Grumpy as puck, p.2
Grumpy as Puck, page 2
I tilted my head. “You want me to yell at them until they change it?”
“No. God, why does it always go there with you? No yelling or fighting. Just be nice and friendly with them. That’s all.”
I was listening to him and not liking what he was saying, but he was the coach. I wasn’t good at being nice. Now that I thought about it, I wondered when I smiled last?
Coach used to play hockey when he was younger. He knew the power of teamwork, so I nodded. “I know you’re right.”
His brow rose. “Oh, really?”
“I’ll think about it. And I’ll definitely relax this weekend. Maybe I’ll call Emmanuel, and we’ll hang out. Get some pizza and watch a game.”
“Yeah, Cillian, sit at home and watch a game. Like you do every night,” Coach mumbled as he turned to open the door.
“What? It sounded like you said, you do every night.”
“Never mind, Cillian, just enjoy your weekend and be back for practice on Monday. We’ve got a game next week.”
I waved. “Okay, Coach, you have a good night.” I watched him walk up to his house. His young kid opened the door to greet him, and then his wife appeared and leaned over, giving him a kiss on his cheek. And when they turned back, they saw me staring.
Instead of waving, I straightened in my seat and pulled away. Was it creepy for me to watch them? To be jealous of what coach had? Possibly.
I was hungry, and there was only one place to go when hunger struck. Pizza Joe’s.
Checking the time, I hoped I’d get the order in before they closed. I tapped the smart screen in the car and instantly called up my favorite pizza joint. It didn’t take long to order because Joe had it memorized.
Once the call was done, I thought about what Coach said to me. It had been a rough day on the ice, and maybe I had been a little too hard on some of the guys.
I should be nicer to them. Yell less. Perhaps even give out a compliment or two. I sucked in a breath. That wouldn’t be easy. The last time I gave compliments was two years ago.
A surprising image popped into my head. Images of the coach’s wife kissing him on the cheek. My fingers gripped the steering wheel tighter.
I didn’t have a thing for his wife. It was what they had together that sent a sharp pain through my heart.
How could I be nice to people when it only brought heartache?
I hadn’t always been the grumpy hockey player, but I learned the hard way why it didn’t pay to be sweet. When you’re kind to people, they use you and take advantage of your kindness. The more I thought about Coach and his loving family, the angrier I became. Not at him or his family, of course, but at life. I knew firsthand that kindness never got you love.
But for hockey, I could be nicer. Our team was good, not the best, but good. Maybe if I tried it Coach’s way, we could be the best.
I turned into the strip mall parking lot. It was late on a Friday, so there were no other cars. I pulled up and parked. Sitting there, I looked at the red and blue neon sign for Pizza Joe’s.
Every so often, it flickered. The only shop filled with light was the pizza place. I knew I was cutting it close with my order, but Joe liked me—mainly because I ordered so much pizza.
I knew many people like tacos, and I understood that. Call me old-fashioned, but I was a pizza guy. And Pizza Joe’s had the best pizza in Castle Ridge or just about anywhere.
I had been to New York many times and had eaten their pizza. And yeah, it was excellent, but nothing beat Pizza Joe’s.
My stomach growled, and I shook off that jealousy for love. I wanted to enjoy my night. A great night of sitting at home with my dad watching an old hockey game.
Hopefully, I’d learn something new from those old players. I always tried to improve my game.
All while enjoying my favorite food with the best dad anyone could ask for. Besides, it brought a little enjoyment to my dad’s life. He loved pizza and hockey too. Guess it was in our genes.
My dad deserved that happiness. He was all I had, and I was all he had since Mom passed.
I sighed but hopped out of the car. Enough with the memories… They only brought pain.
Once I opened the glass door to the pizza joint, it surprised me to see somebody in there, considering it was closing time. When I talked to Joe, he told me I added the last order of the night. I guess she ordered right before me.
