He tucks his hands in his pockets. “Go,” he says again.
“Do you remember the last time you were here in New Orleans? When you played the Jazz?”
“Of course. Worst night of my life. Career-ending knee injury.”
I wince slightly. Yes. I’m aware of that injury. Now. We weren’t that night, of course. We saw him get hit and go downand knew that he didn’t return to the game. But the Grays were tight-lipped about what happened to him for three weeks afterward.
“Do you remember that you were supposed to do a meet-and-greet afterwards? With a guy who’d had a stroke? The guy was a huge fan of yours, and his friends used meeting you as an incentive for him to work hard in rehab on his rough days. His physical therapist also incorporated hockey drills into his exercise program.”
Alex’s brow furrows, and I find myself scanning from his thick brows, over his ridiculously long eyelashes, down his not-quite-straight nose to those lips. Damn, I really like his lips.
“Yeah, his physical therapist knew the trainer for the Jazz who knew our trainer,” he says. “I remember all of that.”
“Do you also remember blowing him off?”
His eyes narrow. “I remember getting really hurt and not being able to do it.”
“Do you remember a little girl running up to you in the parking lot on your way from the locker room to the bus afterward and begging you to take five minutes to talk to her great-grandfather?”
I can see in his eyes that he does remember Ruth.
“Yeah.”
“Do you remember telling her, ‘just leave me the fuck alone, kid, it’s been a long night’?”
He sighs and his eyes slide for a moment, but then he nods and opens them again. “It was not my best night.”
“For her, either. You were her hero. You broke her heart. Also, her great-grandfather was that stroke survivor. You massively disappointed him. She came back and told everybody about it, and his three best friends hate you for it.” I gesture in the general direction where Wilson was standing, but has now moved off, clearly searching the wider area for Alex.
“Wow,” Alex says, blowing out a breath. “You ‘friendly’ people down here in Louisiana really know how to hold a grudge, huh?”
“We’re very loyal. And a little unreasonable at times.”
I noticed how his gaze goes to my mouth as well, and the tingles start up all over again.
I clear my throat. “Anyway, let’s get you to Rebel. You have practice tonight, and I assume you want to see your apartment, check in with your sister, stuff like that.”
“My sister is sending someone to pick me up.”
“Yeah, those are the guys she sent.”
“Why would my sister send guys who want to take me to a cabin and leave me there?”
“Because your sister thinks they’re sweet and doesn’t realize how mad they are at you. Or that Leo has a cabin on the bayou that you can only get to by boat.”
Now he looks truly concerned. “Let me guess—it’s surrounded by alligators?”
“There are definitely alligators out there,” I confirm.
“But they would eventually come back for me?”
I laugh. “Someonewould come for you. But that’s not the first impression I want you to have of Rebel and its people. We need you. This hockey team means a lot to…all of us.” I hate the way I stumble overall of us.
So fine, it’s not theentiretown that’s excited about the team. And there are a few players who haven’t fully bought in. But Alex is going to change all of that. He is a star. One of the best centers to ever play the game, he absolutely has the talent, but on top of that, he has the charm and that special something that makes people love him.
Even the little town that started a petition to ban him from the city limits when they found out he was coming to play for our hockey team. They can’t control who Astrid puts on theteam, but they figured if they could make it illegal for him to be anywhere in town other than the hockey arena, they wouldn’t have to be around him or be nice to him.
Harley, the current Mayor, wouldn’t acknowledge the petition. Even though it was on his behalf.
