Will gave me a wide smile, slapping a hand against my back. “Well, technically Pat’s our brother, too, since he’s your brother,” he joked.
“Yeah! And besides, I heard there’d be beer?” Felix pointed out. “There better be beer. Do you know how hard it is to find a dog sitter for four dogs?”
Chase laughed. “That’s your own fault for getting four dogs, Felix!” he chirped. Felix scowled, but we all knew he wasn’t really offended. Owning so many dogs was very much his choice, he couldn’t hold anyone else responsible.
“Will’s just lucky he’s got Lacey to look after Teddy,” our captain added. The fact that Luke had come up to help me explained why so many of the team had followed his lead. He was, after all, great at motivating us all to work together. “I don’t know how you find a sitter for a dog that’s bigger than a person!”
We all laughed. The fact that Will had accidentally ended up with what felt like the world’s biggest dog was a great amusement to everyone. His Newfoundland was so huge that we’d even teased that Will had had to get an extension on his house for him. It was probably more to do with Lacey; she came with a dog, too.
In the past few years, quite a few of the Pumas seemed to have settled. We hadn’t had many wedding bells just yet, but I was sure they were coming. That was one of the things that made it so nice that they’d all come out to help me now. Apart from Felix, the other guys were all in relationships, yet they’d sacrificed a weekend with their girlfriends for me and Pat’s house.
“So as the resident house-building expert,” I said, turning to Chase with a grin. “Are you going to be the building supervisor?” Chase helped to build houses for charity but I had no idea what that actually meant. This summer, I had learned that there was a lot of stuff you did when building a house.
“Naturally,” Chase answered. “How could I pass up a chance to actually boss our captain around for once?” Luke laughed, holding up his hands to show he had no intention of challenging Chase’s leadership.
It was good to know someone with a clue was in charge!
“I talked to your brother,” Chase added. “He says the kitchen’s pretty much done, but he wants to put up bookshelves in the study. Will, after all that Lacey’s taught you, do you think you can handle that?”
Much to everyone’s amusement, Lacey was surprisingly good at handling power tools. She’d helped Felix set up a television cabinet only a few weeks before I left Salt Lake for the summer.
“Wait,” Felix said with a frown. “Is it too late to get Lacey to come out?” he asked. Will smacked his arm.
“Yes, it’s too late. You’re stuck with me, how sad for you.” The chirping made us all laugh and Will shook his head. “I can probably manage some shelves,” he promised. “I even know how to use a spirit level now,” he informed us, a claim that was met with many ‘oohs’, only some sarcastic.
Chase nodded before proceeding to give the rest of us little jobs, too. I was assigned to help him and Luke in the bathroom. That ended up being more laying of tiles, which at this point, I was actually pretty good at.
“Thanks a lot for coming out,” I said again, once we were mid-way through getting the tiles down on the floor. “It’s been a huge help so close to the wedding. I can’t imagine building a whole house for a future wife,” I shook my head. “Not something everyone does.”
“About that,” Luke said, fixing me with his captain’s gaze over the tiling. “You’re not allowed to tell El. Or any of the girlfriends. They’ll all want us to build them houses!”
Chase laughed, the sound ringing off the partially-tiled walls. “Morgan might already expect that,” he pointed out. “And if I have to do it, the rest of you will too. Unless you all manage to get married first.”
It was remarkable how much had changed. Once, the mere suggestion of marriage would have made half the Pumas back off with wide eyes. Now, there was a kind of acceptance that it would happen eventually.
It gave me a pang, just under my heart. There was no girlfriend for me to worry about house-building for.
Yet, almost to mock me, Helena’s face entered my mind. The way she smiled, the way she laughed. Fuck. I needed to stop thinking about my ex. I’d spent a long time making those memories not hurt every time marriage was mentioned! Now, it all seemed to be creeping back in, just... differently at the same time.
