I swallowed the acid aftertaste of that memory. My ex-boyfriend was brutal with his words when he was angry. And he didn’t even have to be angry at me, yet the blisteringly hurtful comments would somehow end up being aimed at me. He could have had five consecutivelong days at work—he was an ER doctor, so those days were common—and then be upset at me for overcooking the pasta we were supposed to have for dinner. Then the tirade would begin, the shouting and pointed attacks meant to hurt and belittle. I’d quickly shut down. He would be spurred on by my silence.
Over and over again. My self-confidence had taken a brutal blow after enduring that for four years.
Interestingly enough though, the longer I played with these guys and this team, the less my desire to jump to the NHL became.
“You know, I got married not too far from here,” Emmy said, still looking at the river as though he hadn’t dropped a pretty big reveal. I had no idea Emmy was married—or had been married? “My wife’s family and friends were all based here. I had met her when I was playing one of these games against the Sharks, actually. She was at the bar the team went to after our wins. Anyway, met her and proposed to her three months later. Then got married a year later, on December twentieth, actually.”
“Holy shit, Emmy, that’s coming up. Next week.”
“It is. It’s why I played like shit yesterday. I won’t be able to celebrate it—Cassie died last year.”
My heart cracked in half. “Oh no, oh Emmy. Fuck. I’m so sorry.”
He swallowed, his golden-brown eyes pinned on a riverboat that slowly drifted down the river. He always had a stoic, stone-faced expression, but I could see the raw pain in the way his jaw twitched and his eyes shut. “I’m still not sure I can even accept it’s real. That she’s actually gone. It was a car accident, so it was sudden, zero warning. One day, I woke up with her laughing about a silly dream she had, and then a couple hours later, I was beingtold I’d never see her again.” His throat bobbed with emotion.
I was speechless. It was a wonder Emmy even made it through one game this weekend, let alone two. No wonder he was so quick to anger in the rink last night. If I were him, I’d be angry at the world too, wanting to smash my stick straight down into the ice and tear the entire arena in half. “Fuck, Emmy.” I wish I could offer something more, some sort of solution to his pain, but there was nothing I could do except reach over and squeeze his shoulder.
“She was an incredible woman, the perfect wife, would be at every game. I just wish she was still here.” Emmy’s eyes glistened as a tear spilled over, running down his cheek.
“She was a hockey fan, huh?”
“Big-time. Loved it even before we met. She could never get over her fear of getting hurt, so she never played, but she loved watching me and supporting.”
“Did you guys have a honeymoon?” I asked, wanting to shine light on the positive memories they shared together.
“We spent a week in Thailand. Best fucking week of my life. I’ll never forget that time we had over there.”
“What kind of—” A rustling in the nearby bush stopped me short of asking my question. Emmy and I both turned to look. It sounded way too large to be a bird or a squirrel. Nothing appeared, though. I turned back around, more concerned about making sure Emmy felt okay than about whatever raccoon was rummaging around for scraps of food. “Anyways, what kind of things did?—”
Emmy’s eyes opened wide as he looked over my shoulder. “Eli, stand up slowly and turn around.”
“Huh?”
“Just do it. Don’t make any sudden movements.”
The hair on the back of my neck rose to pinprick points. Goose bumps erupted up my arms as I stood. I listened to Emmy, slowly turning around, unsure of what I’d see and shocked when I did.
A wolf. It was a large one, probably reached up to my hip in height, with tawny white fur and a black muzzle with black-tipped ears, one of them scarred, as if a chunk of it had been bitten off. The wolf took a step closer to us, its teeth bared in a vicious snarl.
Emmy went to stand in front of me, moving with a confidence and quickness that showed zero fear. He puffed his chest out and kept his hands at his side. The wolf looked up at Emmy and let go of a menacing growl. It lowered itself, poised to jump. My mouth went dry. Holy fucking shit. Should I be shouting for help? Making some kind of scene to try and scare this thing away?
Before I could snap myself out of my frightened stupor, I heard a sound come from Emmy. It almost sounded like the same growl the wolf had just given us, except deeper, more intense.
The wolf suddenly gave a whimper and pinned its ears down to the back of its head. It took a couple of steps backward before it whipped around and bolted into the same shrubs it had appeared from. Even with the danger gone, though, my pulse wouldn’t slow down. I looked to a calm-looking Emmy.
“What the… holy shit. Are you a wolf whisperer?”
“Growing up, I used to watch a lot of Discovery Channel. Learned how to scare them away in those survival shows.” Emmy grabbed the handle of his suitcase. I noticed there wasn’t even a slight tremble in his hand. He really wasn’t very fazed at all by what just happened. “We should head back inside. I think our ride should be here by now.”
Still a little breathless, I grabbed my suitcase and followed Emmy back into the hotel lobby, looking over my shoulder and half expecting the wolf to jump out of a bush and finish the job. I had a lot of questions swirling around in my head, but one of them kept taking center stage:
Why the hell do I keep seeing wolves everywhere?
Chapter Sixteen
Lils
GABE
