Page 3 of Unmasking Love
I slowlypull the door open and immediately “Hail to the Chief” starts to play. My eyes flick around the room and all of the D.C. Renegades are standing at their lockers at full attention, albeit in various states of undress; some with equipment half on, others still in their street clothes, saluting me as I arrive.
D.C.’s captain and center, Felix Fornier, marches to the center of the room and faces me. I'm frozen just a step inside the door using my eyes to scan the room for all possible clues as to what the fuck is going on.
"ATTENNNNNNTION!" Felix yelps and all the guys whip their hands to their sides. "PRESSSENNNNNNT ARMS!" Felix commands and they all throw their hockey sticks out like rifles. I really hope they don't start spinning them around to holster them.
"EYES RIGHT!" He barks quickly but when half of the team ends up looking to the back of the room, away from me, he slumps and adds "Or left you bozos."
The guys who looked to the right all turn to me and I catch the smirks and eye rolls. Okay, so they know this is over the top.
"YOUNGREN, FORWARRRRD MARCH!" I have to blink back to Felix when I hear my last name.
"Me?" I ask.
Felix breaks rank with a huff and walks over to pull me to the middle of the room. He puts both hands on my shoulders and straightens me out before walking back to his position.
"NICKNAMMMME ASSIGNMENT!" Felix yelps and I turn my head to figure out what this one means.
Duncan Paisley, their first string right defender, makes a show of marching up to me with straight arms and legs. He taps my shoulder and when I don't do anything because I'm in over my head with this whole situation, he presses my shoulder and I bend down to kneel in front of him.
Hetakes out a water bottle and squirts water over each of my shoulders as he says, "I hereby dub thee, Young Gun." The boys start to clap and ohh and ahh at this nickname. "You may rise, Young Gun."
I stand as Duncan marches back to his locker. Felix is smiling at me like a parent at a graduation. Pride and promise in his gaze. I have never experienced anything like this in my entire life. And my brain does not know how to process it.
"Young Gun, welcome to the Renegades, allow me to show you to your throne." He gestures to a locker that's wider than the rest because goalie pads take up so much more space. My gear is there, and Young Gun is air brushed along the front of my practice mask. I realize I've said zero words this entire time, except to question whether he was talking to me, so I turn and my mind spins trying to come up with something.
I'm saved when Felix yells, "at ease" and the room dissolves into the usual locker room commotion.
"Aiden," Felix pulls me in for a hug. His meaty arms act like a straight jacket so I'm just standing there in pencil dive formation waiting to be released. "I am so excited for you to be a part of this team. Give me your phone."
"My phone?"
"Yeah man! I'm adding you to the Big Guns team chat and then I'm going to text my real estate agent from your phone so she can start looking for places for you. You haven't found one yet, right? You're still renting?"
"Uh, yeah, bu-"
"Great. Harper will get you set up. She got my buddy and his girlthe besthouse."
He says all this as he types things into my phone. I hear various pings go off around the room so I must have just been added to the group chat and sent my first message. I wonder what I said.
Then his thumbs continue to tap things out and he must be texting his real estate agent. I hear the woosh of the sent message and he grins at me and hands me the phone.
"Suit up Young Gun, skate starts in ten."
I slide my backpack off and hang it in the locker and then I look at my phone. I pull up the group chat first and see that I wrote "Young Gun in the house!" and have already received some thumbs up and heart reactions.
Then I move over to the second text where the contact reads HD and it says "Harper, this is FF texting you from our newest teammate, Young Gun’s, phone. You know the drill."
Chapter 2
Harper
Keep Your Friends Close
IlaughasIopen up the text. Felix has another assignment for me. I expect to get a separate text from him later with his parameters for this particular teammate.
"Hi New Teammate" I type, "I'm Harper and I'm excited to show you some of DC and NoVAs best properties :)"
I'm sure he'll reply soon and give me his real name. I don't follow the team too closely but Felix came my way a few years ago and has been one of my top referring clients. Over the summer he had me find a home for his best friend, Austin Thorne and his girlfriend, Maggie Collins. I was never expecting to have a Thorne on my client list. Hopefully, he and Maggie start looking for a vacation property soon and I can help them out with that too.
