Page 202 of Loving Ladybug: Part One
“Shut up, Mitchy.” Castle threw a towel at him.
Dimitri gave everyone the short version.
“Breathe,” Tenzin said softly, standing close to me.
I took a deep breath, getting wisps of him along with a whole lot of locker room. “I’m going to fuck him up.”
“The scar on her head. He did that.” JP stood. He didn’t look good.
“She’s not on duty tonight, is she?” Jonas asked me.
“Ty’s on duty. She’s coming to the game. If she was on duty, she’d be a fucking professional though.” I poured one of my hydrogels in my mouth and put the candy bar away.
Jonas nodded. “And whack him with her stick like she did Windy.”
“Ooh, I’m going to be sick again.” JP ran off to the bathroom.
“I told you not to eat that,” Anders called after him. He looked at me. “I’m going to beat Austin’s ass. No one messes with ours.”
“Do what you all need to do. Don’t get badly injured. I don’t want to seeanymulti-game suspensions. We need towin,understood?” Coach Atkins barked.
“Yes, Coach. That’s a rousing speech.” A woman wearing a vintage black and silver Knights Jersey with a 0 on it, a manwhose vintage jersey said 7, and a person wearing slacks with a nice turtleneck sweater, came into the locker room.
While no one was naked this close to the game, a few people looked startled. Okay, Nakey was nearly naked. But he enjoyed being naked, which was why he was calledNakey.
The woman laughed. “Believe me, between playing and coaching, I’ve seen it all. My current team is a bunch of nudies. Also, my father was the equipment manager for this team back in the day.”
Gray streaked her black, wavy hair. The others were the same age. The man in the jersey also had dark wavy hair and a similar olive complexion, the other had near white hair.
“Mia. Gio. Vail. Welcome.” Coach Atkins grinned. “Mia, if I’d known all it took was inviting you to drop the puck, to get you to one of my games, I would’ve done so long ago.”
Usually someone famous or a former player came and did a ceremonial puck drop for the first home game of the season for each team.
Mia chuckled. “I’m so sorry we didn’t pick a closer team to coach.”
“This is Maria Barilla-Russo, former Knights goalie and Giovanni Russo, former Knights defenseman. Both of them coach for the Venice team in Italy. This is their mate, Vail Russo,” Coach Atkins told everyone. “Maria and Gio will be honored later this season. We go way back.”
Maria Barilla? As in Gwen’s favorite player?
Dean stood there, mouth gaping.
JP rejoined us from the bathroom and sucked in a breath, staring. “Merde.”
One of the guys with her chuckled. “You have a fan club.”
“Thank you,” JP finally said, looking star-struck. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for hockey.”
“Absolutely,” Dean added, expression full of awe. “If you hadn’t laid the groundwork, omegas never would have had a chance in the PHL.”
“It’s always nice to meet fellow goalies.” Maria smiled and looked up at them. “My, what big boys you are. Goalies are giants now.”
A couple of defenders were talking to Gio.
“Thank you for defending me after I was outed,” Dean added in earnest. “You telling them I had a place on the ice meant everything. Same when you defended my mate.”
“What happened to you was shitty. You’re a great player. All I did was remind them of that. Same with Grif,” she assured him.
“Are you staying for the game? You’re my girlfriend’s favorite. Your card is on our wall, right between my two most important comics. She’d love to meet you. She’s a goalie for her university,” I blurted. We’d gotten frames for some of her cards.
