Blocker (Seattle Sharks 5)

“Eric, in case you haven’t noticed, that look you’re giving her is darn near indecent for public venue,” Mom told me with a smirk. “But sure, if it makes you feel better to say you’re just friends, then go with it.”

“It doesn’t make me feel better, but it is what it is. She’s Coach Harris’s daughter.” My jaw flexed twice as I watched Pepper skate backward, her feet sure and steady across the ice. Of course, she’d be able to hold her own out here. She’d been raised on the ice, the same as I had, and she could hold her own anywhere.

“And that’s an issue?” Mom asked.

“Coach said hands off. It doesn’t matter how much I might like her. She’s out of my league and completely off-limits.”

Mom tilted her head as she looked up at me. “You weren’t always this big, you know. In fact, I believe your peewee coach said you were the scrawniest goalie he’d ever seen, and that we should consider asking you to change positions.”

“I remember. But I never wanted to be anywhere else but in front of that goal.”

Mom nodded. “That’s right. You practiced every day and every night. Do you remember what happened when you came back for the next season?”

The corners of my mouth lifted. “I told him I couldn’t be his goalie anymore.”

“Because you had made the travel team. You were moving up to AA. In that year, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was really that coach telling you you couldn’t do it that gave you the motivation to become what you are now.”

“And what does that have to do with Pepper?”

Mom looked across the ice as Pepper and Faith headed our way. “I always knew the one way to get you to do something was to tell you that you couldn’t do it. You’ve got a heart the size of Montana, boy, but a stubborn streak twice as wide.”

“Noted.”

Her voice dropped to a whisper as the girls came closer. “Just don’t forget while you’re in that fancy town making all that fancy money that life is about more than your next contract, or even what you can do to help us at home. We might not have always been rich in money, but we were so wealthy in love, and if I only had one wish for you, Eric, that would be it.”

Her gloved hand squeezed my arm once and then she turned her wide smile on the girls. “You ladies having fun?”

Pepper’s eyes were bright, her cheeks red with the chill of the rink. The tips of her hair matched the bright blue of her hat, and I wondered how many times she changed it over the course of a year and if I might be lucky enough to see every shade.

“This is amazing,” Pepper gushed. “I can’t believe the whole town comes out. It’s like something straight out of a Norman Rockwell.”

I glanced around the stands of our small rink, overflowing with locals drinking hot chocolate, chatting about the upcoming season, or in various state of skate-tying.

“Too small-town for you, city girl?” I teased.

“Too perfect,” she admitted with a wide smile. “Everyone knows everyone.”

“That’s what happens when you graduate with twenty people in your class,” Faith rolled her eyes—the same color green as mine. “Everyone knows everyone, dates everyone...it’s all very incestuous.”

Pepper shrugged. “I don’t know. It all seems...comforting.” Her eyes flew wide. “Except for the incest part. I’m not down for that.”

Faith laughed. “Yeah, well, it’s why I’m getting out of here next year. Goodbye community college and hello U Dub!”

My jaw dropped. “You got into the University of Washington?”

“Sure did! And a scholarship so you won’t be on the line for my tuition!”

“As in the University of Washington in Seattle?”

“That’s the one!”

I swept my sister up in my arms, hugging her tight to my chest. When Dad had gotten sick, Faith took so much on that her grades had fallen. She’d needed last year at community college to boost her GPA.

“So you’re not mad?” She asked pulling back.

I put her down. “How could I be mad? I get to have you close.”

She hugged mom and then tucked her long red hair behind her ears in an all-too-familiar nervous gesture. “I don’t know. I just don’t want to cramp your NHL player style.”

“I don’t really have a style to cramp. I mostly practice and sleep.”

“That’s true,” Pepper agreed. “He’s not like the other guys. You know the ones who were out drinking, clubbing, looking for…” She blushed.

Girls. Women. Sex. That’s what all the other guys were looking for when they went out on Saturday night. And now my baby sister, my naïve twenty-year-old sister, was not only going to be in the same city as the Seattle Sharks, but thrown in with them because of me.

