“No need to get pissy,” he says, grinning like a goof. “Maybe I’m only asking you to cut it so we can beat you.”
I glare at him. “You don’t need me to cut my hair for that.”
He slings his arm around my shoulders and ushers me into his place. “Oh, don’t let your team hear you say that! Where’s your fighting spirit?”
“Trust me, I have plenty of fight in me.”
“Don’t I know it,” he says as the door shuts behind us. “I saw that brawl you all got into in Minnesota.” He lightly taps my chin with his fist. “Nicejob.”
“Thanks,” I say, feeling proud of myself, even though I had very little to do with that fight besides taking the first hit. But whatever. I’ll take what I can get from the man who plays on a team with the king of penalty minutes.
“Where’s Ryan?” Ander asks, leading me into his kitchen. He gestures for me to take a seat at one of the stools by the island. I sit and place my phone on the counter while he pulls a tray of cooked salmon from the oven. It looks and smells delicious. My mouth waters.
“He’s out to dinner with some of the other guys.”
“Text him. Tell him to ditch them and get over here. I’d love to see him.”
“If you’re so eager to see him, you text him,” I argue as Ander grabs a salad out of the fridge as well as two beers. One each.
“Fine. I will!”
I roll my eyes and only realize a second too late that he’s grabbed my phone off the counter instead of his.
It falls out of his hands immediately after his eyes scan the screen and lands on the floor with the loudest thud I’ve ever heard. He’s standing frozen in shock, staring at his now-empty hands.
I swallow. I know exactly what he saw. Intimately, as a matter of fact. One of the last texts Ryan sent me, back when I still lived with the Foleys, was a picture of his dick.
“Wow,” Ander says slowly and brings one hand to his neck where he begins to rub. “So…”
“Yeah…” I say just as slowly.
“I wasn’t expectingthat.” He lifts his gaze to look at me. “Congrats. I mean, that’s not my thing, but like… good for you.”
“Can we forget this happened?” I ask while I pray for a meteor to slam into Buffalo, New York. Preferably on top of this building.
“Fuck, no,” Ander laughs, breaking the tension as his mouth pulls into a wide grin. “This is great news! I’m so happy for you two.”
He is genuinely beaming, and his eyes are watery. I can’t helpbut smile. That may not have been how I wanted to tell him, but this is exactly the reaction I was banking on getting.
He holds his beer bottle up between us in cheers. I tap the neck with mine. “Come on,” he says. “Let’s eat. I want to hear everything about what you’ve been going through these last three months. Because starting tomorrow, you and I are enemies for the next seven games.”
THIRTY-FIVE
Brandon
For the first time in ages, the locker room is silent of chatter before a game. No one, and I mean no one is making any noise outside of what’s associated with getting our gear ready.
There’s the sound of sticks being taped, and that tape subsequently ripped. There’s the sound of laces being drawn and gear getting snapped into place. But other than that… nothing.
Looking around, I half expect to see the visitors’ locker room empty. But it’s filled with all twenty-four of us quietly getting prepared to play with our game faces on.
Outside of the room, I can hear the thrum of Buffalo fans making their way to their seats in the Blizzards’ stadium. It already sounds like a party out there. It’s as if they’re already celebrating winning the Stanley Cup. The concept of being denied has never crossed any of their minds.
“Do you hear that?” Coach Chris says as he walks into the locker room from the coach’s office. He looks quite sharp in his dark blue suit paired with a light blue, yellow, and white tie to match our uniforms.
We all look up at him from our stalls.
“That’s the sound of a fanbase that’s gotten comfortable. They think the Stanley Cup staying here is a foregone conclusion. It isn’t. They’re underestimating us.” He pauses and looks around the room. His eyes land on our captain. “Danton, are the people of Buffalo wrong to underestimate us?”
