Page 46 of Drop Pass

I couldn’t help but smile. Addi was one of the hardest working people I knew. She sacrificed so much to raise Eli on her own. When Grant proposed, he asked her if she wanted to keep working as the manager of Reform and she told him she wanted to be a stay at home mom, but it wasn’t realistic for her situation. She and Grant compromised on her working part time hours so she could still contribute and have a life outside but she got to spend more time with her little guy.

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t jealous, but she deserved the amazing life she had now.

“That’s good. I’m glad you listen to him.”

She giggled. “It took a while, but I finally started to.”

I grinned and looked back to the guys. They hadn’t stopped. Part of me wanted to talk to her about the hot and cold Nikolay, but I held back.

He told me he had a lot going on with his family. His mind and heart were on two different continents right now. I had to respect that. No matter how amazing his kisses were.

I found his number and watched him skate to each end of the rink. He held his pace, never falling behind. He was so strong, but I knew he worked extremely hard to be where he is. He didn’t take his position for granted and understood the NHL was fickle. There were few reassurances. He could be traded or pushed down to the farm team without notice.

I doubted either of those things would happen. He was killing it with the guys. They’d only lost a handful of games this season and were number one in their division with a large gap between them and number two.

Maybe one day he would step back and realize how well he was doing. He was hard on himself, more so than he needed to be. Sometimes, I wanted to shake him and point out every other player that had relationships on the team and were still outperforming the competition

I looked around at the women sitting next to me. Every single one of them was with a player. They all had drama and lives outside the arena, but they made it work. I wanted to shove this in Nikolay’s face, but I couldn’t force him to have feelings for me.

I half-chuckled to myself. I never thought I’d have to force any guy to have feelings for me. I’d never had this problem before. Getting a guy’s interest wasn’t hard for me. It was finding the right guy or making sure our dreams were aligned that was the hard part.

I blew out a breath and pulled my notebook out of my purse. I was supposed to get some quotes from the coaches or players while I was here and since practice should be ending soon, I decided to make my way down. “Time to work. I’ll see you later.”

Addi smiled. “Have fun.”

I doubted that would happen but I waved before walking along our row around to the other side of the arena. I found the seat next to the bench that wasn’t blocked by glass and waited for a break to grab someone.

Coach Rust was closest and didn’t seem to be super busy so I leaned forward.

“Excuse me, Coach Rust? Do you have a second?”

He looked up and grinned when he recognized me. “Hey Elena. What can I do for you?”

My shoulders relaxed and my smile went from forced and professional to natural. This team was so welcoming. It was still hard to wrap my head around that.

“Do you have any thoughts about the upcoming game against Boston? I know it’s a tough team.”

He nodded. “They’ve got a rock-solid defense this year, but we’re ready for them. Our boys have been prepping for this game for a while.”

I dipped my head as I quickly wrote what he said. I could have recorded this but sometimes that intimidated people. I just wanted it to feel like they were talking to me, not a reporter.

“That’s great to hear. I know this is a personal game for Reese Murray, do you think he has time for a quick quote?”

Rust agreed and called him over. Reese looked up and smiled when he saw me. “Hey Elena.”

“Hi Reese.” I held up my notebook. “Just working. Do you have a second?”

He wiped his forehead with a towel. “Of course.”

“The Boston game is coming up. Do you have any feelings about it?”

His jaw clenched and I had to keep myself from laughing. He was still bitter toward them about his unexpected trade last season, but I doubted he regretted it. After meeting his wife and winning a championship, it would be hard to hold a grudge.

“They’re a tough team, but we’ve never been better. Friday will be a good game.”

I bit my lip and finished writing what he said. “Thanks Reese.”

“Will you be there?”