Page 40 of Hot for the Hockey Player
“Yeah.Why wouldn’t you be?”He shrugged a boney shoulder.
“Because I’m not family.I’m just some random guy that showed up to a high school, and now you’re asking me to meet you and a bunch of your friends in the parking lot.Youdosee how this could all be interpreted right?”
He rolled his eyes.“It’s fine, Mav.Trust me.”
The kid was fourteen, and even though I’m sure he wasn’t up to anything nefarious, I knew how trustworthy fourteen-year-old boys could be.
Huffing a sigh, I nodded.“Go back to class, Damon.I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
His shoulder lifted again, and he disappeared.
I turned back to the secretary.“Is the principal here?I’d love to speak to them quickly.”
She picked up her phone again, murmured something into it, and nodded.“She’ll be right out.”
“Thank you.”
A minute later, a short, rounder woman with eccentric cat-eye glasses in a lime-green shade and rhinestones came around the corner, also chewing.Her hair was mostly gray, and a tight mop of curls that just covered the tops of her ears.“Hello?”
I stuck my hand out.“Hi there, I’m Maverick Roy.I’m a friend of the Campbells and … Damon asked me to come to the school to meet some of his friends.I just want to be transparent about who I am and why I’m here.”
She tilted her head to the side and shook my hand.“I’m Bea Wellington, the principal.Whydoes Mr.Campbell want to introduce you to his friends, exactly?”
I cleared my throat and my cheeks grew warm.“I, um …” I leaned forward a little and dropped my voice.“I’m an NHL hockey player.The Campbells were my host family for a few years when I was playing for a farm team.I’m here visiting them for a while and trying to keep a low profile.”
“Then why are you letting Damon introduce you to his friends?That seems counterintuitive.”
She didn’t know the half of it.
I nodded.“Yes, it does.However, I made him a promise.His friends don’t believe him and … well, you know how kids can be.”
Her head bobbed.She didn’t have much of a neck, though her fancy, glass bead spectacles chain was hanging around something.“I do.Thank you for letting me know, Mr.Roy.Are you going into the classroom?”
“No … Damon said to just meet him in the parking lot on their lunch break.I just didn’t want you thinking I was like a drug dealer or something talking to a bunch of teenage boys in a parking lot.”My chuckle came out more forced sounding than I intended.
Her brows hiked up.“Indeed.Thatishow it would look.”
“I’m sure my presence on the island will be public knowledge after this, but well … the things we do for the people we care about, hmm?”
Her gaze softened.“Indeed,” she said again.
“I have signed in.Is there anything else I should do?”
“You don’t need to sign in if you’re in the parking lot.You letting me know should be enough.Just … don’t let them get hit by cars or sell them any drugs.”
Smirking, I grabbed the pen and signed myself back out on the clipboard.“I’ll do my best on both accounts.”Then I gave Bea and the secretary a friendly nod and headed back out to my truck just as the obnoxious bell rattled the teeth in my skull.
Hopefully, it didn’t sound as terrible inside the school as it did outside.I made it to my truck and brought down the tailgate.My back was a little sore, so I’d rather sit if I could.
In no time at all, kids started to filter out of the various exists.It wasn’t a big school, so I easily spotted Damon and a small group of boys making their way toward me.The telltale teenage boyguffawechoed across the parking lot as several tall males with floppy, curly hair and baggy clothes zipped up their hoodies as the cold wind whipped up off the water.
“Holy shit,” one guy said.“It really is him.”
More adolescent laughter.
I was about twelve years older than these guys, but at the moment, I felt closer to twenty or more.
“Dammmmnnnn,” said another kid.“Fucking Maverick Roy.”