“You whine and you complain, but we all know that if El wanted you to build her a house, you’d go out of your way to,” I teased Luke. “And besides, it’s not like all of us wouldn’t help.”
That was certainly true. We all loved El. Perhaps not quite the same way Luke did, but she was our nutritionist, everyone on the team had a personal relationship with El. It was a bit different than the other guys’ partners. Chase’s girlfriend Morgan, for instance, I barely knew at all.
“El’s sensible enough to realize it’s a much better use of my time to hire someone to build a house,” Luke grumbled, but there was no malice in it.
Before I could point out that no one had asked Pat to build a house himself, Luke had already moved on. “I think it’s a nice thing he’s doing. Building a house in your home town. Did you always live here?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Grew up here. It’s... small,” I chuckled. Honestly, being home this summer had reminded me how community-driven a town so small could be. It wasn’t something I had at all appreciated as a kid. Now, I could see the appeal. My parents loved it here because of that community and I knew that Pat chose to stay here for similar reasons.
“And you skate here?” Chase asked, adding another tile.
“Oh, yeah! There’s a rink. It’s nothing huge or whatever, but hockey’s always been a big thing here,” I explained to some hums of ‘well it is Canada’ that made me chuckle. “Once we finish this, I’ll take you guys skating on my high school ice!”
It was an easy promise to make, considering that I had already rented it with them in mind. There were hardly very many occasions that we got over the summer to skate together; I wanted to take any opportunities we could get.
The word quickly spread through the house about the skating. It inspired everyone to work that much harder. When we finally made it onto the ice, Pat’s house was almost finished. It was impressive just how much we’d gotten done. And the ice was a great reward.
“Three on two?” I asked as we hit the ice, skates sliding over it. The coolness and excitement mixed together in me, pushing all of my school-time memories forward. I had been training on this ice all summer, but I hadn’t actually had a chance to play with someone.
Luke took my side, sending the other three to team up together. “Home-ice advantage,” he teased me. “Not to mention having the captain on your team. We’ll kick their asses.”
That was fighting talk. I could see Chase getting revved up to challenge us. Will hung back, putting himself in a position to defend.
As the smaller team, we took the puck first, slamming it back and forth across the ice. My blood sang with the joy of it, whistling round my body just the way it had when I was a kid on this very same ice.
There was such a sense of grandeur, playing on my high school ice but playing this amazing hockey with people who were best at what they did. Passing the puck back and forth with Luke felt like coming home. We didn’t always play the same line, but there’d been plenty of games we had.
It wasn’t easy to slide past Felix, who was one of the fastest skaters I’d ever met, but the rush that shot through me, eyes focused on the goal was amazing. Not even looking at Luke, I passed the puck to him. It was a sweet assist and would have been made even sweeter if Chase hadn’t swooped in to snatch the puck from him.
His whoop of triumph was magnified by the crisp, chill air, echoing around us as he put on a burst of speed. Luke and I turned with a spray of ice to chase him, following on his heels as we raced to outdo one another.
Breathless, I plunged my stick forward in an attempt to steal the puck back. At almost
the same moment, Chase turned, our bodies colliding. In the chaos, it was Luke who ended up with the puck, rushing off down the rink towards Will Green.
Felix darted towards them, but with Will being the only defenseman here, it was him who slammed Luke into the boards. Had I not been so focused on the puck, I would have thought that it was interesting that even in a pick-up game, we played our best hockey. Felix used the opportunity to get the puck, heading straight for our goal.
Even with Luke’s quick recovery, neither of us managed to stop Felix from passing to Chase and the quite impressive goal Chase scored. There was a loud ‘fuck yeah!’ as Chase dashed across the ice towards Will and Felix, celebrating like he had just scored the winning goal in an NHL game.
“Come on, Luke, let’s not let the kids win,” I called out, getting the puck. There was a loud ‘hey’ from Will who was closer to the age Luke and I were. But that was beside the point.
