Page 5 of Desiring You

Surging forward, I grabbed his sweater and shook him. “You’ve proven yourself time and again.” I let my fist fly. “What do you need to feel like you belong? A goddamn medal?”

Men raced toward us, but I didn’t loosen my grip or change my gaze. I was fucking tired of people not seeing their worth, not valuing who they were and what they contributed, crumpling under the pressure they put on themselves. The pressure she put on herself. Shit, this wasn’t about Hank. I released his sweater and skated a few feet away.

Despite my crazy reaction, Hank’s lips twitched a little toward a smile. “No, sir, but this shiner will do.”

Turning to get on with warm-ups, I was surprised to find Molly behind me. I narrowed my eyes at her. “You shouldn’t be out here. Especially not during this.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “What is this?”

I tipped my chin to Hank. “Just a little defender business.”

The rest of the team has already divided into groups for the first drill. Hank skated off to join them, but Molly stopped me from following.

Her eyes searched my face and it creeped me out.

I took a deep breath to try to shake off the vibrations of anger making my hands shake. Hockey was a pretty good way to quell the anger in me, but when it got fired up, it was hard to come back down again. I looked over to Molly. “You shouldn’t come out here when something like that’s happening.”

Molly kept studying me. “You weren’t gonna hurt me.”

I shook my head. “Not on purpose, but don’t want any accidents, Molls. I get angry.”

She tilted her head.

Ilya flew over, stopping in front of Molly to block her from me.

She pushed Ilya aside. “What’s with you?”

I tipped my chin at him. “I fucking hate when people don’t see their own value. Makes me want to rip their skin off, then my own.”

Molly scrunched her nose. “Yeah, I saw it in him too.”

Ilya’s eyes softened a little as he focused back on Molly. “Seriously, Molls. Stay off the ice when fights break out. You’re going to get me in so much trouble with your mom if she finds out I’m letting you on the ice at all during practice.”

“Letting me?” Molly’s voice was a low growl. “What do you mean ‘letting me’, Peter?”

Molly was the only one who called Ilya by that nickname. Since we called him Pan, she decided to call him Peter and it stuck.

Ilya’s face scrunched as he scrubbed at his jaw. “I meant how your mother would see it. Her words, not mine.”

Molly took off in a huff and skated away, her stick steadying her.

Ilya watched her retreating form. “I’m totally getting pulverized by her in practice, aren’t I?”

I clapped him on the back. “We both will, my friend. To the pain.”

Turned out we were both right. Molly put us through the wringer with her choice of drills, scoring system of our drills, and just generally being in a shitty mood.

* * *

After practice, most of us went out to The Soggy Dog for a drink.

Calder gestured at Hank and me with his IPA bottle. “So, what’s the deal between you two?”

Hank chuckled. “I ain’t like the rest of you.”

Milo, our main goalie, leaned forward. “Oh, really?”

Hank snapped his mouth shut. He opened it a little, then shook his head.

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