There was something familiar about the young woman standing at the tall counter. Her long brown hair glistened in the fluorescent lighting.
I glanced up at the menu overhead, not that I was going to order anything else, just habit.
“Be right with you,” Joe’s deep voice came from the back.
When I turned to the woman, it hit me how I knew her—she was Jackson’s little sister. “Hello, Daisy,” I said with a frown.
My teammate Jackson was a little cocky shit everyone loved. Everyone but me.
And he hated me. I never understood what went up his ass and died.
Staring at Daisy, I made the mistake of settling on her beautiful large brown eyes that I swore bore deep into my soul. They took my breath away.
One night many years ago, I took a chance with her and instantly regretted it. She wanted nothing to do with me.
“Cillian.” She frowned because, obviously she would.
Nobody seemed to like me, maybe because I was too grumpy, like Coach said. But I had dealt with people who had attitudes before, and I didn’t outright hate them. They could have had a bad day. You never knew.
“So, what brings you here tonight?” I asked to be polite.
While she wasn’t a teammate, I thought I could practice my niceness skills on her. But what did it matter? She probably didn’t even want to talk to me.
She groaned.
I knew it.
“Just trying to get food, and since every store and restaurant around here closes when the sun goes down, I thought pizza. Pizza Joe’s is open late.”
I nodded and was about to add something, but she had an urgent need to keep speaking.
“I’m hungry, and apparently, we are all robots. As a robot, I need fuel. And after spilling Chinese food all over myself, I can’t get fuel that way, so it’s pizza.”
My head jerked back. She wasn’t reacting well to my kindness. I glanced around to find my reflection in the large metal pizza behind the counter. Did I look strange smiling? Was that why she was talking about robots?
“Spilling Chinese food on yourself sounds bad. Clumsy, huh?” I just went with it.
“Yes. Clumsy. I’m so clumsy.” Her arms rose into the air.
Apparently, the nice thing I was trying wasn’t working. Kindness wasn’t in my genes. Like, the nicer I became, the crazier people were around me.
“Hey, Cillian. I just finished your order.” Joe waddled out with a large pizza box in his hand. He had a thick head of black hair that was always plastered back with pomade. I knew it was pomade because my dad used the same type. I could smell it the moment I walked into his restaurant—it even overpowered the pizza scent.
“I’m sorry, miss, but this is his order. I can’t let you have it.”
“But I’m willing to pay double. I really am hungry, and I’ve had the worst day on earth.”
My eyes slid over to Daisy.
Fuck being nice.
“The worst, you say?”
“Yeah, the worst.” She emphasized it by groaning, her head falling back.
“I’ve had the worst day before. But never thought of stealing somebody else’s pizza from them.”
She shook her head and placed her hand on my arm. My eyes zeroed in on her touch. Normally I’d tell her to get her hands off me, but something happened. There was a tingle where her hand rested on my arm—a nice tingle.
“Cillian, I know this is your pizza, but please have a heart. All the places are closed, and I only want some food. I’ll pay you.” She smiled, but I noticed the redness around her eyes.
She wasn’t lying when she said she had a bad day. I could tell, but no one came between me and my pizza—not even a distressed but pretty young woman.
My heart broke for her, though it only lasted one second.
Her smile hardened, and I knew that look. My ex-girlfriend gave me that expression once. She pretended she cared when, in actuality, her heart was made of ice.
So, no, this was my pizza.
I reached over and took the pizza from Joe. He nodded, knowing I had already paid using his app.
“I’m going home. I’m hungry too. And you aren’t the only one who has hard days. There’s an entire world of people who had harder days than you. Should I give them a pizza too?”
She shook her head as she gazed at the gray-tiled floor. “No. I didn’t mean—”
“Nobody ever means anything, but maybe they should. Maybe they should just say the truth instead of sucking up to get what they want.”
I knew that was uncalled for, but I was in a bad mood. So much for trying to be nice.
