by V. L. Locey
“You doing anything when we get back to the hotel?” Kalinski asked as I was lacing up my boots.
I cocked an eyebrow at him.
“Dan tells me he got a call from Lila a few minutes ago asking about any available houses in our neighborhood.”
I threw a dark look at Arou. He grinned like a moron.
I looked up at Victor, wearing a frown. “Does he call you up to inform you of when he takes a shit?”
“Only when I leave an empty toilet paper roll behind. So, yeah, meet me at the hotel bar. I need to hear this story.” Off he went, hands in the front pockets of his suit pants.
The look I gave Arou bounced off his shiny smile. What a couple of fucking gossips. I made a vow right then and there that I would never talk about other people’s problems with Lila. No way would she and I be like Dan and Vic, sitting around like a couple of old hens clucking about other people and their— shit. We’d done that not three hours ago when we’d talked about August.
“I’m an old bitty hen.” I sighed, then shoved to my feet to go meet Victor and scratch in the dirt.
After a short ride from the arena to our hotel, I took my bag to my room, then turned around and rode back down to meet Vic at the bar. August hadn’t come back to our room. He was probably out with some of the other single guys. The talk would hold until later.
“Where’s your other half?” I asked, coming up behind Vic lounging at the bar, his eyes glued to a game between our pro team and Philadelphia. I threw my leg over a stool, then tucked a few yards of material between my legs. Cold wood on warm balls is never pleasant.
“He’s talking to his parents about Thanksgiving.”
“I thought Canadians already did that,” I said as the barkeep, a cute girl with big brown eyes and pink hair, walked toward us.
“Yeah, they did, a few weeks ago. Mrs. Arou wants to come down and do ours. She’s having Jack withdrawals. Shit, can you fucking believe that play? If that wasn’t offside, I’m a member of One Direction.”
The bartender flashed me a smile. “What will you two gentlemen be having tonight?”
The invitation was clear. And who could blame her? It’s not every day a woman gets to see two ginger studs sitting side by side. The poor lass was sniffing around the wrong men, though. No one could compare to Lila, and I knew Kalinski was smitten and stupid in love with Dan.
“I’ll have three fingers of your finest Scotch whiskey over ice,” I told the lovely thing in the bright red vest. She did have some fine cleavage, which she seemed to be happy to show me.
“My God, thank you.”
I glanced from boobs to Victor.
“Seriously, thank you for ordering something with alcohol. I swear Dan is going to make me nucking futs. Give me a Coke with extra ice,” Vic told the bartender. “She’s got a good rack,” he said after our barkeep went off in search of scotch.
“Yeah, she does. So you’re mad at Dan for not drinking?”
I spun around to watch the Boston game. At one time, I had dreamed the dream. Now I was content to wrap up a mediocre career playing with the Cougars then retire with Lila. Maybe we could travel. Aberdeen seemed like a great place to visit.
“No. Well, sort of. I’m just sick of him not drinking around me when he so obviously wants a sip of hooch. Thanks.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Vic slide a ten to the bartender. I lifted my scotch and tapped his soda glass with it.
“He’s only trying to show support, Vic.” The amber liquid slithered down my throat, warming everything it touched.
“Yeah, I know, and that’s why I keep it to myself. So, you and Lila are shacking up. When did this occur? Last I heard you were trying to wrap your head around the kid and having some issues.”
“Things just kind of happened,” I said as Boston went one up on Philly.
“Been there and yadda yadda,” Victor said into his fizzy drink. “Whatever you do, don’t propose to her over her kid’s pissy pants.”
I gave him a long look. “Her kid’s nearly old enough to drive, you dumb Pole.”
Kalinski chortled, then tossed back his soda. “I pissed my pants about two years ago at a party. Age is irrelevant. I should have stopped drinking then.”
“Probably,” I murmured as my attention went back to the game. “I really hate the Philadelphia captain.”
“Tell me,” Victor said, and began shaking the ice in his glass. “So are you two really going domestic?”
“We’re going to give it a try. Don’t sound so incredulous. If you can make it work, so can I.” I didn’t feel right talking about this shit to begin with, so I kept my eyes glued to the hockey.
“You speak the truth there. I think it’s awesome. I hope it works out. Oh, and if you move close to us, I’d like to hire your kid to mow our grass in the summer. I hate pushing a fucking lawn mower.”
“He’s not my kid,” I promptly reminded the man to my left. “I’m not even sure I like him.”
“I call bullshit,” Victor replied. He dumped some ice in his mouth, slid from his stool, and gave my shoulder a clap.
Off he went, chewing on ice cubes, leaving me to turn around to tell the bartender that Langley wasn’t really mine. She didn’t seem nearly so quick to show me her cleavage after I told her that. I finished my scotch, left the pink-haired girl with the nice tits a tip, then returned to my room. August was just coming out of the bathroom wearing a towel and some wet hair.
“You shower more than any other person I’ve ever met,” I informed him, then sat on the edge of my bed.
“I can’t ever seem to get rid of the stink,” he confessed while keeping his back to me as he pawed through the bags resting on his bed.
I bent down to begin untying my boots. “That’s all in your head,” I told him as I pulled the long laces free.
Kind of like your crush on me.
Nope, that was not in his head. That was in his heart. I exhaled long and slow, kicked off one boot and straightened. August spun around from his bags, a huge smile on his face and a goalie mask in his hands. It nearly clipped me on the jaw, his spin was so wide and fast.
“Sorry,” he chuckled, then turned the mask. “This is what I wanted to show you.”
Painted on the side of a spanking new mask was a picture of Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy. My gaze met his. Well shit, now this was not making things any easier.
