I nod. “Sure. Great. No problem.”
Bruce rolls his eyes but turns on his heel and starts for the door. “I’m downstairs if you need anything. I’ll let you run a tab for meals, but only up to a hundred bucks before you pay it off.”
I wonder if a one-hundred-dollar tab is extending me a favor or if that’s like half or a third of what he lets everybody else do.
Ruth hangs back as Bruce stomps down the stairs. I can hear every step.
“Is the apartment really okay?” she asks.
“Sure. It’s fine.”
“I know it’s not as nice as what you have in Portland. I know how much you like your shower.”
Jesus. I probably said that in that article, too. I love my fucking shower. But I’ve stayed in hotels without rainfall shower heads and multiple heads in the wall. That’s been fine. It’s seven months. I can definitely survive seven months without a fancy-schmancy showerhead.
Probably.
“Okay, so you read that article inHockey Hunks,” I start.
“Oh, yeah. And I’ve read a ton of other articles too,” she gushes.
That could be really helpful to me right now as embarrassing as some of that might be. “Great. So you know that I’m not very good at anything but playing hockey.”
She shakes her head. “I’m sure that’s not true.”
“Well, thanks. Let’s put it this way, I don’t do a lot of laundry.”
She nods. “You have to focus on your career. And there’s a lot of training. And promo and stuff.
I like this kid. I was a dick to her, and she’s still defending me. To me. “Yeah. And I am pretty spoiled, if I’m honest.”
She grins at that.
“Do you happen to know how to use the washer and dryer downstairs?”
Her whole face brightens. “Itotallyknow how. Do you want me to do your laundry for you?”
She says that as if she’s eager for me to hire her.
I frown. “No. Absolutely not. No, I was kind of hoping that you could teach me to do it, though.”
She smiles as if this amuses her. “Totally. And you can ask Bruce stuff. I mean, he might kind of frown a lot. But eventually, he’ll come around. Everybody was a big fan of yours before…”
I wince. Right,beforeI was an asshole to everyone’s favorite person. “Everybody?”
“Well, half of town.”
“There was already half that didn’t like me? Before…?”
“The newer part of town doesn’t really care about hockey. They probably didn’thateyou,” she says as if trying to comfort me. “But they won’t be excited you’re here because if you make the hockey team great, then Sean Patrick can’t buy the arena.”
“But halfdidlike me?”
“Oh, for sure! The half that hangs out downtown and lives around here. The ones you’ll see all the time!” she says enthusiastically. “They’re all really good friends of my grandpa Harley’s. Like Brewser and Wilson. They were the lawyer and doctor in town back when there was just one of each.”
I straighten. “Was Brewser the lawyer or doctor?”
“The doctor. Wilson was a lawyer. Before they retired. They grew up here, and everyone from here used them at one time. Those guys have always been around here. Lots of people are like that here. So they’re really close to my family, and they were big fans of yours because Harley and Leo were big fans of yours.”
