Page 24 of Holding Penalty

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NASH

“Vaughn, me and you, double date tonight.”

Our grumpy goalie glares at Hayden from across the locker room. “Excuse me?”

“I was talking to these two insanely beautiful girls yesterday,” the rookie continues, “and the one I was into was playing so hard to get. But guess what? Her friend is a huge fan of yours. They said if I could bring you along for her, we could have a double date so I could get to know the girl I’m into.”

The rest of us look on with amusement as Vaughn levels Hayden with an utterly unencouraging glower.

As each beat of time passes, the hope in Hayden’s expression dims.

“Uh … is that a yes?”

Vaughn just rolls his eyes and turns around, looking into his cubby as he strips off his goalie pads.

Hayden takes a fortifying breath. “Alright, then. Noah, Plan B.”

“Huh?” Noah asks, caught off guard. “Why am I part of Plan B?”

“I can’t give up on this girl, she’s too beautiful and interesting. Noah, you’re going to have to wear a wig and pretend to be Vaughn.”

“Hayden, I’m getting concerned about how many of your ideas involve me wearing a wig.”

“This isn’t the first one?” Cooper Landry, our team captain, asks, bemused.

“This isn’t the first one this week,” Noah replies.

“And you’ve said no every time,” Hayden tells Noah in a chiding tone. “Don’t you think it’s time to embrace yes for once?”

“Why does it have to be me? Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask Nash or Cooper? They’re closer to Vaughn’s age.”

“Closer,” our shit-stirring right forward Adriano Zikos mumbles, emphasizing that last syllable as a nudge to our veteran goalie.

“Nash would never do it,” Hayden answers. “He’s, like, seventy percent as grumpy as Vaughn.” Shit, do I really seem that bad? “And Cooper wouldn’t do it because he doesn’t believe in love.”

Cooper huffs, but he doesn’t challenge Hayden’s claim. I don’t know Cooper’s story, but it’s been easy to gather from conversations with him over the years that he’s a cynic when it comes to romance, even though otherwise he’s a pretty upbeat and personable guy.

I’m cynical, too, after my experience with Bridgett. But Cooper’s a different level of skeptical when it comes to the topic of love.

Noah Page, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. So, it doesn’t surprise me when he answers, “Besides, I can’t. I have a second date tonight.” His eyes practically turn heart-shaped as he gazes dreamily into the distance after telling us. “Second of many. This girl might be the one.”

Last year, I remember Noah talking about three different girls, all of whom he claimed to be his soulmate about a week after he met them.

Hayden drops his head back against his cubby and sighs into the air. “Damn it. I’m going to have to come up with some zany scheme to pull this off.”

The conversation shifts to our upcoming preseason opener, just a couple weeks away. Excitement about this season is higher than usual. It’s a hell of a lot higher than it was when I came to the Alligators three years ago.

For years, the Austin Alligators were one of the most pathetic franchises in the League. Constant losing records, apathetic ownership, and a dejected local fanbase that had long grown used to disappointment.

Then new ownership came in and launched a major turnaround campaign. Last year, Noah, Adriano, Hayden, and Vaughn joined the team. The result wasn’t an immediate barrage of wins, but we did spend the season forging our chemistry on the ice. By the end of it, even though our record wasn’t good enough to get to the playoffs, we started playing like a team that belonged there.

Our first preseason game is an away game, in Denver, but our regular season opener is at home. We’re taking the preseason more seriously than most teams usually do, because we want to start off on the right foot, and then ring in the regular season with a decisive win that proves to the hockey world that the Alligators are a force to be reckoned with from now on.

We all get changed and leave the dressing room together. No footage review today, so we’re all going home. I have some landscaping stuff I want to get started on at my house. I’ve recently realized that I need to do more with my spare time than obsessively study hockey footage. I like the idea of having a vegetable garden in my backyard. Maybe some flowers out front. Maybe spruce up my walkway.

We’re about to go our separate ways at the exit when TJ, a college kid who works part-time at the arena, shuffles up to us nervously.