Page 32 of Ice Me Out
To my surprise, he twists the cap off his bottle and takes a long pull from his beer. “I don’t like talking about it. But I think you aren’t asking because you’re gonna gossip about me. You’ve been there, so this is us bonding over how women are the devil and they’re good for one thing only, right?”
The corner of his lips is twitching in the hint of a smile, so I think he’s trying to make a joke.
“Something like that.” I offer, just in case I’m wrong and he does punch me in the face.
“Good.” His shoulders relax just a fraction. “Unfortunately, I’m as straight as an arrow, or I would take a page from Luke and Shane’s book. I hate to say it, but the only thing we can trust women to provide is a good time between their legs. If you want a loyal friend, or companionship, that’s what teammates are for. Or get yourself a cat, or a dog.”
Ok. I’m starting to think that all Keene is going to give me is that pearl of wisdom, but he sighs after taking another sip of his beer.
“It’s the oldest story in the book, really, bro. I got played like a fucking fiddle. Met my ex our senior year of high school. She was pregnant.”
I can’t help but interrupt him. “Dude. You knocked her up?”
He barks out a laugh, but there’s no trace of mirth in it. “That would have made some fucking sense, right? No, when I met Nicola, she had just found out that she was pregnant and her boyfriend had dumped her. At first we were just friends, but it turned into more. Her parents eventually kicked her out when she started to show and they realized that the father had walked away and that she was planning to keep the baby. I begged my parents to take her in and they helped at first, thinking I was the one who messed up. When they realized that the baby wasn’t mine, they gave me an ultimatum. I either broke things off with her, or I could move out with her.”
Damn. “So you got kicked out? And the baby wasn’t even yours?” I know it sounds like I’m judging him, because I am.
“I know it sounds stupid, but I was in love with her. The fact that I wasn’t the biological father of her baby meant absolutely nothing to me. Kids belong to who raises them. Biology has very little to do with parenthood, even if the two things often mix together.”
I don’t disagree with that. I guess it’s not that different from adopting a child, but it still took a big pair to take on someone else’s child like that. At least at eighteen. “So, this is why you joined the military?”
Keene nods. “We had no other choice. My parents were fuming because I had been offered a full ride to Star Cove to play hockey. But babies are expensive, and giving birth without health insurance would have been impossible. The army took care of all of that.”
It makes sense. “So you deferred college. But you were a big deal in high school hockey, Keene. Even I had heard about you. How come you didn’t get drafted?”
He shrugs. “I did. But the team wasn’t interested in me joining their roster straight away. They wanted me to play at the college level for a few years first. Then there was no guarantee that I would be invited to step on NHL ice. For all I know, I could have been sent to a farm team. And I needed money a lot quicker than that. I missed hockey like hell, but the army was the best option.”
It makes sense. “Even with all your medical expenses paid, and the army taking care of your housing, money must have been tight, assuming you went in as a private.” I muse.
“Yeah,” he confirms. “The first year was tough. But then my company was deployed, and it all started as a joke, a silly way to pass the time between missions. One of my sergeants found out that I was my high school hockey star, and he started setting up these ‘hockey courses,’ where I had to score a goal by sending the puck through a number of different obstacles. Like mini golf, but with a puck. A lot of times, they even froze the tracks so the physics would be similar to puck behavior during a game. At first it was just for fun. Then people started betting on how many tries it would take me to complete the track, or how fast I would do it. Other companies started coming to watch, and it was just a matter of time before someone started filming me and posting on social media.”
My jaw hits the floor. “You’re puckyousoldier? Dude, you’re a fucking viral sensation.”
Keene chuckles, laughing fully for the first time since we got to the party. “Yeah, that would be me. I eventually started posting from my own accounts and I got monetized pretty quickly. Companies that manufacture hockey equipment started paying me to show their products in my stunts. Soon I could have lived just off of that money, but I had enlisted for five years, and there was no way out of the army until my contract had expired. It’s crazy how money can make your life a lot easier, but by itself it doesn’t give you happiness.” His tone turns pensive.
I don’t disagree with him. My parents do very well for themselves and I was lucky enough that I never had to struggle, even before I got offered a contract by a NHL team and a generous signing bonus.
“I was deployed twice in the four years I served.” He continues. “Once for nine months, the last time for a year. My ex-wife wasn’t happy. And while she stuck by me—or at least I think she did—during the first deployment, the second time, she didn’t get why I had to go. She hated being left to hold the fort, and for all the parenting being on her shoulders. Anyway, long story short, while I was gone things between us were tense. Halfway through the deployment, we were talking less and less often. When we did, we often ended up fighting. So when a soldier in my unit needed to postpone his scheduled R&R break, and he was told he would be able to do it as long as he swapped with someone else, I jumped at the chance to go home sooner than I was supposed to. I booked a vacation for the three of us and decided to surprise Nicola with it. I was gonna show up at home and whisk her away.”
I have a bad feeling about how Keene’s surprise must have gone.
Sadly, I’m right.
“I came home smack in the middle of the day. I was excited when I let myself into the house using my key. I didn’t see anyone in the living room or the kitchen, so I thought she must have been upstairs. I knew she was home because her car was parked outside. I was right, she was in bed.”
Fuck. “Not alone?” I ask when he doesn’t add anything.
“Yup. She was riding someone’s cock in my fucking bed. At first, I was so stunned that I didn’t even recognize him. He was a soldier from my company, one of the officers who had stayed behind as part of the Rear-D battalion.”
Jesus Christ. “What did you do?”
He stares at the countertop, as if the gray marble of the Gamma house kitchen could hold the answer to some existential question. “I stood there until they realized they weren’t alone. Eventually, she saw me. They both jumped out of bed. She was screaming and crying, he was trying to play the knight in shining armor, acting all protective of her, as if I would ever raise a finger against my wife. I ignored them both. I went to my daughter’s room and gave her a kiss, then left and went on that vacation we were supposed to go on together. When I went back down range, I got her served with divorce papers.”
Holy shit. I don’t know if I could have been that cold. I’m not proud of it, but when Fiona told me she had someone else, I cried.
“Wow, dude. I’m sorry, that sounds rough.”
Keene empties his beer, setting the bottle on the counter. “Want another one?” he grabs two more bottles from the cooler on the floor. “Having six more months of my deployment was good and bad at the same time. On one hand, being apart meant no fighting in person. On the other hand, I had a shit ton of time to think and to ask myself what had I done wrong. I thought we had a good relationship, a relatively happy family. She was my first love and I would have done anything to make her happy. In the end, I came to the only possible conclusion.”
