I jump down, my bare feet hitting the floor as I pull the mask off and toss it down. “We’re gonna do exactly what we did tonight, every night. We’re so fucking back. No one is going to be able to stop us.”
Theo whistles and the other guy’s clap. The energy in the room is insane, you’d think we just won the biggest game of the season. I sit back down on the bench, busying myself with my gear as I put everything where it goes.
“What’s your secret, Matty?” Anderson, one of the other centers, calls over to me.
“Yeah, did you break your resolution?” Tyson chimes in.
I shrug, glancing at the two of them. “I don’t know. Not really.”
“Not really?” Theo questions me, casually slipping into the conversation.
I grab my clean clothes to head to the showers. There’s no one I’m talking to, although, there’s someone I can’t stop thinking about. “I met a girl at the coffee shop the other day, but that was it.”
“What’s her name?”
Her name rolls off my tongue. “Jade.”
“No last name?”
I laugh, shaking my head. “I didn’t get it.”
“You get her number?”
A chuckle rumbles in my chest as my mind drifts back to Jade. She had such an attitude, I liked it. “She wouldn’t give it to me.”
The thought of chasing her has me by the balls. That’s got to be where the excitement and the distraction truly comes from. The chase before getting what I want.
“You gotta see her again. That will be the real test of the theory.”
“I will.”
“You didn’t get her last name or her number, but you guys made plans to see each other?”
“No,” I say, confidence welling inside my chest. “But I’ll see her again, I know it.”
Cross stares at me as Theo snorts. “You’re crazy.”
“He is, but somehow it always ends up working out. Just watch, he’ll end up running into her or something.”
My chest shakes with laughter. “I refuse to believe that what I want won’t be mine. It’s worked out so far in life.”
“It’s worked out pretty damn well, I’d say,” Tyson chimes in.
Without another word, I dip my chin and excuse myself from the locker room. “Matteo,” Coach’s voice follows after me as I stop into the hallway. “Good game tonight.”
I turn back to my uncle, meeting his gaze. “Thanks. I know I’ve been off lately, but I swear it’s gonna change.”
“I hope so,” he says, nodding at me. “I know your dad’s been worried about you. You should give him a call.”
The mention of my father feels like a thorn in my side. The last time we spoke, we ended up in a heated argument about my supposed lack of effort on the ice. My father didn’t raise his prodigy to not be producing during games.
“Uncle Cale, remember, here I’m not your nephew.”
The muscle in his jaw tightens. “At the end of the day, you are, regardless of where we are. You will not get special treatment from me or game time without earning it. Get over your pride and whatever your little temper tantrum was and call your father.”
“Coach…”
He gives me that look. The same one he used to give me and my cousins when we were about to get a stern talking to. “Get a shower and go home, Matteo.”
