“Thanks a lot for coming out,” I said again, once we were mid-way through getting the tiles down on the floor. “It’s been a huge help so close to the wedding. I can’t imagine building a whole house for a future wife,” I shook my head. “Not something everyone does.”
“About that,” Luke said, fixing me with his captain’s gaze over the tiling. “You’re not allowed to tell El. Or any of the girlfriends. They’ll all want us to build them houses!”
Chase laughed, the sound ringing off the partially-tiled walls. “Morgan might already expect that,” he pointed out. “And if I have to do it, the rest of you will too. Unless you all manage to get married first.”
It was remarkable how much had changed. Once, the mere suggestion of marriage would have made half the Pumas back off with wide eyes. Now, there was a kind of acceptance that it would happen eventually.
It gave me a pang, just under my heart. There was no girlfriend for me to worry about house-building for.
Yet, almost to mock me, Helena’s face entered my mind. The way she smiled, the way she laughed. Fuck. I needed to stop thinking about my ex. I’d spent a long time making those memories not hurt every time marriage was mentioned! Now, it all seemed to be creeping back in, just... differently at the same time.
“You whine and you complain, but we all know that if El wanted you to build her a house, you’d go out of your way to,” I teased Luke. “And besides, it’s not like all of us wouldn’t help.”
That was certainly true. We all loved El. Perhaps not quite the same way Luke did, but she was our nutritionist, everyone on the team had a personal relationship with El. It was a bit different than the other guys’ partners. Chase’s girlfriend Morgan, for instance, I barely knew at all.
“El’s sensible enough to realize it’s a much better use of my time to hire someone to build a house,” Luke grumbled, but there was no malice in it.
Before I could point out that no one had asked Pat to build a house himself, Luke had already moved on. “I think it’s a nice thing he’s doing. Building a house in your home town. Did you always live here?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Grew up here. It’s... small,” I chuckled. Honestly, being home this summer had reminded me how community-driven a town so small could be. It wasn’t something I had at all appreciated as a kid. Now, I could see the appeal. My parents loved it here because of that community and I knew that Pat chose to stay here for similar reasons.
“And you skate here?” Chase asked, adding another tile.
“Oh, yeah! There’s a rink. It’s nothing huge or whatever, but hockey’s always been a big thing here,” I explained to some hums of ‘well it is Canada’ that made me chuckle. “Once we finish this, I’ll take you guys skating on my high school ice!”
It was an easy promise to make, considering that I had already rented it with them in mind. There were hardly very many occasions that we got over the summer to skate together; I wanted to take any opportunities we could get.
The word quickly spread through the house about the skating. It inspired everyone to work that much harder. When we finally made it onto the ice, Pat’s house was almost finished. It was impressive just how much we’d gotten done. And the ice was a great reward.
“Three on two?” I asked as we hit the ice, skates sliding over it. The coolness and excitement mixed together in me, pushing all of my school-time memories forward. I had been training on this ice all summer, but I hadn’t actually had a chance to play with someone.
Luke took my side, sending the other three to team up together. “Home-ice advantage,” he teased me. “Not to mention having the captain on your team. We’ll kick their asses.”
That was fighting talk. I could see Chase getting revved up to challenge us. Will hung back, putting himself in a position to defend.
As the smaller team, we took the puck first, slamming it back and forth across the ice. My blood sang with the joy of it, whistling round my body just the way it had when I was a kid on this very same ice.
There was such a sense of grandeur, playing on my high school ice but playing this amazing hockey with people who were best at what they did. Passing the puck back and forth with Luke felt like coming home. We didn’t always play the same line, but there’d been plenty of games we had.
It wasn’t easy to slide past Felix, who was one of the fastest skaters I’d ever met, but the rush that shot through me, eyes focused on the goal was amazing. Not even looking at Luke, I passed the puck to him. It was a sweet assist and would have been made even sweeter if Chase hadn’t swooped in to snatch the puck from him.
His whoop of triumph was magnified by the crisp, chill air, echoing around us as he put on a burst of speed. Luke and I turned with a spray of ice to chase him, following on his heels as we raced to outdo one another.
Breathless, I plunged my stick forward in an attempt to steal the puck back. At almost the same moment, Chase turned, our bodies colliding. In the chaos, it was Luke who ended up with the puck, rushing off down the rink towards Will Green.
Felix darted towards them, but with Will being the only defenseman here, it was him who slammed Luke into the boards. Had I not been so focused on the puck, I
