After the photos this morning, Alex and I plan to get a good workout in, then tonight we’re having an end-of-summer team party at Coach Pretore’s house, where Alex and I will probably tie a good one on in celebration.
Alex Crossman, my best mate and lineman, who just got engaged a few months ago to one of the coolest chicks I know, is about the coolest dude I know. We’ve become super-tight over the summer, which was made easier by the fact that he gave up his assholeish ways after finding true love with his fiancée, Sutton. We work out together several times a week and golf just about as much. I hang out at their house a lot, and even pal around sometimes with Sutton’s kid brother, Glenn.
Yup…settling in to my life here with the Cold Fury team quite nicely. I had spent two years with the Los Angeles Dragons, three years with the Chicago Vortex where we won back-to-back Stanley Cups, one year on injured reserve with a concussion, and then a few months with the New York Vipers before being traded here. At age twenty-six, I was glad to finally be a part of a team where I not only fit in to their offense like a glove, but have made such a tight friendship with another player. I’m hoping I can live out the rest of my career here—which is probably a long shot in this business—but a man can dream, right?
So, yeah…team pictures today and party tonight, but tomorrow is when it gets exciting. Training camp starts and I’m itching to get back on the ice. It’s swamping my mind with pleasure endorphins, far more appealing to me than the two hotties I just left in the bedroom. Don’t get me wrong. I love women and love fucking them. But they take a backseat to hockey…my one true love.
Always have, always will.
Chapter 1
Garrett
The team party is in full swing by the time I arrive, which is always late, and Coach Pretore and his wife, Suzie, have gone all out. I find them in the kitchen of their seven-thousand-square-foot home, holding court near an ice sculpture set inside a huge crystal bowl teeming with peeled shrimp.
Coach gives me a hearty handshake and a thump on the back. “Good to see you, kid.”
I give him a smile and then bend down to kiss Suzie on the cheek. “Great to see you both. You throw a mean party,” I tell them as I snap two shrimp up.
“Use a plate,” Suzie chides me, and thrusts one into my hands. “So how has your summer been, Garrett?”
“It’s been great, but I’m ready to get back at it. Can’t wait for camp to start tomorrow.”
“Enjoy yourself tonight,” Coach Pretore says, “but not too much. I’m going to work you hard tomorrow.”
“Bring it on,” I say with a grin as I pop the shrimp in my mouth. Setting the empty plate down on the russet-colored granite, I give my hands a quick wash in their sink, then head through their house to the backyard, where I know most everyone is hanging.
I’m stopped no less than five times on the way out back to give and receive high fives and back slaps, as well as one hard smack on my ass from Zack Grantham, our second-line left winger.
Rubbing my stinging butt cheek with one hand, I give him a playful punch on his shoulder with the other.
“What’s up, dude?” he asks as he wraps his arm around the waist of his girlfriend, Gina. He pulls her into the side of his body, and I watch with interest as she wraps her arms around his back and stomach, cuddling in tight. They are about as close as two people can get. They’re not married and have no plans to be, as far as I know, but fuck, they are committed to each other. I think they’ve been together going on close to seven years now, and they have a little boy, Benjamin, who I think may be close to three. He’s fucking adorable.
“Not much. Ready to get back on the ice,” I tell him.
“No shit,” Zack agrees. “It’s been a great summer off, but I’m starting to get bored.”
“So bored,” Gina adds in with a laugh. “He’s driving me nuts at home. Trying to fix stuff that doesn’t need fixing. I’m ready for him to get back on the ice too.”
Nodding, I ask, “Where’s the rug rat?”
Zack jerks his head over his shoulder to the double doors that lead out onto the back deck. “Outside, playing with Andre and Mely’s kids. We took him to Disney last week and he won’t quit talking about Mickey. I think he has the other kids riled up now.”
Laughing, I clap him on the shoulder. “I’m foreseeing some of the other players having to take their kids next summer.”
“Exactly,” Gina says impishly.
“Hey, are Alex and Sutton here yet?” I ask genially. I have the dirtiest joke I just heard last night—compliments of Donna or Debbie, not sure which—and I have to tell Alex. And it has to be done in front of Sutton, so I can watch her blush prettily, then snarl at me to clean up my act. I love torturing her.