I glided out of the circle and waited on the ice while the rest of the team exited the stadium. I squatted down like a frog, trying to stretch my tense muscles a bit, and I shook my helmet off onto the ice in front of me.
When I looked back up, it was finally just the two of us on the empty sheet of ice.
“Oww, oww,” I cat-called to her. “Straight-up fire on ice, babe!”
She shook her head wryly and began skating to pick up the cones she placed on the ice for drills. I scrambled to my feet to help her out.
This was our weekly routine: We’d clean up together, throw everything into storage, and then chill on the ice for a couple minutes until we were kicked off by the zam.
I always tried to carry as much as possible so we didn’t have to take more than one trip to the storage closet where we kept all the practice gear.
“You did good today,” she said, while struggling to lift her bucket of pucks and stacked cones over the edge of the boards.
“Thanks, babe,” I grunted out, also struggling.
After we hauled the stuff through the dark hallway, I stood back and gave her a little booty squeeze, making her giggle. I couldn’t help it. After an hour of not being able to touch her and pretending not to be her boyfriend, I had to touch the booty.
“You did good today too, Coach,” I said as I hugged her from behind. I rested my chin on her little shoulder and she reached up to ruffle my hair.
“Wanna get back out there for a bit?” she asked, turning in my arms to face me. “I haven’t heard the zam yet, so I think we’ll have a bit more time than usual,” she said excitedly.
“Mmhmm,” I responded. I didn’t want to let on that there was a reason we were getting a bit of extra time today. Some cash may have changed hands so that I could rig this little half hour together.
I leaned down to kiss her, but all of a sudden, her presence was gone, and I was kissing air.
Feeling like she’d betrayed me, I opened my eyes to see her making a break for the ice with a mischievous smile dancing on her face.
“What?!” I yelled as I ran down the hallway toward her and picked her up before her skates could touch the ice, then turned so I’d technically step on the ice before her. “Nice try, but not today, babe,” I whispered into her ear. We were always competing with each other. We couldn’t even walk up to our apartment nicely together; her feisty side always came out and she’d turned it into a foot race…Ourapartment.Damn. I loved the sound of that.
I felt her little body shake with laughter against my equipment.
When I finally set her back down on her skates, I grabbed her hand to twirl her into me.
“So… I’m happy we have a couple minutes here,” I said, still holding her tight. I’d been meaning to bring this up to her for a few weeks now, but it never seemed to be the right time. I finally picked today to lay it on her because then I knew I could soften the blow with a present if she was mad at me about the whole thing. “I have two things I need to tell you. One I’m afraid to tell you. The other, I can’t wait. With both, I don’t know if I overstepped, but I hope you’re notmad.”
Her eyebrows scrunched together in concern, and she touched my cheek with her gloved hand. “Well, that was confusing. Either way, I’m staying and we’ll talk it out. Linemates, right?” she said with a wink.
I lifted her chin and quickly kissed her smile. “You got it, babe,” I said, looking into her eyes. I held her hand and began leading her to our usual hangout spot. We always sat down at the end of the ice behind the net and looked out into the empty rink. Sometimes I was still shocked that I was allowed to be here. I mean, I was just a rink rat kid from a small town in Minnesota, and now I was playing here in this stadium. It felt like I was waiting for Craig, the old rink manager from the Ice League, to come down the steps and start yelling at me for being here or something. I don’t know if I’d ever get used to playing in this size of a stadium for this large of an audience on a weekly basis.
I took a deep breath, knowing that I needed to just get this out in the open already. She patted my leg, and her hand looked extra tiny on top of my hockey pants.
I looked into her green eyes then and blurted it out.
“I hired a PI,” I said.
She took her hand back and seemed to shrink away from me. “I told you everything, TJ,” she said defensively. “I thought I explained why I changed my name, that doesn’t mean there’s-”
“Not for you, ya crazy girl,” I cut her off and shot her my what-the-heck face. “That was sus though, babe!” I pointed out.
“What?!” she cackled. “I’m trying to say I have nothing to hide! I’m an open book!”
I scrubbed a hand over my face before getting on with it.
“No, I did not hire a PI to snoop on my girlfriend who I love and trust very much,” I looked over at her red-tipped nose. I always found her even cuter when she was out here in the cold rink. “I hired one because you deserve peace. You deserve to know where that fucker is at all times- if you want, that is. It kept me up at night, babe- knowing that you still felt insecure at times. And it really fucking bugged me that he got away with it. I just couldn’t…” I grinded my teeth. “I couldn’t accept it. So, I hired this guy. Griff recommended him, so it was all tight and stuff. Turns out that motherfucker is rotting in jail. He didn’t stop after you, Ellie. He tried again. And that time, when he got to court, there was a long list of other bad shit on his record. The judge threw the book at him. So, you don’t have to be worried about that specific fear anymore. I just thought you should know. Again, I hope you’re not mad that I looked into it.”
She stared blankly in front of her, and I was slightly afraid to touch her. I didn’t want to force affection on her if she wasn’t feeling too hot towards me after that. I knew I probably overstepped… but I couldn’t help it. The whole thing just ate at me. I hated that she was still worried, and I hated that the asshole was still out there somewhere walking free.
I watched her profile as her bottom lip quivered and the rim of her eyelids started to turn red. She drew in a shaky breath and quickly smoothed a tear away. “I feel horrible that it happened to someone else,” she said quietly.
