Falling Fast (Loving the Sound Book 1)

by Kat Obie

  Alice leaned into Scott’s clavicle and kissed it. She could feel his body’s tension ease off some but, then again, it might have been her mind playing tricks on her.

  His tone turned light and happy when he said, “Yeah, I do talk a little funny, don’t I? It’s because I learned French when I was your age and then I learned English.”

  Noelle must have piped in. Alice smiled at how sweetly he spoke to her niece. He leaned down and kissed her nose lightly as he asked, “Do you like hockey?”

  Because of how close they were, Alice could hear Noelle say, “Yeah, but are you one of the good guys or the bad guys? Do you know Gritty?”

  Scott arched his eyebrow at Alice. She feigned innocence. She knew he was going to poke fun at how Alice had introduced Noelle to the Flyer’s mascot. Gritty was cool and she loved how much Noelle would giggle anytime she saw Gritty.

  “Yea. I’m definitely one of the good guys. I play for a different team. We have a different mascot, so Gritty won’t be there. I can bring you to one of my games.”

  “When?”

  “We will have to figure it out with your mom. Most likely it will be the next time that you come to visit your Aunt Alice.”

  That sounded like the perfect trip to do when her sister came to town. She knew that he would treat the whole family well when the time came. But it was something she would never ask of him.

  “Be sure you look after her,” said her sister. “She tries to be strong, but I’ve seen her break down. Each time it happens, she puts up more walls. It sounds like she’s about to break again.”

  “I promise. I don’t want to hurt her in any way. It killed me that I wasn’t there for her last night until after she called. I wish I could have done more,” he said earnestly.

  Much like when he’d gone to take care of Chloe, he kissed her forehead again to seal that invisible promise. He then leaned down and took a super quick but chaste kiss from her lips. Handing the phone back to Alice, he shooed her towards the bathroom.

  “He seems nice so far. But I still need to meet him.”

  “Okay. Just pick a date when the Sound are at home and we will do something together. I really should get ready for work.”

  “If you need to talk, just call. I know how vulnerable you feel after something like this, and I never even saw the guy who stole my laptop. I can’t imagine what it’s like seeing the culprit in your home. I’m glad you’re okay and were with someone the rest of the night.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Love you,” both Allison and Noelle said together, and Alice answered, “I love you too.”

  Alice didn’t always say ‘I love you’. It was something she saved for people who deserved it, and she wouldn’t ever give an empty one.

  Alice hung up the phone and realized the time. No wonder Scott was starting to shoo her into the bathroom—it was getting late. She texted her mom a few more times as she waited on the water to get nice and hot.

  Scott had different shower stuff than she used. She hadn’t thought to grab her own stuff last night, so it would have to do. She reminded herself she would be getting another shower after her swim lessons in the afternoon.

  After getting dressed and her hair braided, she grabbed her work bag and walked to the kitchen. She could smell sausage and eggs—delicious, but it caused her stomach to flip.

  When Scott saw her, he waggled his eyebrows, trying to entice her into eating. She politely shook her head. She wasn’t hungry at all, even if her stomach had wanted to cooperate with the idea of breakfast.

  “I’m good.” She sat down at the island on one of the wooden barstools. She watched as Scott filled up his plate. He handed her a travel mug full of coffee, which she quietly accepted. It was much stronger than she had anticipated, more like one of the lattes with extra shots she would order as a free reward from Starbucks.

  “I’m sorry about my sister. I should have known she’d give you the 3rd degree today.”

  “It’s all good. She worries about you. That’s how family should be. She didn’t scare me away. I’m still here for you like I said on the phone. Just give me a moment to eat some of this while it’s still hot, and then I can take you to work. Did you want me to come with you until I have to go to the morning skate?” asked Scotty as he was eating his breakfast. “Also, how did you want to handle things when you are done with work?”

  Alice watched him eat as she sipped her coffee. “I think I can handle work on my own. Sundays tend to be pretty quiet, and I have about half my day in the pool. If I need anything, I’ll let you know.” She was most likely going to turn to someone else so he could get some rest. “I can take the RTA to the game, or I might run home to get my car.”

  Scott seemed surprised and said, “Are you sure?”

  Alice nodded. “I want you to do your normal routine. Besides, I normally take the RTA to games anyway. It won’t be a problem.”

  Alice continued to sip on her coffee. She was amazed at how much it fit the bill for what she wanted that morning. The cup was literally perfect, and she had to ask, “How did you know I wanted something this strong and flavorful?”

  “I had a feeling. Do you have enough for work?”

  Alice nodded. As much as she loved her coffee, she always nursed it, especially her first cup of coffee of the day. Scott set his empty plate in the dishwasher and grabbed his own coffee mug that he had tucked beside him. Then he dropped her off at work.

  6

  Scott

  The morning skate was not going well for Scott. Being tired and unable to focus on the game in front of him was bad enough. He still had Alice’s sister’s words going through his head about trying to make sure that Alice didn’t completely break down from all the stress despite appearing to be strong. He was making terrible plays left, right, and center. If he wasn’t overshooting the puck, he was having it stripped from him.

