“No, I know all of the Fireballs. He’s not one of them.”
“In the minors.”
“He’s too old to be in the minors.”
Addie’s grin keeps growing. “Ladies, this is Duncan Lavoie. He plays hockey for the Thrusters.”
A chorus ofOooohserupts around us.
“Oh, shit, that’s the dude who tried to buy you,” someone in the middle of the group says.
Half the girls shush her and one tells her not to sayshit. One or two squeal, but no more than that.
“Duncan and I are old friends,” she tells the group. “And you shouldn’t believe anything you read in the sports pages when they’re trying to be gossip pages.”
“If you need us to take him out, we’re here for you,” a girl in pink-rimmed sunglasses says as she pumps a fist into her glove.
Addie’s visibly fighting a bigger smile. I swear she’s biting the inside of her cheek. “Thank you, but I don’t need any of you provoking the Thrusters fans.”
“We can be subtle.”
“They’ll never know it was us.”
“Besties, I think Coach Addie can handle him. I mean, look at him. She can definitely take him out if she needs to.”
“Okay, okay. I know I said we can use him as a target, but I was joking. We’re going to be kind to Duncan today,” Addie says.
Mumbles offineandif we have togo up amongst the group.
I glance at their coach.
She’s also smirking. “Not your usual welcome, is it?”
“Did hockey players hurt them all?” I deadpan.
“Enough of them.”
Well, fuck. Aren’t they too young for that? “Here?”
“We handled it,” Addie says to me. She turns back to the team. “Who’s ready for breakfast?”
We didn’t bring breakfast.
We brought plush mascots. Unless the mascots are hiding food.
But the team whoops and heads to the bleachers like the question is code.
When I turn to watch, I spot a rideshare delivery car in the parking lot next to the Sin Bin.
“You ordered breakfast?” I ask Addie.
She doesn’t look at me as she follows the women, their coach on her other side. “I bring some kind of meal every few weeks to different teams in the summer league, listen to the gossip, answer questions, hang out…it’s good.”
“For you or them?”
“Yes.”
“Fireballs sponsor this?”