Maybe I could try again when I wasn’t hungry and tired and dealing with a woman who didn’t know the first thing about bad days.
I slammed a twenty on the counter and walked out the door. Joe deserved a big tip.
Her problems were not my problems.
Anyone else who didn’t like me because they were having a bad day? Well, then that was their problem and not mine.
Chapter three
Daisy
“What happened to you? Did you catch Andrew in bed with another woman?” My brother’s smile widened with pride at his on-the-nose tragic joke.
I stood on his front doorstep as the icy rain soaked through my sweater until it burned my skin. “Funny, coming from a man with a black eye.” I waved for him to let me inside.
Some people thought it was amusing that my brother didn’t comprehend basic etiquette, like not letting a person get rained on while standing at his front door by inviting them inside. I never saw the humor in it.
He flashed me a stunned expression and then nodded, stepping aside. “Where’s your coat?”
“Forgot it.” I slugged the large plastic bag from my shoulder and let it land with a sloppy thud on the square tiles in his front entrance.
He laughed. “You forgot it? That sounds like something I would do. It’s pouring rain out, Daisy.”
I threw my head back and laughed, because why not? At least I wasn’t crying… anymore. I had been sobbing the whole walk over. Loud, overly dramatic weeping that I hadn’t done since I was fifteen years old. And that was only when our elderly dog, Bensen, got hit by a car.
My brother didn’t need to know about my ridiculous tears. Thankfully, the rain covered up the trails they left behind.
Just before I reached my brother’s door, I decided I was tired of wasting my emotions on a man who thought cheating on his girlfriend was the equivalent of helping pay a bill, like it was a good thing. I felt numb at his sheer stupidity and my ineptitude at not realizing I was wasting years of my life with a moron.
“It seems you’re right, Jackson.”
“Right about what?” His brow crinkled.
I turned to face him and stared as my brother’s face morphed from confusion into concern. I felt the tears brew behind my eyes but shook them off.
No. No more tears.
“I walked in on Andrew in bed with another woman… the other woman being my boss.”
His smile faded. “What? Oh, Daisy, I’m so sorry. Oh, my god. I feel like an idiot.”
I loved my brother with all my heart, but he was an idiot. I was born with the brains, and he was born with the brawn, hence why he was a hockey player.
But, still, he meant well.
“It’s not your fault, Jackson. I’m sure you were only joking about Andrew cheating.”
His brown eyes slid to the side as he mumbled, “Yeah, I was joking.”
“What?”
He waved his hand in the air. “Nothing, Daisy. I’m so sorry. You’re soaked. Let me go get you a towel.” He headed down the hallway of his miniscule one-bedroom apartment. “Make yourself comfortable on the couch. I’ll see if I have anything you can wear. I’ll be right back.”
The floor creaked despite it being heavily carpeted. He used to have a big house when he was with his wife, but when they divorced—which was her idea—she took him for everything.
I knew what Katie was the moment I met her, and that was a gold digger. There wasn’t much of a way to make money in a small town up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Unless you became a social media personality, which she tried, but the woman was not good at much in life, and that included getting followers on her VidTube account.
The only thing she did was help create my nephew, Lucas. He was the only reason I tolerated her.
But being a mom was too much for her, so she left when he was only one. They divorced when he was two, and now she only saw him about once a month.
Despite all that, my brother still loved her. She took all his money, left him to raise their son all on his own, and only came back when she wanted something. Yet he hoped they’d get back together one day.
Jackson was the nicest guy and would do anything for the people he loved, and Katie took advantage of that. Our father raised us to treat people with respect, but I couldn’t respect her.
“Okay, here we go. Got a towel.” He held a small hand towel up victoriously.
I shook my head but grabbed it, wiping down my face.
“Lucas is coming. He wants to show you a book he got.” My brother tried to smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
He loved his son with every cell of his heart, but he hoped Lucas would fall in love with sports like he had when he was young. Unfortunately, his four-year-old only seemed to be interested in books. That was where I took over.