  “Ok. What’s the deal, man?” asked Lager when they were in line for a shooting drill.

  “Rough night,” Scotty said dryly.

  “No shit! You better get yourself fucking sorted out. I’m not losing to the Habs because you can’t get your shit together.”

  Scotty felt bad. They had been talking about this game for a while. The two of them always pulled out their A-game when they were matched up against their old teams that had let them get exposed in the expansion draft.

  Lager needed him to be the setup man tonight and really make the Habs regret their decision. It didn’t matter that the expansion had been over four years ago at this point. Lager would do the same anytime they played Nashville.

  “I will,” Scotty said with absolute certainty. “I just need to get some sleep. I’ll be ready.”

  Then it was their turn. Lager sped through the middle, and Scotty went right to draw the defender away from the net while he brought the puck through the middle. Everything was all ready for the pass to Lager so he could have an easy shot on goal, but Scotty shanked it yet again.

  Berman blew his whistle to end practice. The guys cleaned up the pucks and nets as the doors opened up for the Zamboni to clean the ice surface for the next skating session. As Scotty was coming off the ice, Berman said, “Wheilan, my office in ten.”

  FUCK! That’s never good. I was sucking hard today, but I can’t get scratched tonight.

  He was going to get reamed for his lack of focus. As captain, he was supposed to be the leading example for the team. He wasn’t supposed to have off days, and he’d always lived up to his commitment as captain until today.

  He couldn’t keep Alice off his mind. It sucked to see how even though she was more herself in the morning, the light and spark in her eyes was missing.

  Scott stripped out of his gear and went into the showers. He had to get into Berman’s office within ten minutes if he had any hope of playing.

  Normally, he liked to take much longer than ten minutes, but he took a quick shower and got changed. He didn’t bother to look at his phone to see if there was anythi
ng from Alice. Right now, the only thing on his mind was trying to make sure he didn’t get in any more trouble.

  The coach’s door was open when he came up to the office. Instead of walking straight in and risking pissing off Berman even more, he knocked on the doorframe before entering.

  “Get the fuck in here and shut the door.”

  Scott did as he was told and sat down in the chair across from Berman’s desk. Berman’s office was the standard collection of piles of current team research papers, playbooks, old memorabilia on the wall, and tablet.

  “Care to explain where your mind was today?” asked Berman. While left unsaid, Scott felt the huge undertone of “it better be a fucking good reason.”

  Scotty was tempted to say he was sorry. But he knew that would be him living up to the Canadian stereotype and it wouldn’t do him the least bit of good in this situation. He just had to tell it straight.

  “I didn’t sleep much, and I was worried about my girlfriend. I was thinking about her most of the time.”

  Berman’s face was inscrutable at the moment. He wasn’t raging with anger, but he wasn’t giving any indication of what he was thinking. That was just as scary. When he was pissed, you at least knew where you stood.

  Scotty kept talking. “She was broken into last night while she was sleeping. She saw the guy before he ran off with some of her stuff, and she needed help. She was in rough shape, as you can imagine, with an on-going panic attack for a bit. Once she was at my place, it was either stay up and protect her as she slept or go out to do something super stupid like try to kill the guy who did it. I decided not to do something stupid, but I’m paying for it now. You have every right to be pissed off at me. I should have slept more than I did.”

  Berman rolled his mouth around as if he was chewing on each and every word he was going to say. He was staring down Scott, which wasn’t helping Scott’s confidence levels or giving him any indication of what the coach was thinking.

  After what felt like a lifetime, Berman said, “I wasn’t expecting to hear that. I should have known you would have a damn good reason for your focus being off. At least it’s not another injury. I take it she is okay?”

  “Yeah. She was unharmed in the burglary, but she was shaken up something fierce.”

  “That’s to be expected. How pissed off are you at the situation?”

  With absolutely no hesitation, he said, “Very!”

  “Can you focus that anger against the Habs and be at least halfway decent again before game time?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. Well then, you will play tonight as long as you don’t look like shit in the warm ups. If you do, I will scratch you.”

  Scott nodded, he should go before Berman had a chance to change his mind. As Scott stood up to leave, Berman said, “Don’t blindside me again. You were utterly useless today, and I expect better from you.”

  Scott nodded and quickly made his escape. Instead of hanging out with the guys in the locker room like he normally did, he headed out the door.

  Scott wasn’t expecting to see Lager waiting for him. While they used to sometimes drive together since they only lived a few houses apart, that had stopped a while ago. Lager and Brigitta let Petey live with them until Petey found a place locally. Since Petey was still bouncing between the NHL and AHL, he really wasn’t looking for a place in Cleveland. If Lager would carpool with anyone, it would be with Petey.

  Scotty wasn’t looking for ass-chewing number two from Lager of all people. He’d just survived one from Berman. All he wanted to do was get home and pass out. At least he’d already picked up the replacement tablet for Alice before he came to practice.

  Lager reached out for the car keys. “You are NOT driving home today.”

  While Scotty wanted to say WTF, he decided to stay calm and collected. “What about your car?”

  “Petey drove us in today. Now hand over your keys before I take them from you.”

