He blew his whistle, and the kids glided into action. Grant floated on the edge of the rink and rolled his shoulder while his gaze focused on the kids’ feet and hands, on pivots and shots.
Dwayne paced the sidelines. “Stay low in your turns, boys. Keep movin’, keep movin’, shoot.”
“Talk it up, guys,” Grant told them. “You should always be talkin’ to each other out there. If you want something, call for it. Pick up the pace, boys. Giddy-up, let’s go.”
“Giddy-up?” Dwayne said, shooting him an incredulous grin. “Is that the shit they teach you in the big leagues?”
“Shut up.” Grant grinned. “Parker, move those feet. Whoa, Healy, what the hell was that? You control the puck, the puck doesn’t control you.”
That brought some laughter. “Good.” He called out encouragement. “Nice.” And as the last few members of the team passed up the ice, Grant clapped to get the team’s attention. “Other way, same drill. Speed, accuracy, focus. Go.”
His phone chimed. Without looking away from the boys, he answered, but instead of saying hello, he lowered the mouthpiece and yelled, “Jordy, you here to socialize or practice? Cut the bullshit. If I have to tell you again, the whole team’s gonna be doing sprints.”
A collective groan rolled through the group, and Jordy received a number of shoulder shoves, which shut him right up.
Smiling, Grant lifted the phone to his mouth. “Grant.”
“Hey.” A male voice that he didn’t immediately recognize sounded over the line. “Sounds like you’re as much of a hard-ass with teenagers as you are with grown men.”
By the time he finished speaking, Grant recognized his younger brother’s voice. “Do you mean on the ice or with you? Cause I haven’t seen you enough to be a hard-ass yet.”
“I know,” Patrick said, “that’s why I’m here to take you for a beer when you’re done.”
Grant heard stereo and turned to find his younger brother strolling toward the rink, one hand in his pocket, huddled in a parka. Patrick grinned and lowered his phone. Grant had mixed feelings about his brother’s appearance. On the one hand, he was the reason their parents had even entertained the idea of seeing one of Grant’s games. On the other, Grant really wanted to go straight back to the store, pack in some quality Faith time—preferably buried deep inside her driving her to scream his name the way she had last night, then teach her how to edit video and set up her YouTube account. And, yeah, then work on more screaming.
Damn, his cock was already half-hard just thinking about it.
“Patrick?” Dwayne turned and held his hand out to Grant’s brother, but he didn’t look all that happy to see him. Still Patrick stepped up and shook Dwayne’s hand. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Yeah.” He released Dwayne’s hand and scraped it through his hair, looking at the ground. “Well, I’m sure no one missed me.” He looked up and met Dwayne’s eyes. “But I’m clean and sober, eight months now.”
Shock hit Grant in the stomach. He’d known Patrick had a problem, but not that it had been legitimized or that he’d sought help or that he’d been successful at battling the addiction.
“Congratulations, kid.”
Patrick grinned. “Thanks, thanks.”
“Grant, you go on,” Dwayne said. “I’ve got this. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Grant nodded. “Thanks.”
He sat down, threw on his blade guards and started unlacing his skates.
“Thank you,” Dwayne said. “And tell Faith thank you again too. I’ve been getting all sorts of calls and texts about the lights. You made a lot of peop
le happy tonight.”
Dwayne skated toward the kids calling directions while Grant pushed into tennis shoes.
“What lights?” Patrick asked.
“The ones on his house. The system’s been down since MaryAnn passed and we helped him get it up and running again.”
He set his skates in his duffle, tossed it over his shoulder and started toward the parking lot with Patrick, but his mind was on how happy Faith would be to hear how the lights were affecting the community.
His brother wrapped a playful arm around Grant’s neck and wrestled him, singing, “Someone’s got a crush...”
Grant laughed and pushed Patrick off. “You’re still not big enough to do that.”