Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“You good?” I asked him, spitting near my skates with my eyes on the ice.
“What do you think?” He shook his head. “I looked like cat shit out there today.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” I lied. “And it was just a practice.”
He leveled me with a glare then, sweat dripping down his nose and onto his pants. “Says the man who cursed me out in multiple languages for most of the hour.”
I sighed. “Look, I won’t lie and say I don’t want better from you. But I want better from everyone — myself, included. I know bad days happen. Sometimes at practice, sometimes at a game. But every bad day costs us. So, yeah, I’m going to push you. I’m going to curse you out sometimes and call you names and try to get under your skin.”
“Let me guess — ‘but it’s because you care?’”
“It’s because I don’t do shit like this,” I corrected, gesturing between us. “If you want a pep talk, go to Daddy P. You want someone to go out with and drown your sorrows, you know where to find Tanny Boy and Brittzy.” I leaned over toward him, leveling him with a stare. “You want the truth about what you need to work on? You want someone not afraid to call you on your bullshit?” I thumped my chest. “That’s my role.”
Carter looked ready to scoff, but instead, he held my gaze, blowing out a long breath after a moment and hanging his head between his shoulders. He stayed that way for a beat before speaking again.
“I want to be better,” he said, his voice low. “I feel like all I’ve ever done since getting drafted is try to be better, to be… good enough.” He swallowed, turning to face me, and I saw a vulnerability there that made me as uncomfortable as it made me feel sorry for the guy.
It also made me a bit sick in the stomach.
Because I understood that feeling more than he knew.
“I finally have a chance again, Su Man. I made it through camp. I made it through preseason. I… I’m here, as an Osprey.” He shook his head. “I can’t get sent down again. I can’t go back to New York. This is my team. This is where I want to be.”
I nodded, throat tight. I didn’t know what that was like. I’d been drafted and remained in the NHL since then. I’d never been sent down to the AHL, never had that kind of pressure riding on my shoulders to prove something — at least when it came to hockey.
For once, I felt like I saw Carter for more than just the annoying punk who frustrated me with his lack of talent.
I saw his potential.
I saw his drive.
“Then listen to me, listen well, and let me help you.”
His eyes widened. “You? Help me?”
“I won’t fucking repeat myself.”
“No, no, of course not, I — yes, please. Help me.”
He turned to face me more fully then, eager puppy dog that he was, and I took a breath on a smirk before launching into all the shit I saw in this practice alone that he needed to work on. I gave him homework — video to watch, players to research, drills to run, and then I told him to meet me here early tomorrow to go through some things together.
By the time I was done, I swore I could see him jotting notes in his mind, his head bobbing like one of those fucking toys that you might see sitting on the dashboard of an old car. But the kid was smiling again, and he had a little bit of hope back in his eyes.
I preferred that to the moping he was doing before.
“Hey,” he said when we finally stood and started making our way back to the locker room. “I heard your fiancée will be at this game.”
I nearly stumbled at the mention of Mia, but somehow kept my cool, shrugging one shoulder. The locker room was empty already, save for a couple guys in the ice baths or getting work done by our trainers.
“Of course, she will be,” I said with what I hoped was a convincing smile. “She’s gotta show support for her sexy ass husband-to-be.”
“And then you’re going to her first concert in New York?”
I swallowed. “Yep. Just enough time to go before we play Toronto the following night.”
“That’s going to be so wild, man. She sold out not one, not two, but three nights at the Garden.” He whistled. “Impressive shit, that is.”
“She’s an impressive woman,” I agreed, ignoring the way my ribs squeezed my lungs in a vise grip.
I couldn’t wait to see her.
And yet, I knew it wouldn’t really be her I’d be seeing.
It would be the new Mia — the ice queen with all her highest, most solid walls up. She’d been like that ever since the proposal, and no amount of me begging could get her to tell me why.