Page 17 of Wildcat
LEO
Sunday,we get a day off from practice and workouts, and Coach Miller invites the team over to his house. We did it last year, right before the pre-season kicked off, to get to know the new head coach, and I guess now it’s going to be tradition.
We’re outside in his back yard, where a bar is set up and there’s enough food inside to feed us twice (which is saying something). Everyone is on their best behavior tonight. Not that Coach doesn’t know we like to get rowdy and have fun when we’re on our own time, but this could be a big year for us. We’ve all been feeling it since that very first day we were on the ice together.
Sure, we’re young, but teams that count us out because of that are going to end up icing their old man aches and pains while watching us in the playoffs come spring.
“Hey, man.” Maverick corners me next to the bar where I’m standing with Ash and Jack. “Do you have any extra tickets for the home opener?”
Ash speaks before I can. “I already asked. He’s saving them for his dream girl.”
“Dream girl?” Maverick asks. “Is she real or fantasy? Because mine is very much real, and she’s thinking of flying up for the game with some friends.”
“I’m going to call her tonight. Can I let you know then?”
“Sure. Thanks, man.” He walks off with a salute.
“Dream girl?” Jack angles his body, closing the small circle between the three of us. “Why am I just now hearing about this?”
“He’s being stingy with details,” Ash answers for me. “Met her at a college bar. She doesn’t know he’s a hockey player.”
“What am I a toddler? I can answer for myself.”
Ash smirks.
“I met her at a college bar. She doesn’t know I’m a hockey player,” I repeat his words.
Both of them laugh.
“She was gorgeous and unexpected and…”
The guys are hanging on my words and grinning like a bunch of idiots. Fuck them. I don’t even care.
“Whatever. I’m going to call her tonight and invite her to the first home game and then out to Wild’s after.” I shouldn’t have put it off this long. It’s been more than a week since she left my house at sunrise, smelling like chlorine and sex, but I’ve been trying (and failing) to come up with a better follow-up date to our fuck-a-thon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m hoping that’s how the end of this one turns out too, but I’d like to spend some more time getting to know her.
She was funny and enchanting, and I felt good hanging out with her. She liked being with me, not Leo Lohan. I forgot what that was like. But, I think my only option is to invite her to a home game and hope she wants to hang out after.
“Why wait?” Jack asks. “That’s another almost two weeks. Give me your phone. Let’s text her now.”
“No.”
Jack thrusts his hand out toward me. “Come on. We both know I’m better at talking to chicks.”
He isn’t wrong, but I need to do this myself. I push my hand in my pocket and grip my phone. “I’ve got this.”
“All right, but if she’s forgotten you or doesn’t answer or agrees to come to the game and then ghosts your ass, don’t say that I didn’t—”
My arm slices through the air, and I place my hand on his chest, silencing him, as my gaze snags on the other side of the yard near the back door where more people are arriving. I have to convince myself my brain isn’t playing tricks on me as Scarlett steps off the porch, wearing a yellow dress. Maybe I’ve conjured her up by thinking about her nonstop.
“That’s her. That’s Scarlett.” I blink a bunch of times, but she’s still there.
“Which one?” Ash asks.
“Yellow dress. Do you see her?” I’m still not totally convinced that I’m not imagining her.
The smile on my face falls as Coach Miller embraces her. A sick feeling washes over me, settling like a rock in the bottom of my stomach.
“No fucking way.” Jack cackles. He fucking cackles. “Scarlett Miller is your dream girl? Get in line, buddy. Coach will trade your ass faster than you can say, Stay away from my daughter.”
