Delayed Penalty (Empire State Hockey #5)

Chapter 6 – Harris

Chapter Six

Harris

Hey Ave, wanna meet for a rematch in darts?

I promise I’ll go easy.

Avery

Liar.

I’ll try?

Avery

*image*

I’m still engaged.

So, we can’t play darts?

Avery

Oh, and I’m still pissed at you.

Didn’t seem like you were that pissed the other night.

“ Y ou’re still a fucking asshole,” Miles says through a mouthful of wings.

“I know, I’ve already apologized like forty-seven billion times, something just came up.”

“Well, try forty-seven billion and one. I’m not quite feeling the love yet after you bailed on me. We could’ve had the hottest night with those two chicks but instead you flaked, again, on them.”

“Are you really implying you didn’t have the hottest night with those two without me?” I ask, eyebrows quirked up.

“That’s not the point.” He smirks. “It’s not my fault I’m a pleaser and couldn’t leave one feeling left out. At least this way, they both got to go home worn out and blissful.”

“Oh, to be fucking single again.” Rex laughs. “Rory crawled in our bed in the middle of night, squeezing right between Sawyer and me. Put a quick end to the naked party I was hoping to have.”

“Being single is fucking great, especially when the only people in my bed are the ones sucking my cock,” Miles jokes, and it is, for him. He’s a huge flirt who isn’t afraid to soak up the love from women wanting to hook up with a hockey player. They have fun, but he’s never been serious about anyone that I know of. It’s not the life for me, or at least it doesn’t feel like it anymore. Not since I’ve seen Avery again.

“I’m sure it’s fun, but I’m good.” Rex smiles. “My cock gets sucked plenty.”

“Jesus fuck, Lockwood,” Max chokes out, almost spitting out his drink. “Can we not talk about my sister sucking your cock at the dinner table? Or ever? I nearly choked.”

“So does she.” Rex winks.

“God, I can’t wait until Stella finally brings someone around you, I’m going to have to pay her to ramp up the PDA when you’re around,” Max groans.

Max and Rex have the funniest relationship, but it’s mostly because they love to give each other a hard time with Rex dating Max’s older sister. Rex definitely isn’t always the nicest to Max when it comes to not discussing his sexual endeavors with his sister around him.

“Never going to happen. She’s brought one guy around me since she was in high school and I made damn sure she’d want to be a nun after that. Although she didn’t take a vow of celibacy, I think she’s busy enough with her work that she doesn’t even have time for dating,” Rex adds smugly.

“That’s not what I heard,” Trevor says.

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah, I ran into your mom last week at Stella’s bakery. She was working for the day because Stella was going on a day trip with a guy she’d been dating,” Trevor says, and we all just sort of watch as we can see the stress in Rex’s face start to pick up.

“What in the actual fuck? Why do you know about this and not me?”

“We all know you and know how you are about your sister even though she’s a grown-ass adult,” I deadpan, only earning me a kick under the table from Rex.

“Yeah, apparently, she’s been seeing this guy for a while. They met because he’s a business developer and was working in the area.”

“This doesn’t explain why this is the first time I’ve heard about my sister dating someone.”

“My guess is they didn’t want you to go all caveman over the fact that your sister is an adult who likes to get fu—” Cade says.

“Don’t you dare finish that fucking sentence, Williams,” Rex groans.

“Just saying. I mean, maybe if she actually let you meet the guy you could determine if he’s a good guy or not instead of her just leaving you in the dark about her private life.”

“I think she’ll have to prove she can pick a guy that’s actually worth her time and not just a piece of shit looking for a quick fuck. Once she can do that, I’ll trust her judgment,” Rex says, his voice elevating just a touch as his frustration starts to bubble up.

“At the end of the day though, it’s her choice.” Miles shrugs.

“At the end of the day, it’s my choice to make their life hell if I know they’re not good enough for my sister.”

It looks like Miles wants to say something back but Max beats him to it. I can tell there’s been a change in the energy tonight and I can’t quite figure it out.

“Not to have a drastic subject change or anything…but Coach, you ever going to make an honest woman outta my sister?” Max asks, leaning back like he’s at home relaxing in his chair, a beer in hand and a stupid grin on his face.

Rex’s cheeks turned pink, and I’ll be damned, the man is actually embarrassed. I didn’t think the man was capable of blushing let alone actually feeling embarrassed.

“Uh… I mean, yeah. That’s the plan and all,” he says, now fidgeting with his napkin.

“Is that all we’re getting?” Cade pokes.

Rex leans back, his hand running down his face. “When I know more, you’ll know… but right now, I’m just figuring some things out first.”

Not an actual answer but it’s enough for Max. We spend the last bit of happy hour bullshitting before the six o’clock dinner rush starts to show up, which is perfect because my 6:15 p.m. date down the road will be really sad if I’m late.

