Country tipped his head into the hot spray. "Decker deserves the hype. He's going to take the Canucks all the way as long as that defence can sort themselves out."
"You haven't seen the comments, though, eh?" Curtis stepped up to the shower head on the opposite side of him. Country shook his head and reached for the soap. "They're calling you 'the Cherry that should've been popped in 2020.'"
Ryan laughed out loud. "I didn't see that one. I saw 'the Cowboy I want to ride.'"
"Was that from Tyler?" André scrubbed soap into his armpits and laughed as Tyler flipped him the bird.
"Seriously, there's no way Polk isn't riding to the damn moon about this publicity." Ryan turned off the spray and wrung out his hair.
"Haven't talked with Polk today." Country rinsed then grabbed his towel and followed Ryan back into the locker room. He may not have seen his brother, but he had seen the thirty-two notifications waiting for him on his phone from Polk’s number.
"He wasn't standing on your doorstep with flowers this morning?"
Country laughed. "I didn't get back till late."
"Out celebrating?" Mike waggled an eyebrow.
"Something like that."
Curtis ran his towel over his skin, mopping up the water droplets. "Did this celebration involve Jenna?"
Country blew out a breath. "Does it matter?" Curtis frowned, and Country expounded. “I only meant that Jenna didn’t have the decency to get in touch when she moved back. So I’m not going to get worked up over it.” His stomach soured at the lie. He didn’t want to get worked up over it, but by the way his mind flipped to her page every few minutes, he was already there.
"But was she there last night?"
Country shrugged, and Curtis snapped him on the back of his thigh with his towel. He growled and lunged for it, but missed.
Curtis laughed. "That's what you get if you aren't sharing details, bud."
"Since when does Country not share details?" Mike pulled on his boxers.
Ryan shot him a look. "When it's someone that matters."
Country threw out his hands. "Nothing happened. We went out for a drink."
"And got home so late you didn't hear Polk banging on your door." Sean held up his phone. "He texted me at nine to see if you were with us."
Ryan shook his head. "You dirty dog."
Country ignored them and yanked on his jeans. He wished he had details to report. Besides walking Jenna to the door in a stupor.
“You’re seriously trying to tell me you don’t care that Jenna’s there at GCBN?” Curtis prodded.
Country pulled his shirt over his head. “I care, okay? But she doesn’t want anything to do with me. She made that clear in Ontario, and nothing I do is going to change that now.”
André clicked his tongue. “That sounds like a quitter.”
“Shut the hell up,” Country muttered. He wasn’t in the mood for them to badger him. Not when he remembered all too well how impotent he’d felt when Jenna had let him down the first time. On the ice, he could push himself and get results. With her? Pushing only seemed to move them farther apart.
"Alright, listen up. Got a call from GCBN, and they want to do a story on the Snowballs, which I can only assume is due to our boy’s newfound nationwide fame." Sean announced. It wasn't. John had talked about doing the story before Country even went on the air. He kept that to himself. "They want to have someone come and film some of our games, interview players, etcetera. Anybody opposed?"
The boys shook their heads, and Curtis turned to Country. "Jenna's going to be coming around the rink?”
Sean shook his head. "No, it's some other reporter. Can't remember her name at the moment."
Country's pulse pounded in his head. He'd said he didn't want to do the story, mostly to get under Jenna's skin, but now what was the point? He hadn't struggled a lick to stay awake on the drive home the night before because all that ran through his head was that he wouldn't be seeing her again. Their paths hadn't crossed in the three years of her being back in Calgary, and even though they had mutual friends, there would be no natural reason for them to meet.
He hadn’t gotten the closure he’d wanted. He hadn’t gotten anything besides more questions and churned up hurt.
