more to the story based on your shit-eating grin,” he drawled, skating past me ontotheice.

“Maybe.Maybenot.”

“That’s a definite yes.” He shook his head and glided towards the bench to set his water bottle onthewall.

I scanned the rink, looking for any sign of Tamara and frowning when I didn’t spot her anywhere. “Hey, Coach!” I called out. “Is Tamara sticking around after her training to watch our practice before she does her sessionwithus?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Forrester. She isn’t scheduled to be here until Noon, for her power skating drills withtheteam.”

I skated over to where he stood. “What about her training? The Olympics are only eleven months away. She can’t take the months she’s coaching us off from her training; not if she wants to make the US teamagain.”

“When we were negotiating the contract with her, she was specific about not being able to do morning sessions because it’s when she prefers to train.” He shrugged. “But she didn’t say anything about what rink she was going to beusing.”

I looked around the ice like Tamara would magically appear before me. “She’s not skating here in themornings?”

“Nope.”

“Where’s sheskatingthen?”

“Like I said. She didn’t say. Is there a specific reason you’re hell-bent on finding her?” His eyes narrowed as he considered me, and he held up a hand when I opened my mouth to answer him. “Forget I asked. Just don’t fuck things up to the extent that we lose our power skatingcoach.”

“I can’t fuck things up if I don’t know wheresheis.”

“She’ll be here in a couple of hours,” he reminded me. This time, it was me who narrowed their eyes, making him sigh. “I think there are a couple of local rinks that have speed skating clubs who set up short tracks. Maybe she reached out to one of them and asked if she could use their ice. It’d be a great opportunity for them to see her in action and learn how to improve their own skating. If they’re smart, it could even increase awareness and help build theirnumbers.”

“We have a whole sheet of ice right here that nobody uses in the mornings while we’re all with the trainers,” Iremindedhim.

“And your point is whatexactly?”

“Some of those advantages you described for the local speed skating club apply to us too,” I explained. “I bet the public relations team would love the opportunity to get some reporters in here and talk about how we’re using an Olympic speed skater from the women’s team to help improve our speed while gearing up for theplayoffs.”

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