Going offside, p.11
Going Offside, page 11
But I had achieved my dream at least. I was a pro hockey player, having worked my way up from a rookie to the main roster. It had always been the driving force to my life, to step out on the ice in the national league. That first moment where the crowd roared and my skates clacked against the ice I thought I had made it. Little did I know it wasn’t the culmination of anything, but the beginning. Getting there was one thing, staying there was another. I was only 21 and had my whole career ahead of me, but already I was beginning to see how precarious it could be, and how easily I could lose everything I had worked for.
“Hey, it’s you, isn’t it?”
I looked around. There was a guy across the aisle leaning towards me. His eyes were bleary and his words were slurred. He had a drink in his hand, and I suspected that he had spent a few hours in the airport bar before our flight had left. A few hours too many. His face was pudgy, his suit ill fitting, and a gold ring on his finger gleamed as it caught the shine from the electric light.
“I’m nobody else,” I said, shrugging, angling my head away from him because the last thing I needed was to engage in some awkward conversation with a stranger.
“No, you know what I mean, you’re the kid, right? What’s your name… Troy… Trent… Trent Markham!” he said, and seemed pleased with himself as he remembered my name. I let out a small sigh. The thrill of being recognized had lost its luster for me quickly. Sure it was great that people knew who I was, but few people understood boundaries and most of them were quick to speak their minds, especially when it came to sports. With the glut of information around everyone thought they were an expert, and I had a feeling this guy was no exception.
“You know, I just want to congratulate you on your first season. I think it’s great when guys like you can make it to the big time. That’s what this sport is all about. Hell, it’s what this country is all about! It’s amazing, makes you think that anyone has a chance to make it.”
“Thanks guy, I appreciate,” I said, offering him a kind smile but then his face turned sour and his voice dropped to a mocking hiss.
“I hope you enjoyed the limelight while you could, because it ain’t going to last for long if you keep missing your shots. I don’t know why the coach didn’t haul your ass off the ice for that horror of a miss in the last game. I mean, what were you thinking? God… it makes me think I could still make it in the pros. Something must be wrong with the training nowadays. You’d better watch your place, I can think of ten players they should trade in who could finish those shots for dinner,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said dryly, the smile falling from my face quickly. I pressed my lips together and bit my tongue. There were plenty of things I could have said in reply to him, but none of them would have done me any good. We had a whole press management briefing after one of the players got into an argument with someone at a shopping mall of all places. Even if we were right and justified in going off on one it never did us any good. We were always the bad guys, because we were the ones who had something to lose. Still, I didn’t know any other kind of job where people could come up to you in the street and start berating you for a mistake you made. It’s not like I go into some office and heckle someone for making a bad sales pitch, or start telling someone how best to organize a spreadsheet. Granted, I wouldn’t know what the hell I was doing with a spreadsheet anyway, but the point stands.
I looked towards the ceiling as the man went off into some rant about what tactics the coach should use and his plan for the next season, while I tried my best to shut him out. Thankfully he received a call from his wife that distracted him. I heard my name mentioned again. I’ll never understand how someone could be so excited about meeting someone and then so eager to tear them down.
The truth is that his words affected me more than he realized. When I closed my eyes I was taken straight back to that moment on the ice when the goal was in front of me and the shot was right there to be taken. I could still feel the energy in the crowd rising. It felt like something from a movie. Things went in slow motion as I brought my stick back and in my mind I could see the puck sailing past the keeper and hitting the back of the net… except it didn’t. It slid harmlessly behind the goal, the score was still tied, and my chance of ending the season on a high vanished as though I had just snuffed out a candle.
The problem wasn’t just that moment either, although it certainly left a bad taste in people’s mouths. I hadn’t given as good an account of myself as I should have. I certainly knew I was more than capable of being on the team, but something just wasn’t clicking for me when I stepped out onto the ice. I didn’t know if the pressure was getting to me or there was something else going on, but I was determined to figure it out over the summer, before I returned to Chicago. I had spent a lifetime waiting for this opportunity and I wasn’t going to let it slip away so quickly.