“Not to cut out early, but I’ve gotta run,” I say, standing up and setting money down to cover more than my share, I do my usual check of phone-keys-wallet to make sure I have all the essentials.

“One of these days, you’ll tell us where you run off to, either that or I’m going to have to just stalk you,” Miles says.

“Mystery is the spice of life, Miles. If you knew my whole life story, you’d no longer think I was the most interesting man alive.”

“Fuck off, Danielson, your life is pretty fucking boring.”

I flip him off and slip out, leaving the guys quickly before I’m late for my important date.

When I walk in, the first thing I hear is the barking from in the back, letting me know I’m almost late for dinner time. I do my best to make sure I’m here any night I’m not either on the road or at a game. If it is a game night, I usually try to stop by before.

“Good evening, Mr. Danielson. Your lady is waiting for you in her room,” Mrs. Andrews says as I hang my jacket up behind her desk.

“Good evening, Mrs. Andrews,” I say, leaning down and giving her a quick hug. “I’ll be back out to hear this week’s gossip in just a few, gotta make sure my girl has dinner first.”

I’ve been volunteering here at Little Paws Animal Shelter for the last few years. Starting out, I just came in to do random dog walks, but now I’ve sort of made this a little home away from home that no one knows about.

Back at home, we lived on a big lot of land out in the small town my parents still live in. Ivy Falls is a lot different than being in New York City, but it was everything I ever dreamed of as a kid. We had a lot of land and a lot of animals, so when I moved to the city I hated the fact that since I was in an apartment I couldn’t have a pet.

Well, I could. But with how often I’m gone and with it being an apartment in New York City, I didn’t feel like I could give the pet the quality of life they deserved so I just started to volunteer.

In the last three months, I’ve grown very attached to a new little puppy that showed up to the shelter who has been having a difficult time getting adopted. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with her; no, Luna is a beautiful Golden Retriever, a perfect cream color with the longest, soften fur I’ve felt in my entire life. She’s perfect.

Only, she hates everyone but me.

She’s not mean or aggressive, but she’s not the typical Golden Retriever most people are used to. People come in knowing that there’s a Golden Retriever here, but the second she doesn’t immediately come over to the gate to say hello, or the second she backs away when they try to pet her, they move on to the next dog. She’s a year old, and in the three months she’s been here she’s only had one application put in, but they returned her the next day when they said she still wouldn’t let them pet her.

I got pissed because they should have given her time to warm up. She’s had so much change in her short life, that being brought to a new home and trying to force her to give her attention, she was probably terrified. She needs time to understand she can trust you before she’s willing to let you touch her, there’s not a damn thing wrong with that.

I like to say that she’s just misunderstood, a quirky girl full of love, just wanting to make sure you’re worthy before she gives it to you.

Mrs. Andrews has tried to get me to bring Luna home more times than I can count, but damn, I can’t bring myself to force a dog into a lifestyle where I can’t guarantee I’m home all the time and being in an apartment isn’t exactly ideal for a dog. And I absolutely refuse to do that to little Luna. She deserves everything.

I head back to the rooms they keep the pups in, in which their crates are filled with the best cushiest dog beds we were able to find. They used to only have a small budget so they were mainly donation based. I put a stop to that and have been filling in all of the gaps in the process.

Well, at least, all of them she’s been willing to tell me about. Her husband got chastised by her when he let it slip that they still buy over half of the food themselves. I made sure that they—and another shelter they work closely with—had enough food to feed all of their dogs indefinitely.

Since then, she’s been more tight-lipped, but I’ll figure it out eventually.

“Hi, Ms. Luna,” I say as I walk up to her and unlatch the gate.

It only takes her a moment to realize who I am before she’s jumping up from her bed and trotting over to me, her tail wagging as she starts doing circles around me. She pushes her body up against me making sure I’m getting all the good spots for pets.

“Are you ready to go eat, pretty girl? I’ve heard you’ve been giving them quite the difficult time eating while I’ve been gone for a few days.”

The second I mention food she’s ready to go, sitting pretty at my feet waiting for me to hook her up to a leash. In the back is where all of the other dogs are and while most of them go out there off leash because it’s all fenced in, Luna gets a little nervous and will run back inside, which causes all of the other dogs to think she is trying to play so they start chasing her, which only scares her more.

It's much easier this way because we’ve found she also feels safer if I bring her out here and hold her leash.

“Let’s go get you some food and then we’re going to give you a bath. I hear you’re going to the park this weekend, hopefully you’ll meet your new family there.”

Even saying it, it hurts me knowing that if she were to find a family, it means I wouldn’t get to come spend so much time with her and I hate that. But until I’m in a place where I can give a dog the life they should have, I won’t do it.

I start questioning myself later that evening when Luna finishes eating and curled her ninety-pound body in my lap.

I would give anything to make this work.