Luke zipped up the ice to join me, skating just ahead so I could shoot the puck towards him in a diagonal line that would take it closer to the goal as well as further from Felix’s reaching stick.
We traded back and forth, gaining a little with every pass, until Luke charged into Will. He slipped the puck to me at the last possible second. Without a moment’s hesitation, I slammed it straight into the goal.
Will roared his frustration, while Luke and I cheered like over-excited kids ourselves.
“One more,” I told Luke with determination in my tone. “Home-ice advantage,” I reminded. “Can’t let me lose on my own home ice!” Of course, there was no real losing or winning, but the guys definitely would not let me live it down if I couldn’t bring a victory on my high school ice.
Getting the last goal turned out to be more challenging than I had expected. The other guys definitely stepped their game up. There was no giving anyone the victory as we poured our all into this pick-up game. Luke dashed across the ice and giving me some of the most perfect passes.
Will, though, managed to stop the puck from sliding straight into the goal in a maneuver that even our coach would have been impressed with.
The five of us fought it out, the puck pinging across the ice so fast it was hard to see it. This was no lazy, easy game because we were on vacation. All of us treated it seriously.
But none more seriously than me. Memories of winning - and losing - on this very ice before I’d made it to the pros seemed to speed my skates on faster and faster. Every time Luke passed me the puck, I weaved my way between Felix and Chase, bolting straight for the goal.
Finally, I dodged Chase, feinting left so he’d follow me that way before immediately pivoting to the right. Skating forward the last few feet, I shot the puck straight between Will’s legs.
While the victory didn’t feel as good as winning the playoffs, or even as good as getting to the playoffs, it still felt good. We’d agreed to stop after three goals, needing some sort of a limit. As we all skated towards the boards, I smacked my hand against Luke’s back.
“That home-ice advantage and captain advantage really worked out for me,” I joked. But it did feel good to win here, even if it was just a pick-up game. My heart was beating faster, excited to share this ice with guys I considered family.
“Congratulations,” Will said, pulling his helmet off. “We obviously let you win,” he chirped. That was fine because we all knew that they definitely hadn’t. None of us were the sort of men who’d intentionally let another guy win at hockey.
Felix grinned, nodding his head as we headed to get our skates off. “So come on, Levesque, where’s this beer I was promised?” he asked.
Luke groaned, stooping to fit his guards over the blades of his skates. “I can’t keep up with you youngsters,” he lied. “First we build a house, then we skate, and then you want beer?”
The guys were still here for a few more days, there was no rush. “What about beer tomorrow?” Chase suggested. “It’s supposed to be the last nice day before the storms, right? Unless you’ve got other plans, Sam.”
“No, that sounds good!” I nodded. The guys had rented a house in town. From what I’d seen when picking them up, there was a pretty decent back yard. “We’ll do a barbeque? I’ll invite Pat, too, so he can buy all the beer as a thanks for all your hard work,” I joked.
In the end, Pat did actually end up buying a large part of the beer. It kind of evened out with the amount of meat I bought for the barbeque. There wasn’t exactly a lot left by the time I’d bought enough to feed six grown men, five of whom were professional hockey players.
The back yard of their rented house was big, just as I had assumed. We’d even found a bunch of outdoor furniture in the shed. It made for a great time. We let Luke take care of the food so he could make sure nothing he might be allergic to went in it. It seemed like a fair deal.
“So what is it that you do, Pat?” Will asked, taking a seat and handing my brother a beer. “Apart from putting us all to shame by building houses as presents,” he joked.
“Pat’s a social worker,” I jumped in to say. “He’s always out and about helping people. The much more altruistic brother,” I joked. Pat could have, of course, answered for himself, but I knew he’d undersell his achievements. “We’re really proud of him,” I added, grinning at Pat as he blushed slightly at the compliment.
“Yeah, well, we’re pretty proud of you too, big brother,” he teased. “It’s not just anyone who can become a professional hockey player.” Everyone beamed at that, pleased by the compliment, however indirect.
