Second Shot K.O.K (The Brooklyn Bears: Season 1)

14. Then….

FOURTEEN

THEN….

The Past

S itting behind them, I eavesdrop on their conversation, feeling not quite like I would ever belong here at Lincoln, but I know how much it’s going to mean to Koa. Wherever he goes, I promised I would, too.

“The goalie,” Mrs. Costello starts, opening her jacket to display a jersey, “number 69, Dean Costello, my second favorite person in the whole world.”

“We have something in common then. He’s my second favorite person on the team.” A dark-haired girl opens her jacket and reveals a Lincoln Jersey.

“And who’s the first?” Mrs. Costello asks curiously.

The dark-haired girl answers, “Well, Bass Giulietti used to skate at my father’s rink, so I know him.”

This obviously pleases Mrs. Costello. “He’s one of Dean’s best friends. He speaks very highly of him.” She looks out at the ice. “See? The two of them are inseparable.” She waves to them, and Dean, Lincoln’s goalie, waves back enthusiastically. “Dean has no siblings, so he considers a handful of them his brothers, although he speaks mostly about Bass. It’s going to be very difficult on them”—she pauses—“all of you when this year is over and the camaraderie they’ve built is dismantled.”

“Preach, Mrs. Costello,” another girl amongst them agrees.

They’re so close, all of them.

“Oh, Dean, we’re both fabulous.” She laughs then points to the ice. “There’s The Cock.”

I smile as Koa takes to the ice.

“Wow, that’s a big?—”

“Cock—such a fun name.” Mrs. Costello giggled. “If Kosta can get him here next season, he and that Rivera could keep this team where it is now, and we would certainly love this arena to stand as proud as it is today”—she smiled—“with both the men and women teams at the top of their games.”

Koa looks across the ice and points at me, and they all look back.

“How’s he playing, Mrs. Costello?” I ask.

Mrs. Costello stands up and leans back to hug me. “Nalani, it’s wonderful to see you.”

“You, too.”

“You have to meet the Daniels girl who is all over the interwebs in those me-mes.”

I love that neither correct her.

“Dylan.” She holds out her hand, and I shake it.

I know who she is based on all the buzz she got when she was in a fight on the ice that caused her to be dropped from the women’s team. Koa explained she was Olympic material; I just couldn’t put a name to the face.

“You’re badass.”

“Wouldn’t change it for the world.” She smiles.

“There’s your Cock, Nalani!” Mrs. Costello stops clapping. “And he’s moving toward our Dean.”

Koa makes the goal.

“He’s good, Nalani, really damn good.” She shakes her head.

“Your Lions are amazing.”

Dylan winks then looks away at her phone screen and smiles. “I’m supposed to ask Mrs. Cock if she’s cool with hanging out with us for a bit after the game.”

“Sounds good.” I grab my phone and see that Koa must have sent me a text before he went out. “Can I catch a ride with you?”

“Of course.” Dylan smiles.

“Eleanor Rhodes”—Mrs. Costello waves her arm in the air—“come here and meet a fellow KET sister—Nalani.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you.” Ellie Rhodes gives me a one-armed hug. “Not gonna lie and say it wasn’t aways centered around your boyfriend.”

“That’s a little bit of a lie. She’s talked about you.” Kameron Kosta feigns annoyance. “Rubbing it in my face that you’re a KET and not DELTA. I’m Kameron, and Coach Kosta is my uncle. I’m dating Evan Smith, and Ellie’s with Leo Stone.”

“So, this is an ambush?” I ask.

Any worries I had about not fitting in are evaporating.

After saying goodbye to Mrs. Costello, we walk out, and Dylan quickly realizes she doesn’t have a vehicle at the arena because she was in an accident a few days before.

We are laughing about it when Eleanor Rhodes asks if we’re okay.

“I don’t have my truck here. How the hell could I have forgotten I got in a wreck New Year’s Day and?—”

“Good thing I had to pee.” Eleanor Rhodes waves her hand. “Come on; ride with us. Dylan’s got shotgun.”

“I’m cool wherever,” Dylan says.

“You do not wanna sit in the back seat—your knees will be to your chest.” Kameron Kosta hooks her arm through mine. “Now let me tell you how awesome my uncle is.”

Dylan nods. “He’s the only reason I didn’t get booted off the team completely.”

“And between us girls, I think he had something to do with the epic exit of Montgomery. I’m so pissed I missed it.” Ellie laughs.

“Mont-who?” I ask as we near a car that must be Ellie’s.

Dylan answers, “Our coach. Such a dick. He ruined the sport for half of us. He especially hates my sister and me.”

“Which is bullshit, because they are the best on the team,” Ellie notes.

“I can’t take credit where credit isn’t due. Our whole team rocks. They won today without Drew and I.”

“And you were right there.” Kameron smiles.

Ellie hits the unlock on her vehicle. “Is Koa considering the switch?”

“If Coach Kosta’s all you say he is, and he can get a full ride, since he’ll be walking away from one at Hayward, I think?—”

“Wait. I thought he lost his football scholarship due to injury?” Eleanor asks, opening the door.

“He did.” I remember how proud I was of him and brag, “Then he got an academic one to Hayward. That guy can do anything he sets out to do. He did a walk-on tryout as a dare. He’d never skated a day in his life.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Dylan gasps.

“Swear it. His family owns a surf shop in the town my grandmother lives. I took lessons there.”

“That’s a meet cute if I ever heard one,” Kameron acknowledges as she climbs in the back.

