Doc, I mouth. Eat.
She finally does.
And I keep pacing with her daughter, already knowing that whatever line I thought I had with this woman?
I crossed it the second I saw her on that sidewalk. “That’s a lie little one.” I admit. “I knew she was special the minute I opened up to her one drunken night when you were still just a gift being created for a woman as incredible as yourmamma.”
ELEVEN
Screen Time
Deacon
She’d had enough,and I was just barely getting started. I didn’t puff my chest or pull a caveman move. I just handed her my number, told her to call, and walked away like a gentleman. Not sure how long that’s gonna last, especially now that I have nothing going on for the next few days.
Back at the Puck Palace, I find Dash and Koa still running film in their heads, except this isn’t ice footage; it was gossip, panic, and strategy disguised as shit-talk.
Dash lays his head back on the couch, “Well? You pressing charges or going full Godfather?”
“No charges,” I grunt as I drop onto the arm of the couch, rub the back of my skull. “Doctor says four days minimum. No ice. No practice. No screens.”
Dash snorts. “He say no breathing too? No blinking?”
“You think Dingy is going to apologize?” Koa asks.
“Dingy doesn’t apologize.” I stretch my neck. “Costello’s bringing upWilliams Junior,he doesn’t perform these next fewgames, he’s screwed. The odds of them trusting a rookie and not keeping Johnson at goal ninety percent of the game,” I shake my head.
Dash whistles low. “That’s suicide.”
Koa clicks his tongue. “Johnson’s so in his own head right now, gives a shit less about this team, he couldn’t stop a toddler with a foam puck.”
“Costello dislikes Williams Junior that much?” I ask.
“No clue what’s up with that, to be honest,” Koa says, looking at his watch.
“You have your date tonight.” I remind him. “Focus on that.”
Within minutes, Koa is out the door.
“Moretti,” Dash shakes his head. “Goalies going to be the least of our problems if she fucks up his head again.”
“Nalani?” I ask and he lifts his chin. “Don’t know the ins and outs of it, but thinking her showing up here, having moved her life from where she did, she’s confident in what they have.”
“Four years is a long damn time.” He runs a hand over his head. “The two of them?” He shakes his head. “No one would have guessed she’d have been a no-show when we transferred to Lincoln. Was her push and promise she was coming too that got him to agree.”
“Not saying you two aren’t amazing players, you are, but no one would have known it if you hadn’t gone to Lincoln U. Hayward? No chance to be seen.” I shake my head. “Guessing Nalani knew that, yeah?”
“Can’t admit you’re right until I see he’s not going to lose it to her again.” He crosses his arms.
“Unfair,” I shrug, “but also fair.”Sterling’s vested in this. “You liked her.”
“Coolest chick at Hayward.” He chuckles silently.
“Guessing you’re comparing her to someone you were…?”
“Fuck no,” he laughs. “My situationship was no Nalani. She was a,” he pauses and cocks his head in something between question and realization. He huffs out a, “Huh.”
“Care to decipher, huh?” I ask.
