Page 91 of Friendzone Hockey
“Yeah, fine, I’ll tell him, but I’m telling him my way.” He turns toward me, curling to fingers in a “c’mere” gesture. “Sit with me, Mr. Alderchuck?”
If he’s offering, then fuck yeah. Our pact to stop being us can start later. Or never. I jump into his lap. Dirk and Dad eye us—probably mostly because he just called me Mr. Alderchuck—but don’t say anything.
“Read this,” he says with his arms around me.
I grip the letter. It’s from the Department of Justice's Victim Services Unit. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I thought he had at least another year.”
We always knew Robin would be out of jail eventually, but we had no contingency plan.
“Good behavior, I guess,” Dad says.
I lean against Stacey. Yeah, okay, Dad knew what he was doing. In his arms, nothing can hurt me. Not even my own mind. “What do we do?”
“Hope he doesn’t relocate here, for starters,” Dad says. “We’ve got a little bit of time. I’ve been reaching out to the prosecutor every so often, so I got this information with enough time that you’ll be long into the hockey season before he gets out. We can formulate a plan. I’ll follow you around with a shotgun if I have to. He’s not getting you again, okay?”
“Thanks, Dad. Hopefully, he’s lost interest. What are the chances he’s not mad at me for sending him to jail?”
No one answers that. I’m gonna be sick.
We don’t stay at The Wicklow long. I need time to come to terms with Robin’s release before we plan something, though I suspect that’s going to be done for me. My crewof found family and my dad have always taken over during situations like this, don’t see why that would change now.
I’m stronger now, I probably could participate, but is it okay if I don’t want to? It fucking exhausts me and they’re better at it than I am. In the past, I would have felt guilty about not being able enough. Now, I’m happy for them to take the wheel if they want to.
Stacey takes me for a Frappuccino and then down to the beach. He refuses to stop his ridiculous “open the door for Mr. Alderchuck” bit, scaling his Hummer, and Spiderman crawling across the top to let me out.
“Feel better?” he says when we’re back in the truck after a long walk on the sea wall. I was better, but we’ll be home soon and the magic of today will vanish. We’ll start our new lives with a regular friendship that I have zero idea how to navigate.
“A lot better. You always know what to say.”
He tossed the idea of hiring a bodyguard into the ring, and that’s not a bad idea. It would be weird, but until we know more, it brings me a bit of comfort. Rhett’ll know people for that, and I was proud of myself for pointing out that maybe Rhett’s mayor dad might be willing to help us in some way as well. Rhett and Logan keep saying he owes them, and they’re happy to lend his services to the crew.
“Since we’re done with appointments early, you wanna have an Indiana Jones marathon like old times?” he suggests.
Would I? Hell, yeah. It would go a long way to getting rid of this icky feeling that’s painting my insides like tar. “You don’t have to pick up Thing One and Thing Two?”
“I should eventually, but I … I want more time with you.”
“Good. Me too.” My heart settles. It doesn’t have to say goodbye just yet—he knows how I feel about goodbye. Stacey must be feeling the same thing I am if he’s trying to hang on. It’s nice to know I’m not alone with the feeling.
The silver Lexus comes into view as soon as we approach the drive. Syd’s car? But he wasn’t due home until the weekend. He’s holding the largest bouquet of red roses I’ve ever seen.
“Yuck,” I say without thinking.
Stacey lifts an imperious brow. “He doesn’t know how much you hate red roses?”
“I’m sure I’ve mentioned it.”
“Did you say why?”
No. I don’t answer, but my face says it all.I haven’t trusted him with the Robin topic yet.Stacey turns the vehicle off and pauses.
He pauses for the same reason I have. I wanna pause the whole world so I’ll have more time with Stacey, as we are, without us having to change. Syd showing up like this is the equivalent of time getting ripped away, stolen from us. It’s not fucking fair. We were supposed to have a final goodbye.
I should be happy to see my fiancé, but I’m not. I’m fucking pissed that he’s here unannounced.
“You’re absolutely sure you’re okay?” he says. “Don’t lie to me, Nolan.”
“I am. Jeez.” Those roses don’t help, but I’m not going to spin out.