“I …” Dylan shakes her head. “Never?”

“He’s surfing out there, not skating. It’s all about balance and strength.” I slide in the back.

“It really is.” Dylan barks out a laugh. “I have got to tell my father about him.”

“Call him now and do it on speaker.” Eleanor encourages as Dylan slides in. “First rounds on me if you start out with, ‘Dad, I have to tell you about The Cock.’”

So she does.

“Dad, I have to tell you about The Cock.”

The girls all bite back giggles.

“Dylan, this is a you and your mom conversation.”

“But I wanna tell you.” Her shoulders shake in silent laughter.

“If you, your sister, and your mother think I don’t know about you and Bass Giulietti snowed in here without electricity New Year’s Day?—”

“Oh my God, Dad, shut up!”

I have to cover my mouth to stop from laughing at that.

“We have cameras! You can’t delete the master from your phone. I heard him talking to the good Lord about not wanting to die because he’s afraid of the damn dark, and in the next breath, about wanting to have sex with?—”

“Dad! I’m in a car full of girls, and you’re on speaker!” she yells to cut him off.

“Putting me on speaker is the second dumbest thing you’ve done this year. We’re less than a week in, Dylan. Come on, kid.”

“I’m hanging up on you now.”

“No!” Eleanor laughs so hard she has tears rolling down her face, and I am dying. “You have to tell him about The Cock!”

“Now, who is this?” Dylan’s dad demands.

“Eleanor Rhodes, sir. Big fan.”

“I know who you are. Ranked number one in the state in high school. Then you went to college and quit soccer to join a sorority,” he states.

“Do you have a damn drone flying around my head? Am I chipped? Is there an audio feed going right into your brain? What is going on? Is this really my life?” Dylan is obviously having a moment.

Eleanor replies, “Joined the sorority before I quit, Mr. Daniels. Then, one day, I couldn’t walk up the stairs. It got better and worse. The worse became more often than the better. A million doctors’ appointments later, and I found out I wasn’t losing my mind.”

That’s heartbreaking.

“Jesus, kid, I’m sorry.”

“Any one of us can be taken out of the game at any given moment. It was a good run,” is Eleanor’s reply.

“Sure was.”

“Is this how it always is at Lincoln?” I ask Kameron.

“Who’s this?” Dylan’s dad asks.

I shrug and look around the car. “I’m The Cock’s girlfriend.”

They all bust up laughing.

“I’m so damn confused. So, you, and Bass, and my daughter are?—”

“No!” Dylan and I both yell in unison.

“Look, I just wanna live a peaceful existence on my hill. You girls?—”

Dylan cuts him off and quickly gives him the rundown on Koa.

“That’s insane. He really that good?”

“Yeah, Dad, he is.” Dylan sighs.

“Then you and your sister should sign his ass if you’re really going to jump into the agent game.”

“Speaker, Dad, speaker.”

“Love you, kid. Interesting meeting you girls. Be safe.”

“Love you, Dad.”

“Oh shit, one last thing. Make sure you show them the video of you making Giulietti piss himself.”

“Goodbye.” Dylan ends the call.

“ So …” Kameron Kosta giggles.

“No. Just no.” She shakes her head. “It’s not like that with him and I. My father didn’t really retire from the NHL; they kicked him off because he’s insane.”

“Your dad played for the NHL?” I ask.

“Duncan Daniels—look him up.” Eleanor turns and looks at her. “You and Drew really going to become?—”

“We come up with ideas all the time. Please keep it under wraps. I don’t think I could handle another nepo baby slam this week.”

Girl, same.

“We won’t say a word if … you show us Bass pissing his pants.” Eleanor grins.

“I told you my father was crazy, like certifiably. Plus, we should go before your guys send out search parties.”

“And Bass for you,” Kameron ribs her.

Dylan turns and looks at her. “It’s not like that, not even a little. Trust me; it’s simply sex.”

“If I’ve learned one thing this year, there is nothing simple about sex,” Kameron bats her lashes.

“I swear, with him and I, it is. And please, please, please don’t tell him or your guys you know. It’s supposed to be just between us. And most definitely don’t mention you heard a word out of my certifiably insane father’s mouth.”

“We promise.” Eleanor turns and looks at me. “Wanna go pregame at KET? See the house, meet the sisters, maybe pick out a room?”

“Do you all graduate this year?” I ask, wanting to add to my reasons for wanting to switch colleges to prepare for the inquisition from my parents.

“Just Dylan. Kameron and I are sophomores.”

“ Ooo … we should get a house.” Kami smiles. “Then we could all live together without drawing sorority lines.”

“Doesn’t the president have to live in their house?” I ask Kameron.

“Oh shit, that’s right, but just this semester and next fall. My term will be up for spring and my whole senior year.”

Ten minutes later, we’re entering KET, and I’ve fallen in love with the girls, and it. I needed to work on Sophie because I don’t want to leave her behind.

Now

“Are you okay?” Claudia asks, taking Savannah from me.

“I, uh, I … need to use the bathroom.”

“It’s right here, Ms. Kāne .” James, the bartender, motions to a door.

Inside the bathroom, all the emotions of being here, and the way he looked at me in not just anger but disgust, that mix is crushing on its own. But those girls, when he looked at them, and I assume they all must have received the same look because they stopped waving and throwing KET hand gestures … I am such a fool to have not thought through all of it. So stupid to think a dream where my grandmother was sitting on the beach, repeating three words no matter what question I asked, was a sign.

Those words?

Go to him .