I nod in agreement, and then I give her a weak but cheeky smile. “If you want to make me feel better, we can test that theory. Tell your dad to trade Nolan Duggan.”
Ellery laughs and I join her, and thank God that I have good friends, even if I can’t have a good family.
Chapter 8
Nolan
“What the actual fuck?” I growl and try not to choke. I wave a hand in front of my face aggressively, but it’s useless. The smell won’t go away or the glitter. The fucking glitter is everywhere.
The guys, of course, are no help. Every member of the team is laughing loudly and with abandon. Even Coach is snickering. “Okay, Duggan. I don’t know who you pissed off, but there’s no time to find out. Warm-up starts now.”
“Is he shitting me? I can’t hit the ice like this?” I am internally freaking. I got my second Secret Santa gift. It appeared on the bench in front of my locker while I was getting my skates sharpened. It was a small box and a card. I opened the box first and inside was a gaudy candle shaped like Santa Claus that reeked of pine. I hate the smell of pine. It makes me sneeze. Everyone knows this and makes fun of me because of it. After all, I’m supposed to be this burly mountain man from Alaska but the scent of a simple tree makes me sneeze uncontrollably.
I quickly moved away from the candle, leaving it in the box while I opened the card and - boom! It exploded in my face, glitter landing everywhere. And then it started playing “Jingle Bells.”
“Holy shit. I can’t believe she glitter-bombed you!” The Wall says as I keep trying to shake the red and green glitter off my face and jersey.
“Who? Who fucking did this?” I growl and Viktor just keeps laughing. “You said she.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did. Jeremiah, you said she glitter bombed me,” I repeat and step right up to him, grabbing his shoulder before he can fall into line with the rest of the team and trot out the door of the locker room. “Who is she?”
“I was speaking meteorologically,” The Wall says quickly. He’s finally stopped laughing. Now he just looks panicked.
“It’s metaphorically, and no you aren’t.” I step closer to him.
He pulls his arm from my grip, claps me on the shoulder, and pushes me toward the door. “Let’s go, Sparkles.”
I get most of the glitter off before the actual game, but it doesn’t stop the media from asking me about it in post-game interviews. Apparently the sparkle during warm-up was picked up on camera. Thankfully, we won solidly, and Viktor even got a shut-out, so the night wasn’t a total fail. But I’m furious because after the game, I have to field questions about my agent’s death and I’m pretty sure my heart-felt words lose a little impact because I look like a disco ball threw up on me.
“Nice goal there, Duggan,” Xavier says. “Guess we should toss some glitter on you every game. Seems to have brought you some luck.”
I flip him my middle finger. “That goal was for Rick. In his memory.”
Coach walks in as we’re all slowly pulling off equipment, basking in the glory of our win, and making fun of me, apparently. “Great way to go into the winter break!”
A few guys hoot, holler, and grunt their agreement. He informs us we have one more off-ice practice to do some weight training and review footage and plays the day after tomorrow, and then we’re officially off for five days and back on the twenty-sixth for a practice before we board a plane for an away game on the twenty-seventh. “Don’t forget we have the Christmas party Thursday evening,” he explains. “Like last year, there’ll be families from all over Vancouver here, and it’ll be covered by the social media team. And…”
Coach says the word like a drum roll, and when I look up, the smirk on his face makes my blood run cold. “Felicity in Community Outreach has informed me that Duggan volunteered to play Santa for the kids this year.”
Did I hear my name? Did he just say Duggan? I look up, and everyone is staring at me, most with complete and utter shock on their faces. “What?”
“Felicity said you’re playing Santa this year,” Coach repeats and he claps me on the shoulder. A piece of green glitter tumbles to the floor of the locker room. “I’m very happy to see you take a bigger part in community outreach, Duggan. I knew you could be a team player on and off the ice.”
Well, now how can I refuse to do this? I can’t. So instead, I want to swear. I want to scream. But most of all I want to find Felicity Roark and—
“Is this a trap?” Xavier asks after Coach leaves the room. “Like the real Grinch are you gonna throw on the Santa suit and steal from the kids or something?”
“You’re right about one thing, it is a trap,” I tell him. “But I’m the one caught in it, not the one laying it.”
“You wish you were the one laying it…” The Wall snickers to himself and I lean forward to glare at him.
“So she’s also my Secret Santa, isn’t she?” I ask but don’t wait for a reply. “She glitter bombed me and now she’s forcing me to be Santa Fucking Claus. Of course. It’s all her.”
“Umm…I’m pretty sure his middle name isn’t Fucking,” The Wall interjects.
“Yeah, I mean it’s probably something less offensive, like Bob,” Xavier replies.
