Page 20 of The Prince and the Puck
“Well, it’s just one idea we had. I mean, I had,” I said.
“I think a movie could be really awesome,” said John Samuels. “Won’t you need some kind of like anchoring story?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Declan interrupted. “I was going to ask you guys, do any of you have a blind sister?”
The men around us exchanged confused looks and I narrowed my eyes at the prince, not that he noticed. I turned back to the other men. “I do need some kind of centering story,” I said. “I thought I might try to build something around the sport of hockey being a unifier.”
“What does that even mean?” Solamentes asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” I said, thinking. “But in my head, it’s something about everyone being from a different background, coming from different parts of the world, even, and finding that you’re all part of a family because of this game you play, this team.”
I looked at Declan to see a strange expression on his face. His eyes slid toward me and narrowed slightly, and for a second I worried if I had gone a little bit too far. But I needed to start building a connection to his real life to give him the ability to tell me who he really was.
CHAPTER 15
DECK
NICE SCONCES…
We traveledto North Carolina a couple of days later to face the Vikings. When we got there, the team went to practice at the rink in the early afternoon, and we were all back at the hotel at a reasonable hour to get enough sleep before the game. As soon as I had the key to my room, Lizzy was at my side.
“Didn’t you get your own key?” I asked her. “Not that I would mind sharing...”
“Yes, I got my own room.”
She still stayed by my side as I exited the elevator and moved down the hallway toward my room at the end of the hall. When I opened the door, she stepped inside ahead of me, nearly pushing me out of the way like she just couldn’t wait to see the place.
“Lizzy,” I said. “What are you doing?”
She gave me a funny look but didn’t answer me, and then proceeded to walk around the room, running her hands under things, lifting up the fabric beneath the bed, looking inside the lamps, and doing a very comprehensive visual search of every nook and cranny of the room.
“What are you looking for?” I asked her.
“Nothing,” she said.
I could think of no reason why the PR rep for the team would need to carefully investigate my entire room.
“Lose something?” I asked knowing this was impossible since she’d never been here before.
Lizzy stood up straight, her shoulders tensing. “Um, no, sorry. It’s just… I heard this was a super nice hotel. So I was just checking things out. I wanted to see if your room is exactly like my room, or if maybe every room is different. Because that would be neat, right?”
“Right...” I answered, not quite buying it. “Neat. Do you want me to come to your room now and feel all the fabric to see if it’s the same?”
“That would be ridiculous,” said Lizzy.
She stared at me for a bit longer, something unreadable passing through her eyes as she did. It was pretty early, and I didn’t need to go to bed for a couple of hours, but I didn’t have a whole lot else to do, either.
“You have plans for the night?” I asked her. “Now that you’ve evaluated the sconces and whatnot?”
“Not really,” she said. “I was gonna maybe watch some television and go to bed.”
“Me too,” I said. “Would you wanna maybe hang out a little bit? Just as friends, of course.”
“I... okay.”
Lizzy walked to the couch at the side of the room and sat down, looking around herself nervously. I grabbed a couple of waters from the minibar, handed one to her, and sat across from her.
“Where are you from, Lizzy?”
