Puck Drills & Quick Thrills (CU Hockey 5)

“They were all bad, but Thomas and Clay were the worst.” His frown lessens slightly. “Oh, the guy who’s the actual hockey coach now wasn’t completely horrible. Shaun was nice. He might have been the only one.”

“Okay, which one is that?”

Jasper points him out.

“Got it. Prepare to be entertained. I’m assuming at least half these guys are gonna fall on their asses.”

I join the guys near the entrance to the ice, and they insist on only using skates, sticks, gloves, and helmets. I try to warn them to grab some padding, but hey, if they want to bruise their entire bodies out there, that’s not my fault.

We gain an audience while we’re gearing up. News must have spread, and that’s fine by me.

I make sure the asshole guys are not on my team as we divide into two sides.

The plan is to humiliate them with the game, and I don’t even need to try that hard.

When the puck drops, I bowl them over and put one in the empty net.

Everyone watching goes wild, and I skate around the guys getting back up on the ice. “One-zip, right?”

Instead of anger, all I see are cocky smiles.

This time, I let them take the puck so I can bodycheck that Clay guy into the boards before I strip the puck and send it to Shaun, who scores.

“Sorry, man, didn’t mean to hit that hard.” I help Clay get back on his skates.

“No problem. S’all good.”

Maybe I should’ve pushed for more padding.

It’s obvious none of these guys were good enough to play Division I hockey, and that should make me feel bad for them, but honestly, it just makes me more angry. They picked on someone smaller and weaker purely because they could. It’s pathetic.

Next, I have Thomas in my sights. I want to play with him for a bit.

He chases the puck to the side of the rink, and without even breaking a sweat, I skate past him and steal it. He comes after me, and I spin so I end up behind him, still with possession of the puck.

He goes for it, but I pass back to a teammate. Thomas’s blade follows the puck, which means he basically throws himself off-balance, and he falls to the ice.

I’m too busy being entertained to see that the asshole team has somehow managed to score.

On the next play, the puck gets stuck against the boards, and while I try to dig it out, Thomas comes for me. Instinctually, I raise my elbow to protect myself. It sort of, maybe, accidentally connects with his nose. There’s a satisfying crack, and he drops to the ice.

“Ow, fuck!” he screams.

“Oops?” I say. “It’s all fun and games until someone takes an elbow to the face.”

I got him good too. I’d worry about repercussions, but even amateur hockey players know we leave it on the ice.

“I think you broke my nose.” His voice is all nasally, and as he looks up …

Oh no. Oh shit. Is that blood?

I take a deep breath. Keep breathing, West. You cannot break a man’s nose and then faint. No, no, no, no, no. Just keep breathing. In. Out. In. Out.

“We should get you off the ice,” I say but refuse to look at him.

Do not faint. Do. Not. Faint.

“Yeah. Uh, yeah, I think that’s best,” Thomas says.

“Sorry for ruining the game, everyone!” My voice travels throughout the whole rink, and people start to file out to go back to the school gym.

Other players come to help Thomas off the ice.

“Let me have a look,” Shaun says as we get Thomas onto a bench. Then he hisses. “Yep, that definitely looks like a break.”

“He did it on purpose!” Thomas exclaims.

I go to defend myself when Shaun cuts me off.

“You literally ran into his elbow yourself.” He chuckles. “Technically, you broke your own face.”

“How is anyone supposed to buy fishing gear from me when I look all bruised?”

“Tell them you got into a fight with a shark?” I supply helpfully.

Or maybe not. Thomas glares at me.

“I could sue you,” Thomas says, and I sigh.

The threat of a lawsuit should worry me, considering I could see the kids’ college tuition going down the drain, but I also know he has no standing.

“Sure. Excuse me, Judge, I asked to play hockey with an ex-NHL player, but I was so bad at skating that I accidentally impaled myself on his elbow. I deserve compensation for being a clumsy dumbass.”

Everyone around us snickers, and Thomas’s face gets even redder. And not from the blood gushing out his nose that I’m pointedly not looking at.

I glance over at Jasper, who’s looking on horrified, but when he meets my gaze, we share a small smile.

Okay, so I wasn’t actually planning on hurting anyone, just humiliating them, but I do have to wonder if karma was on Jasper’s side on this one.