“I’ll call or text you in a few days.” I flash her a smile.
“Thank you for the ride,” she says, then quickly gets out of my car. “Text me when you have time.”
“Will do.”
I watch her hurry down the sidewalk, like she asked me to drop her off in front of someone else’s house.
She’s a bit of an enigma.
And I’m looking forward to finding out more.
Moving into West McGregor’s big-ass McMansion is a lot easier than I anticipated. He’s big and bearded, a six-foot-four-inch forward on the new hockey team I’ll be playing on, the Atlanta Thunder, and seems like a good guy. We’ve met a few times here and there since we both lived and played in the Los Angeles area—him for the SoCal Vipers and me for the L.A. Phantoms—and he’s pretty quiet in general, but I like that in a roommate.
Since this is a brand-new expansion team, the back office hooked us all up in a private chat group and West put out the word that he was about to close on a large house and was looking for roommates. I immediately replied that I was interested, and I was all in once he told me how much he wanted for rent. It’s a third of what I was paying for my townhouse in L.A., and since I responded first, he said I could have the downstairs en suite guest room.
And the house is freakin’ huge. Five thousand square feet with a full, finished basement, four-car garage, five bedrooms, three of which are en suite, a gourmet kitchen with a hidden pantry, and a patio area with a pool and outdoor kitchen with the biggest grill I’ve ever seen in my life. This is like a freakin’ palace, but according to West, the difference in cost of living allowed him to buy something massive with the money he got from his house in L.A.
He told me he paid cash since he got so much more for his house in L.A. than what a house here cost.
I feel a moment of envy because I’ve never owned any type of real estate. I played most of my career in the minors, until a bus accident during the playoffs afforded me the opportunity to get called up. The team’s owner gave me a shot the following seasonand I almost fucked it up—but now I’m getting the chance to start fresh here in Atlanta.
New team. New teammates. A whole new city to warm up to and win over.
“You need anything?” West asks me, carrying a box toward the kitchen.
“I’m all set, just waiting for the furniture store to deliver my new bed and bedroom set.”
He grins. “Opted to keep moving simple?”
“I had the same bed for years. It was time for me to upgrade, be a damn grown-up.”
He nods, more serious now. “You played in the minors a long time—it makes sense that you’re buying things slowly and not rushing to blow every dime you make.”
“Yeah, that’s not a thing for me,” I say. “You know I had to raise my sister after our parents died, so I don’t know how to be anything but frugal. I did buy that very expensive SUV I drive, though.”
“Everyone needs a good, reliable vehicle,” he responds. “Of course, reliability isn’t why I just bought a fucking Ferrari.” He grins again, but somehow, it doesn’t meet his eyes. I want to ask what that’s about but we’re interrupted as our other roommate, the team’s new starting Russian goalie, Viktor Maslak, comes in. He was picked up from the Alaska Blizzard, and he’s another guy that doesn’t talk much.
“Do we have the parking assigned?” he asks in his stilted English.
“Nah.” West shakes his head. “I’m keeping the Ferrari in the garage and I’ll park my SUV behind it outside. The rest of you can decide which spot you want.”
“My SUV’s in the spot against the wall,” I say, “but I can move it if you feel strongly about it.”
Viktor shrugs. “Is okay. I park anywhere.” He turns and walks in the opposite direction.
I chuckle. “A man of few words.”
“He’s a good guy,” West says. “We roomed together at an international tournament a few years back and I like him. Believe me, I plan to be extremely careful who I invite to live here. No assholes are going to reside in my house.”
“And you invited me?” I say, laughing.
“Don’t make me kick your ass out.” He’s kidding but the glimmer in his eyes tells me he wouldn’t hesitate to do just that.
“Yeah, yeah. I just hope I don’t have to move again in a year. This is my second time in twelve months—I’d like to stay somewhere for a while.”
“I was with the Vipers my entire pro career,” West says carefully, like there’s a story there. “It was time for a change.”
“You weren’t happy with the Vipers?”