Since his mother and father split, I became a motherly figure to my nephew. While I had a passion for helping animals, I also loved books.
“Oh no. I didn’t wake him, did I?”
Jackson shook his head. “Nah, I caught him reading under his window. He was using the light from the outside streetlamp to read.”
Smart kid. I rolled my lips over my teeth, trying not to giggle. “That’s terrible.”
My brother’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t enable him with those books you always show up with. And then story time over at the Castle Ridge Library.” He snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. “You know what you are, Daisy…? You’re a book pimp.”
I pushed my hands onto my damp jean-clad hips and took a step closer to my brother. “Take that back. I’m only sharing my love of books with my nephew. You’re just jealous because he loves books more than hockey.”
Jackson’s nose flared. I had crossed the line. The moment the words exited my mouth, I knew I had gone too far.
“I didn’t mean that, Jackson. I’m sorry—”
He held up his hand. “No, you’re right. I don’t understand. What kid doesn’t love to hit a ball with a stick? I’d even be happy if he liked… you know, those non-athletic sports, like golf. Hell, at this point I’d even settle for chess.”
“He’s four,” I said, though I knew my brother wasn’t listening anymore.
It’s not that he hated his son reading—he didn’t mind it at all—and he knew it would be helpful for him when he started school next year. It was Lucas’s obsession with books, combined with his total disinterest in sports, that upset Jackson. His son had become the total opposite of him, and he couldn’t relate.
My brother rubbed his brow and was about to continue his tirade when a miniature version of him came bounding down the creaking hallway. “Hi, Auntie Daisy. What book did you bring me?”
My brother pointed his finger at me. “Book pimp.”
I frowned. Maybe I had been spoiling him with a lot of books. I realized I always brought a book—or two or five—every time I came over.
Bending down until I sat on my haunches, I smiled at the little boy who stole my heart the moment I held him in the hospital. His mother refused to take her eyes off me until I returned him. Katie never liked me, and the feeling was totally mutual.
“I’m sorry, Lucas. I worked late today and didn’t have time to get any at the library for you. How about we go tomorrow, and you can pick them out yourself?”
That got a smile from him. My heart melted as the dimples appeared on his cheeks. He was so darn cute.
“Yes, I’d like that. But, Auntie Daisy, why are you all wet? Didn’t Daddy tell you that if you stand out in the rain, you’ll catch a cold?”
My eyes shifted up to my brother. “No. Your daddy didn’t tell me that. I think a good idea for books we can check out tomorrow would be about the weather. Would you like to learn about the weather and where rain comes from?”
His blue eyes lit up. “Oh, yes. That would be great.”
I mussed up his mop of brown hair, and Lucas pushed my hand away. He hated when I did that, but his hair was so soft. I only did it to prevent myself from wrapping my soggy arms around him for a hug. The boy was so huggable.
My brother cleared his throat. “Hey, Auntie Daisy?” Jackson lifted his brows. “It’s a little late, and we should get back to bed.”
I looked at my wrist as if I had a watch… which I didn’t.
“Oh, yeah, it is late, isn’t it?” I gave my brother a wink. “Lucas, how about this? I’m going to get myself dried off, and then I’m going to come in and read you a bedtime story. And after that, you go to sleep. No more reading.”
“Yes.” He clapped his hands and ran off down the hall. “Auntie Daisy, I’ll be waiting in my bedroom for you,” he called out as he shuffled into his room.
Which was also my brother’s room since the apartment was only a one-bedroom. My brother slept on a full-sized bed that was just wide enough for his frame, but I knew his feet hung off the end.
Little Lucas slept in his adjustable toddler bed. He had inherited my brother’s height, so I knew it wouldn’t be long before he needed a bigger bed. When that happened, I hoped there would be enough room to walk around in the bedroom for them.