  Scott glared. He knew his friend meant well, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He was just going to hand over his keys.

  He was exhausted and about to put up a fight when Lager said, “Dude, you missed your one-timer at least ten times today. You weren’t even close to the goal mouth. Normally, you have complete control over that and make Crestor or Clay sweat it out in net. You didn’t test him at all today. I can’t remember the last time that happened. Do you think I really trust you to drive your car home safely? Don’t make me fight you for your keys, you dumbass.”

  “Fine,” said Scott in resignation. He couldn’t say anything to contradict Lager or make a better argument, so he tossed his keys over and rounded the car to sit in the passenger seat while Lager climbed into the driver’s seat. Scott moved the tablet out of the way so he wouldn’t crush it.

  Lager lead the conversation as Scotty preferred silence. “Okay, what happened last night? Don’t tell me you and Alice had a fight and broke up already.”

  “It wasn’t anything like that.”

  “Well, I know it wasn’t from too much sex. I’ve known you long enough to know that if you’re getting laid, your game improves. It doesn’t go to hell in a handbasket. So, tell me what happened.”

  When did he learn that phrase? I don’t even use ‘hell in a handbasket’ and I’ve heard it before.

  Lager would occasionally go into spurts of learning English idioms and then use them way too much. But it always seemed so forced. Although this time, it sounded correct.

  “Alice was broken into last night while she was sleeping, and I had to go pick her up after she was done dealing with the police.”

  “Fuck, man. Is she okay?”

  “Yeah, for the most part.”

  Fortunately, Lager knew enough not to pry about the last part. Although the Austrian did continue to ask questions. “Did they get anything?”

  “Yeah but the police recovered some things. But she really didn’t say too much about the night. She had a massive panic attack, and this morning, she would just give broad statements of what happened or didn’t talk about it at all. The panic attack freaked me out almost as much as the news of the break-in. If that wasn’t bad enough, I’m also a shitty boyfriend.”

  That made Lager’s right eyebrow go straight up. He would ask why next, so Scotty beat him to the punch. “Would you believe today is her birthday and I had no clue? Even Chloe knew to give Alice something this morning. I already feel shitty since I wasn’t there to protect her, but this is something that could have been avoided.”

  “Okay, man, two things: What the fuck did your dog give your girlfriend? And were you supposed to know?”

  Scotty suddenly felt like he wasn’t getting interrogated anymore. Instead, it was just two guys talking. Lager always seemed to know when to change the tone to a more light-hearted one that could make Scott feel at ease when he was stressed, much like today.

  “Chloe gave up her hockey puck. You know how Chloe never gives up that thing easily. Sure, she was doing it as a consoling measure, which was awesome since I really thought she might hate Alice.” He switched to the other question that Lager asked. “No to knowing about the birthday. She gave me no clue until this morning. I only found out because she was . . .” Scotty took the time to find the right word. She wasn’t disappointed or pissed. “She just didn’t want to deal with any birthday wishes. It’s almost as if she connected the two events and wanted to forget everything.”

  Lager shook his head in disbelief. “So, what’s the problem? It sounds like she’s one of the few girls who don’t expect anything on their birthday.”

  “I just don’t want her to hate her birthday or always think of how the day started off for her this time. I want to help turn it around. I’m just not sure how.”

  “You said she’ll be able to come to tonight’s game and hang out with the other wives and girlfriends, right?”

  “Yeah. We finally have our schedules synced up. She was excited to come out before this all happened since the last game
she actually made it to was against the Flyers. It would have been a mini-disaster if we introduced her to everyone at that game, especially since I only met her earlier that day. She’s been working so much in the evenings that it was just easier to watch at work or at home. She was still on board this morning, but it seemed to be an afterthought for her. Then again, everything was.”

  Lager switched gears and said, “Any luck on convincing her about the error of her ways for supporting the Flyers?”

  Scott laughed. “Nope. I doubt I ever will. Besides, it’s wicked cute to see how worked up she gets when she watches them. I did get her to be a full-on fan for the Sound, though. She just roots for both teams. So that’s not too bad.”

  “Well, I guess I can live with that. If you want me to see if Bridge can get something put together inside the box, I can.”

  Lager turned into Scott’s driveway. Lager turned off the ignition and handed the keys back to Scott. He nodded and said, “That would be great. But nothing too crazy. She was hesitant about her birthday already. I did get her a replacement tablet that I was going to wrap up. Let’s make sure that gets up there with whatever Brigitta can put together.”

  A wave of fatigue worked its way through Scotty. He let out an epic yawn as Lager said, “Get your ass to bed. I can’t have you playing like shit tonight. I need you to set me up for a hatty.”

  “A hat trick? Really? Just that? Like those grow on trees. Do you think that Kosti or Deimi are going to give one up so easily?”

  “I never said it had to be a natural hat trick. I would be just as happy with a Gordie Howe hat trick. But that’s what I want.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” said Scotty with a laugh, knowing full well that was a big ask. If they were able to get Lager his hatty, the Sound would be in good shape for a win. That’s what Scotty wanted in every game.