I suddenly had the urge to vomit, imagining Crosby getting one look at how gorgeous Faith had grown up to be.

“You sure you want to be in Seattle?”

Faith smiled and nodded. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Then I was going to give it to her, protect her from that hedonistic group of guys I happened to call teammates.

“I can’t wait to have you there.” I gave her a smile to let her know I was genuine and then turned to Pepper. “Skate with me.”

It hadn’t been a request, and she knew it. She had the same restless look in her eyes that I felt in my soul, and in that moment I needed my hands on her in any way possible. I’d settle for holding her hand.

Our eyes locked, and it happened again, that jolt of electricity down my spine, telling me this was more than the friendship we kept claiming. I offered my hand and she took it.

We skated in the large circle of the rink, not an NHL player and his statistician, just two people lost in the crowd of a Christmas kickoff in a small town. How funny that in a town this small I had more anonymity than I did in Seattle.

She squeezed my hand, and I fought the urge to rip off our gloves so I could feel my skin against hers.

“I can see why you love it here,” she said softly as a couple of kids passed us.

“It’s my favorite place in the world. This is where I learned to skate, where I joined my first team, where I stood in front of the goal for the first time. I hope one day I can teach my kids to stay here, too.”

“You want kids,” she asked, looking up at me.

“Yeah. Always have. I used to think I was going to have to wait until I was done with the NHL.”

“I get that. Every hockey player I’ve ever met has been married to the game and the only thing he was worried about was raising his stats. Hockey doesn’t leave a lot of time for relationships, for marriages, for parenting.”

Her brow creased, and I hated the flash of sadness in her eyes.

“It doesn’t,” I agreed. “But watching McPherson and the others has really shown me that there’s a way to balance the two. That you can be at the top of your game not only in hockey but your personal life as long as you don’t let one overpower the other.”

“Don’t you think it’s bound to happen,” she asked, her eyes focused on the boards. “Not that I don’t think Gage is doing a great job, or Rory, or Warren. But I grew up in the NHL, and I guess twenty-two years of experience gets in the way of hoping that players have changed.”

“You think I’m like that?” I waited until she looked at me. “That my only concern is raising my stats? Not that I don’t thoroughly enjoy our statistician.”

She cracked a smile, but it was guarded. “I think you are unlike any player I’ve ever met.”

“That a good thing?”

“It’s a dangerous thing.”

Before I could ask her what she meant, I saw my dad flag us down. We’d already circled the rink twice, and we stopped just next to them.

“The snow is really starting to come down,” Dad told us. “Temp is dropping too.”

“What’s it down to?” Mom asked, concern etched across her face.

“Two degrees,” Dad answered.

I took

out my phone and checked the forecast. “Man, looks like we’re headed for negative ten, and a blizzard warning? Kind of early in the season, isn’t it?”

Mom nodded. “We haven’t winterized yet. These kinds of temps don’t usually come until January. Never November.”

“Uncle John is with his in-laws, isn’t he,” Faith asked.

Dad nodded. “Yes, and he’s not due back until Monday.” He looked at mom. “We are going to need to go over to his place and open up his pipes. The last thing I want is him coming home to a wreck.”

“Of course. Faith, why don’t you come with us? That little car of yours is no match for this weather. We’ll come and get it tomorrow.” Mom left no room for argument.

“Okay,” Faith agreed.

“Eric, why don’t you take Pepper home and get our pipes opened, too. We’ll be there as soon as we finish at Uncle John’s,” Dad suggested.

“Not a problem. We’ll take care of it.”

About five minutes later, I walked out with Pepper, carrying both of our skates. “Holy shit.”

“You can say that again,” Pepper replied.

The snow was already a foot deep, if not more, and falling rapidly. The flakes were thick and fluffy. Not typical for blizzard warning, but all bets were off once the wind moved in.

“I’m glad I brought my truck,” I told her.