After an ice bath and a shower, Kellan and I head out.
“Pender and Calvin said they were going to go out for a bite to eat,” Kellan tells me.
“They need to cut that shit out. They need to clean up their diet before the season starts. Otherwise they will be slow as shit on the ice and that’s the last thing we need,” I mutter.
“They know. I’ve already told them,” he says, proving why he was chosen as captain.
Not only that, but it proves that he’s grown up since he first joined the team. Baby Kellan could have given two fucks aboutthose around him. He was all “me, me, me.” Now he is a true leader of the team.
As soon as we walk into the house, our phones begin to ring.
“Jesus Christ, it’s like they have a fucking tracker on us,” I grumble as I pull out my phone.
Quickly I answer the call and watch as everyone’s chats pop up on the screen, including Kellan’s.
“I’m right next to you. Do you really have to join?”
“Uh, yeah, otherwise I wouldn’t be a part of the conversation,” he says, making me roll my eyes.
“Well, well, well, look who we have here,” Beckett teases, making me roll my eyes.
“Mr. Secret Keeper himself. You know, Wyatt, I thought we were friends,” Brett quips.
Clay sighs. “I was just telling Grace that I missed you guys, and now I take it back.”
“Please, you fucking love us,” Brett tells him.
“We all know you don’t miss Beckett, though, since you see him every day,” Kellan adds.
“I see him at practice. It’s not like we live together,” Clay says.
“I’m his favorite. He just doesn’t want to say it out loud.” Beckett shrugs.
“Have you started yet?” I hear Peyton, Beckett’s wife, ask in the background.
“We were about to,” he tells her.
I watch as his camera jostles and her hair comes into view.
Great, now she’s tuned in.
I love Peyton, but she’s like a bloodhound when she wants to be.
“Did I hear Peyton?” Grace asks.
“Yeah, she’s sitting next to Beckett,” Clay tells his girl.
Grace comes up behind him, and he angles the camera to show her.
“Hey, guys.” She smiles sweetly.
“Hey Grace,” we say in unison.
“I have to run, but before I do, I just wanted to say, Wyatt, I’m happy for you, and I can’t wait to meet her,” she says in that sweet tone of hers.
She really changed our group when she came into the picture. I was still trying to get my bearings with the guys, but she became our common goal. Protect this girl at all costs. We wouldn’t be the same without her. I don’t think I would have become as close to the guys if she hadn’t come along either.
“Thanks, Grace,” I say genuinely.
