Clear as Ice by Tara Kennedy

Author:Tara Kennedy [Tara Kennedy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Talkapedia Press
Published: 2022-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Al waited until they were on the bus to the airport in Toronto before checking his phone. Just as he'd hoped there was a text from Sienna.

Sienna: Good game.

Al: Thanks.

Sienna: Are you on the plane?

Al: Bus now, then plane.

Sienna: Cool, text me when you're back in DC.

Al: Okay.

He pocketed his phone. Kunyk was looking at him. "Texting your sister?" he asked.

Al frowned. "What do you know about my sister?"

"So not her then. Parents?"

"I did text my parents," Al said. He had texted the hockey emoji to the family group chat before he texted Sienna. So it wasn't untrue.

Spruce leaned over the back of his seat in front of them. "What are we talking about?"

"Stop is texting someone very intently."

"Really?" Spruce said. "Who is it? Is this why you're watching rom-coms?"

"Rom-coms are great." Mulvenna leaned over the back of his seat, so now Al had three sets of eyes trained on him. He'd rather be back on the ice, if this was the grilling he'd get off of it.

"I was just texting a friend that I'd be home later tonight," Al said.

"Do you have friends that are not on this bus?" Mulvenna asked.

"Are you guys this lacking for entertainment that we are counting friends now?" Al asked.

"I was honestly just teasing you, dude," Kunyk said. "You looked so serious that I thought for sure you were texting your agent or something. But then you smiled and got all squirrelly when I asked you. You can have secret friends if you want."

"Tell me the secret," Spruce chanted. "Tell me the secret."

"Has anyone got NyQuil? Some sort of sleeping pill. Chloroform maybe," Al asked.

"Hey," said coach who Al hadn't seen walking down the aisle until just then, oops. "No drugging your fellow teammates."

"So," Kunyk said, "other people's teammates are still on the table. Yes." He fist-pumped.

"And I'm walking away, so I have plausible deniability later," said Coach.

They all snickered.

"Are we gonna have time to play a game on the plane," Spruce asked. "Or are you fogies all going to sleep."

Mulvenna pillowed his hands under his cheek and made fake snoring sounds.

"Boo," Spruce said. "I need new friends."

"Hey," Kunyk said ruffling Spruce's hair. "Just remember fogies wake up early and know how to charm hotel staff."

"Ugh," Spruce said. "I hate you. It was bad enough I had Hrkac as my roommate all last year. This year I was supposed to have some privacy." Spruce had been drafted last year. First year players often had to share a room on road trips.

"I don't know why you need privacy to dress up like a princess and sing Disney songs. That seems like the kind of thing that would go over better in groups," Kunyk said.

"It's called cosplay, duh," Spruce said. "And I do do it in groups. But only with people who like respect the characters. Not people who confuse Elsa and Merida."

"Those are completely different characters," Al said.

"I know!" Spruce said. "But this dude," Spruce pointed to Kunyk, "saw a red wig, a bow and arrow and somehow thought that was an ice queen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.