It was good to bring both sides of my ‘family’ together like this. Pat had met most of the Pumas when he’d come down to watch me in games, of course, but the atmosphere of sitting around with beers and watching the clouds roll by was very different. Much more time to actually get to know each other.
“So, what do you think of Lunengrove?” Pat asked. “It probably doesn’t seem like much, compared to Salt Lake.”
Felix laughed at that, shaking his head. “It’s small,” he pointed out, making everyone else laugh, too. “Hey, I grew up in a city! It’s small!” In fact, I thought most of the guys had grown up somewhere bigger than Lunengrove. It was a very different vibe, something that I hadn’t actually appreciated until now.
“It’s nice,” Will commented. “I mean, Felix is right, it’s a small place, but it’s pretty charming. You’re obviously happy settling here,” he added, nodding at Pat. “Did you ever think about it, Sam?” he asked, making me hum into my beer.
Had I? No, not really.
“No hockey.” I shrugged. Well, no NHL hockey.
Everybody nodded at that, except for Pat. My team-mates knew what it was like to give up having a choice in where you lived. It was the only way to be in the NHL - or in any other professional hockey league. Having a choice just wasn’t as important to any of us as playing hockey with the best of the best.
“There’s always retirement,” Chase joked. None of us talked about the fact we would one day have to stop. Or at least, stop playing hockey at a professional level. “I think I’ll always want to live in cities,” he carried on. “But plenty of people do retire to their home town.”
Pat hummed, glancing at me. “Do you think it would be weird? Trying to live here again after all this time?”
The fact that my first thought when thinking about that question was of Helena was somewhat worrying. Shaking my head, almost like the physical movement might get rid of it, I thought about what my answer actually was.
What I might do after retirement wasn’t something I had given much thought to. It always came with the unpleasant twang of thinking about no longer playing hockey. But if I could set that aside and think about things beyond hockey, the answer was…
“Maybe? Before this summer, spending so much time here didn’t seem like something I’d want but... it’s been good. It’s very different from how it felt when I was a teenager. Like how I feel, not the town,” I laughed. There certainly weren’t that many changes in Lun
engrove. As an adult, I just appreciated things that were there more.
After giving it a bit more thought, I finally shrugged. “Maybe,” I repeated but this time with more conviction. Giving Pat a grin, I added, “It’d be nice to live closer to my family.” And that was certainly true, even if it wasn’t their faces that had entered my head first.
Pat beamed at me. “Hopefully, you’ll be an uncle by then,” he teased. Having kids was something I’d known he and Charlotte wanted. I hadn’t thought about how that would make me an uncle!
“Uncle Sam,” Chase teased, whistling a few bars of the American national anthem. I groaned. Oh, fuck, that was definitely going to stick! Especially if Pat and Charlotte ever did have any children.
Pat laughed, shaking his head. “There may be more of you Americans here right now, but I bet we can still drown you out.” It was good to see him getting on with my team, able to chirp them right back, even if he wasn’t a hockey player.
“We’d love to have you close,” he said to me. “But we’d also understand if this is just too small a town for you. You could always live close enough to visit more often.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I agreed, somewhat absentmindedly. It was hard not to think about retiring here in connection with Helena. But those weren’t helpful thoughts. By the time I was going to retire and move, life would have changed a lot for both of us. “Anyway, is the food almost ready?” I called out to Luke.
Luckily, it turned out that it was. Soon, we were all too distracted by delicious meat to talk more about what my life might be like post retirement.
Chapter Twelve
Helena
MARCH 5TH, 2009
I could count on one hand the number of people who believed that Sam and I would graduate high school still very much in love. Charlotte, obviously. She’d become my best friend within a few weeks, and had always supported me in everything. Sam’s family, too, had been great. Spending time in their kitchen had made me feel at home in a way my parents’ tastefully decorated dining room never had.
Home Matched (Salt Lake Pumas Book 4) Page 10