Page 5 of Buried Treasure
Chapter 2
Things had not been good for Andy Mitchell today.
As the trainer for the Detroit Pirates, it was his job to make sure the players were taped up or patched up or anything else it took to get them on the ice in the least amount of pain. He at least succeeded in doing that this morning. A few guys had some bumps and bruises to tend to and Ryan McCloud complained about a pulled abdominal muscle that Andy made a note to look at when practice was over.
But after the team got off the ice, everything had gone to hell.
Andy was checking on a player's wrist when he heard the commotion in the locker room followed by several players yelling his name. He rushed in to see Ryan lying on the floor, clutching his stomach in pain. Nervous players stood around staring at their teammate with the team's captain, Jordan King, kneeling down next to the rookie.
"He just collapsed," the shaken captain said.
"Help him up and meet me out back!"
Andy sprinted to his car and pulled it up to the back entrance of the practice rink where he found Ryan looking pale and leaning on Jordan for support. The two men eased him into the passenger seat and Jordan helped buckle him in.
Andy was the one who called the team doctor to let him know he was bringing Ryan in. Andy was the one who dropped him off at the hospital's emergency room and then waited for him to get out of surgery. He was the one who made the phone calls to Ryan's parents and the team's coach, updating them on what was going on. And when Ryan finally started to wake up in the recovery room, it was Andy who was waiting by his bed.
That's how Andy got here, knocking on the door of a woman he only knew of because Ryan had mentioned her in the locker room. His stories were usually about how his neighbor, Sydney, saved him from one of the conquests he brought home or what he was binge watching with Sydney. Whenever a player asked why Ryan didn't go after her, he would just shrug and say she was like a big sister watching out for him. But he would also get defensive when a player asked if she was single, as if he was protecting this woman from these jocks that he thought weren't good enough for her. She definitely wasn't like the other women Ryan would talk about in the locker room. Unlike those women, he actually seemed to have a real platonic friendship with her.
It made sense now that Andy had come face to face with the infamous Sydney. She didn't seem totally clear headed at the moment, but she also still seemed self assured, pushing past him in a move that both stunned and impressed him.
"Are you coming or what?" she snapped.
She apparently stunned him so much that she left him standing there staring at her, probably with a dumbfounded look on his face. She was definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Andy got his feet to move, walking while watching her check the keys in her hand. Even after her supposedly bad day, her business suit still looked sharp, her brown hair still lay gently on her shoulders. He was waiting for her to turn around again with the striking green eyes he noticed when she finally looked up at the stranger standing in front of her door. Even with the emotional funk she seemed to be in, there was something so intriguing about her.
He watched her open Ryan's door with her key and slip in as if she was completely comfortable in his place. He followed her in and saw a condo that looked like it belonged to a 20-year-old athlete with lots of cash. Black leather sofas dominated the living area with framed hockey jerseys hung on the gray walls. One side of the room had a big-screen television, video game consoles in the corner, and huge windows looking out on to the bustling Detroit street below. And yet despite its manliness, Sydney seemed to be moving around the space with ease. She had obviously been there many times before, which made Andy wonder exactly what her relationship was with Ryan despite the star player's protests that the two were just friends.
"Let me get you a bag for him." Sydney walked into a room that Andy assumed was Ryan's bedroom and came back with a duffel bag that had the Pirates logo on the side. "OK, so what does Ryan need?"
"Basic things," he said. "Some clothes if you know where to find them. Loose shirt, sweatpants with an elastic waistband or draw string."
"That seems specific."
"Better for the healing process."
"Right," she said matter-of-factly. "Top left-hand shelf next to the television is where he keeps his iPad and some portable video game thing. I can't remember what new one he's been yammering on about lately."
"I can get those," Andy said, trying to sound useful.
He walked back to the duffel bag with Ryan's tech toys and dropped them in as Sydney came back with black t-shirts and some track pants similar to the ones Andy was wearing.
"So, you know Ryan well?" he asked.
"I guess so," she said, walking back towards his bedroom as Andy followed her. "Someone needs to watch out for him, you know? He's in a new city and getting all this cash to play hockey. But his family isn't here so he has no one to help him out."
"And you do that?"
He hoped he didn't come off as sounding jealous, but he was jealous that this spitfire of a woman knew where Ryan kept his clothes — and apparently his underwear as she pulled a few pairs of black boxer briefs from a dresser drawer.
"The only reason Ryan remembers anything for road trips is because I finally broke down and made him an Excel spreadsheet," she explained as she headed back for the living room. "He had to sleep on my couch a few times because he forgot his keys. Won't happen again."
Sydney walked into the bathroom and Andy realized he was having some trouble keeping up with her. He watched as she grabbed a toothbrush, toothpaste and some hair gel before brushing past him towards the kitchen.
"So you said you had a bad day?" he asked. "Was it worse than me taking Ryan to the E.R. for an appendectomy?"
Sydney grabbed a plastic bag from a drawer and threw Ryan's toiletries in it.