But in order to do this I needed help, and I knew exactly who to turn to.
*
Summer in North Dakota had always been perfect for me as a kid. When I returned I breathed in the crisp air and it brought back a wave of nostalgia. I noticed a few people murmuring in my direction, pointing as though I was some kind of attraction. I tried to keep to myself. I didn’t want a repeat of what happened on the plane, although I hoped that people in my small town would be more forgiving. I hopped in a taxi, and instead of going home I headed towards a ramshackle building on the outskirts of town.
This is where I had learned all I needed to learn, where the boy had become a man. I walked in through the heavy door and approached the ice. It was smooth and glacial. There was nothing more beautiful than this. It wasn’t like the arena in which I played now, what with the low ceiling and the wooden stands, but it could still create a cauldron of noise and when you’re a kid every game feels as important as the Stanley Cup final. It was the same game essentially, but all the surroundings had changed.
I walked to the back and heard someone grunting. The long office was also a gym. I looked in the window and saw him there, positioned on a bench where he worked out. He was laid flat, his chest bare. Sweat glistened on it. He was 36, but still in perfect shape. The angles of his muscles were raw and sharp, while a bed of hair spread over his torso and down his chest. As he lifted the weights over his head his biceps swelled, and some primal part of me fluttered. I pushed it away, ignoring the lump that formed in my throat. His thighs were as thick as tree trunks, his head had been shaved since the last time I had seen him, his way of fighting back against his thinning hair I guess. It did him a lot of favors though. Veins on his arms popped as he lifted the weights again, and then I saw him struggle.
I burst in and helped him as the dumbbell threatened to overwhelm his grip. I breathed in the musky scent of his sweat and my gaze was locked on the glistening expanse of his toned body.
“Hey Eric, I’m back,” I said simply, flashing him a smile that I hoped would smooth over the silence that had existed between us for a year.
Click Here to read more of Van Cole’s new release “On Thin Ice” (Click the link or enter https://books2read.com/u/mgNYgq into your browser.)
Click Here to check out this Van Cole best seller “Triple Threat” (Click the link or enter https://books2read.com/u/4ARQV0 into your browser.)
Hot new player Mats does more than just score goals.
Arrogant, ambitious and good looking, he thrives on attention.
And he just loves teasing team star, Keir.
Keir is a ladies' man.
He likes women.
And he lives to party.
So how does he wake up, unexpectedly married to someone he doesn't even like?
But Mats knows how to push the right buttons.
Before long, Keir is putty in his hands.
And he's not the only one.
Because there is a third person in this marriage - Keir's friend Finn.
However, Keir is desperate to keep their mutual arrangement to himself.
Unfortunately, life has other ideas and keeps thrusting him and his new husband into the spotlight.
The attention which Mats craves so much.
Does Mats really have feelings for Keir and Finn, or is he just using them?
Can three be the magic number in this hot romance?
Come Stalk Me!
Click Here to join my VIP Reader’s List and get this FREE story (Click the link or enter https://BookHip.com/NWPKPPR into your browser.)
Will The Second Chance At Love Be Better For These Former Lovers?
Dan is a professional hockey player at the top of his game – but when his wife up and leaves him out of nowhere, it feels like game, set and match. How is he supposed to get through his upcoming games with an apartment empty of furniture and his wife off sleeping with some baseball player she's supposedly been seeing for a while now?
Turns out, however, that Dan's life isn't finished loading things onto him yet. When Dan's college flame Jeremy walks back onto the scene, after years of Dan convincing himself that he's not gay and that his father was right about everything? Well, it completely screws his head up.
Now, Dan has no idea whether he's coming or going. Is he supposed to try and make it work with his wife???
Click here to follow me on BookBub
Van Cole, Going Offside
