It’s Mother-Pucking Christmas!

28. Ryder

28

RYDER

“ W hat the fuck are you doing?” Coach screamed at me when I was breathing hard on the bench in front of him.

“Sorry, I—”

“You think the NHL is going to sign you, boy, if you keep playing like that?”

I blinked up at him sadly. “I don’t want to play for the NHL.”

Coach looked like he was going to blow a gasket. “You fucking fucker. Fuck! ”

“I don’t want to leave you guys. You stuck your neck out for me. It’s not right. And besides.” I gestured out to the ice. “I guess I forgot how to play.”

“Moron.” Coach slapped my helmet.

“Ow!” I clutched my head.

He hit me again. “What the hell do you think this is? Mr. Rogers and his puppets play hockey? The minors are feeder teams for the NHL. That is why we exist. We don’t feed, they don’t pass their financial scraps onto us. I need you to get called up to the NHL, College Boy, you get it? You feel me?” He grabbed my shoulder.

“But then I can’t help the team win.”

“Getting called up? That’s how you help the team. You know how many players the Arctic Avengers sent last season? Three. You know how many we sent? Zero.” Coach clenched a fist in front of my face. “I need you to get called up. That is how we get paid. That’s how I keep my job.”

“Oh. Well. Okay, I guess.”

“You fucking guess? I need you to play like you deserve a multimillion dollar contract.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I will.”

“You will?” Coach hollered. “What is it? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I looked up to where Dakota and her family were in the stands. “Nothing. I—”

Coach saw where I was looking and grabbed my face, forcing my head back to him. He pulled my helmet off so he could stare at me.

“Listen. Ryder. I’ve been divorced three times. Forget her. They always betray you. That’s life, son. One of them? She had this kid right? I loved that little baby like my own. His father didn’t want him. We broke up, and she told me to eat shit. Took that little baby and vanished. Judge said there was nothing he could do.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he said, cupping my face, “because you guys, you know, you guys are my kids. Even if you drive me fucking crazy. You’ll put me in an early grave, all of you.” Coach smirked. “And when you get to the NHL and make it big, and everyone in the country knows your name, I’ll be there at your games watching you wipe the floor with them and telling everyone you learned it all at the Icebreakers under my esteemed tutelage.”

Coach wrapped me in a crushing hug then pulled back and grinned at me. “Let me see that smile.”

I managed a small one.

“There it is! Now go win me another game, College Boy.”

“Yessir.”

He slapped my helmet onto my head. “Fucking idiot. And watch your left edge.”

I felt lighter as I headed out of the locker room. The ache in my chest was still there, but I had to do this for Coach. I couldn’t let him or the team down.

I stepped onto the ice, pushing off on my skates, speeding up as I rushed toward the goal, trying to outrun Dakota, her family, the most perfect three days of my entire life.

One Avengers player checked me, slamming me hard into the Plexiglas barrier.

Rick raced over, screaming, “Fucking Arctic Monkey!” and got him off me so I was able to recover the puck and score.

The crowd went wild. People who were leaving turned around and headed back to their seats.

“Fucker,” the Arctic Avengers captain hissed at me through a chipped tooth as we went back to face off. “I’m not losing to you again, asshole. You can’t just walk on a team and beat the rest of us out for an NHL contract. You’re not that fucking good.”

“It’s just a game,” I told him mildly.

Wrong thing to say. The captain took a swing at me, but I ducked.

The ref blew a whistle as the two linesmen readied to break up the brawl.

“Fight me, asshole.”

I didn’t take the bait. “Just play hockey.” I skated around him.

The ref blew his whistle and dropped the puck.

I lost myself in the game. I let everything go, just focused on doing my job.

The Arctic Avengers were playing dirty, not that that helped them. I scored two goals in quick succession because their players were too busy trying to goad a winger into a fight to pay attention.

The Arctic Avengers hadn’t shaken off the cockiness from the first ten minutes of the game, and it was too easy to outmaneuver them. I set up another pass to Rick while the Avengers coaches screamed from the penalty box.

I tried to ignore him; I couldn’t lose focus. But there was Dakota on the other side of the penalty box yelling something at the coach. What was she doing?

I sent the puck to Rick then took it back in quick succession like we’d practiced

“I’m going to kick your fucking ass, then I’m gonna fuck your girlfriend up the ass,” the Arctic Avengers captain snarled at me through a matted beard.

I took a slap shot on goal. It went in, but I ignored the buzzer, turning on him and skating right up to his face.

“What the fuck did you say to me?” I shoved him.

“Ah, shit.” I heard Rick curse somewhere to my left.

The ref blew a whistle, but I ignored it, furious. Then the linemen were pulling us apart, directing us back to the middle of the ice for the puck drop.

I didn’t care if Dakota had faked the relationship. I’d thought it was real, and no one talked about the woman I loved like that.

“I’m going to humiliate your whole fucking team,” I hissed at the Arctic Avengers captain as we fought over the puck. “You’ll never play for a full stadium again.”

He lunged at me. I was ready for it and leaned back and around, swiping the puck while he was off-balance. Mike was right where I needed him to be when I shot the puck. I was skating forward to a free patch of ice when I saw them out of the corner of my eye.

Behind me, a woman screamed as two Arctic Avengers barreled toward me. I knew, like I was watching it on a movie screen, analyzing their movements, calculating the force, the angle they’d hit me with, that it was going to hurt, and I’d probably never play again.