Beauty and the Beefcake by Pippa Grant

Author:Pippa Grant [Grant, Pippa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

22

Ares

Dressing room’s quiet.

Most of the team’s still sleeping.

But not the rookie.

I come in on crutches. Not because I need the fucking things. Because I know they make me look weak.

Kid needs to think I’m weak.

Jaeger’s lacing his skates. Got some don’t fuck with me in his eyes, but he’s got something else he can’t hide.

Fear.

I straddle the bench. Foot’s not hurting as much today. Felicity knows it too.

Know-it-all rubbed it in my face this morning before she left for her clinic. “Happier since you let it rest, isn’t it?” she said.

Parting shot from the PTA.

Loki threw a knitting needle at her.

Murphy freaked about his Gammy not liking her knitting needles mistreated.

Those two are nuts.

So’s the rookie.

Should be sleeping.

Three rules to playing hockey.

Mind. Food. Sleep. Muscles.

“Can’t get that thing in a skate, old man,” he says to me with a jab at my ankle.

I pull out my tablet and turn it around for him. Got the team’s video from last night. “Too much head,” I tell him.

He glances at the screen and looks away.

Doesn’t want to watch himself miss another shot.

Nobody ever does.

But you have to. How you learn.

“You can’t be me.” I poke him. “Be better.”

That gets his attention.

“I am better than you,” he says.

I smirk. Has a bigger ego, yeah. Better? “Not yet.”

He’s good. Wouldn’t be pro if he wasn’t. But he’s in his head. Not in the game. See him thinking too hard.

Just needs more experience.

Guys think they make it first time they suit up for a pro team.

For some, that’s all they want. They got here. They made it.

Others, they want to be the next Chester Green. The next Gretzky. The next Gordie Howe. The next Lemieux.

They’re different.

This kid’s different.

But not until he gets out of his own way.

“Don’t think. Feel. Be you. Not me.” I pull myself up onto my crutches and leave. Doc’s waiting. Coach will be in soon.

Murphy’s holding Loki on a leash in the hall. He saunters next to me while we head to the doc’s office. “Felicity keep you off that ankle?” he asks.

I grunt.

“She’s wicked smart, man. You should listen to her.”

He’s a smart enough dude himself, except when it comes to his sister. Then he’s a dumbass.

“Mr. Berger. Good to see you using crutches today.” The doc’s waiting. Probably didn’t think I’d show.

Didn’t want to.

But it’ll make Felicity happy.

“Felicity talked him into using them,” Murphy says.

The doc and I both look at him. The doc, because what the fuck does Felicity have to do with me? And me, because I’m wondering if Murphy knows I kissed his sister.

Probably not.

But I don’t need that shit.

More important, he doesn’t need that shit.

“She’s getting her PTA,” Murphy adds.

“Mm,” doc replies.

Murphy’s eyes narrow. He knows as well as I do what that mm means. “She’s good at what she does.”

“Mr. Berger. Have a seat. Let’s see how the ankle’s looking today.”

I swing myself over to the exam table.

The doc looks at Murphy.

“Stays,” I say.

Not like I’m getting a rectal. And that would serve Murphy right for wanting to watch anyway.

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