“That’s cool, Augie,” I muttered as he smiled even wider.
The kid had amazing teeth. All white and straight and probably his own. I should have been a goalie. My face wouldn’t be as hosed up if I had. Then again, my brain wasn’t exactly built to handle all the mental goalie shit.
“I know, right? After you told me about that show, I found some episodes playing on Boomerang.” He admired his new mask, turning it this way and that. “They’re pretty funny.”
“Yeah, they are. Listen, Augie, can we talk for a minute?”
“Oh, sure,” the kid replied, then plunked his ass onto his bed, his new mask resting on his lap, the towel barely covering his knees. Even his knees were cute. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“You do?”
“Oh, sure, and I’d do it all over again. That miserable pile of puke Danielson called Lila a shim.” He whispered the slur as his face crinkled up into a sour expression. “So I hit him in the mouth.”
My mind was completely blank. Good thing I didn’t need to think to breathe, or I would have expired.
“Thanks, man,” I eventually coughed out.
Augie gave me one of his crooked smiles. Water droplets covered his bare shoulders. I pulled my sight from them and made myself leap into the uncomfortable topic even though I would rather have dug my spleen out of my body with a melon baller.
“You know I love Lila more than anything on this whole planet, right?”
“Oh yeah, that’s why I swatted Danielson in the face for talking bad about her. I couldn’t let anyone run down someone you cared so much ab
out.”
I stared at the kid and wondered if Dan, Victor, Lila and I had been wrong. Maybe it wasn’t sexual attraction that August felt for me. Maybe it was more of a father-son thing, which would be so much easier to handle. He seemed to have locked on to my mouth. He shifted his mask just a bit and I tensed slightly when I saw him trying to hide a longing look. Fucking A. What the shit was I supposed to say now? I’d fuck this up, I just knew it.
“Augie, you know these feelings you have for me won’t ever go anywhere, right? I love Lila.”
His gaze jackknifed from my mouth to my eyes. The smile fell away and pink began to color his cheeks. The kid stammered and tripped over his words, but in the end his eyes slipped from my face and went to his mask. His shoulders caved in. I thought about going over to sit beside him, maybe put my arm around him, but I didn’t do that. Instead I reached across the wide abyss between our beds and tapped his shiny mask.
He reluctantly looked at me.
“I know this is awkward.”
He snorted miserably.
“I’m touched and humbled that you look at me with that kind of affection. I mean, I’m not any kind of prize by any means.”
“You’re a good man,” he murmured, echoing Lila’s sentiments. I didn’t feel like such a good man at the moment. I felt like a pile of cat shit for doing this to the kid. “You’re hot and funny.”
“Funny-looking, maybe,” I commented, and he shook his head strongly, his sight staying away from my face, which I could deal with. “You need to go out to some of the clubs near Cayuga.”
He gave me a horrified look.
“There are gay bars in Corning, trust me. Get out and find a man who will love you back. I’m just not that guy, Augie. Lila has my heart all filled up with romantic love.”
“Yeah, I know. I do.” He lowered his gaze again and began chewing on his tongue. “I always knew.”
I patted his mask to try to get his attention back to me. Those big brown eyes slowly crept over my face until our gazes locked.
“I’d still like to be your friend. When Lila and I are moved into our new house, you’ll be one of the first guests. We’ll even set up your game console. I bet her son would love hanging out with us while we save the world.”
He digested that news silently but did give me a nod. “I think I need to get dressed.”
“You probably should.” I removed my hand from his mask. “And thank you for standing up for Lila. You’re a good kid, August. You keep looking and you’ll find the right man for you, I promise.”
“Yeah, right.” He sighed as he stood up.
“I’m serious. If a first-class dickhead like Victor Kalinski can find the man of his dreams, a nice guy like you will have zero problems doing the same.”
He grunted at my words, then pattered off into the bathroom, leaving his Augie Doggie mask lying on his bed. The bathroom door clicked shut. My gut was so tight I could barely breathe, and looking at those two damn cartoon dogs hugging on that mask didn’t make the knots inside any looser. I shimmied back onto my bed and settled in to listen to Mel Tillis singing a few sad songs. Augie exited the bathroom a few minutes after I’d shoved my earbuds in. I watched him move stiffly around the room, picking up his clothes and cartoon mask and shoving them into his travel bags. When he hoisted both overstuffed bags onto his shoulders, I yanked out my earbuds and sat up straight.
“You going somewhere?”
“I’m going to see if Coach will let me bunk with someone else tonight.” He walked toward the door and I shoved off the bed, my feet hitting the carpet with a thud.
“Augie, come on. You don’t have to do that.”
He glanced over his left shoulder. “Yeah, I think I do.”
Out the door he went, closing it gently behind him.
I glanced at the ceiling. “Holy Mother, any maternal words of guidance would be greatly appreciated. Amen.” I tugged out my crucifix, gave it a kiss, then used it to cross myself. Just because I’d walked away from the church didn’t mean me and the Blessed Madonna weren’t still tight.
My cell rang just as I was bending over to get my boots and go track down August for another one-on-one. Seeing it was Lila made me feel better. I threw the ceiling another glance. “Thank you for that.” I knew my woman would have tons of maternal advice to give me.
“Hey, baby, am I glad you called. We must be on the same wavelength or something. So I talked to August about our little situation and—”
“Seamus, I’m so sorry for waking you, but…but…I simply don’t know what to do next.” She was crying. All thoughts of August Miles and his hurts evaporated like cool rain on a hot sidewalk.
“Lila, what’s wrong, baby?”
“It’s Langley,” she coughed. Well of course it was. Good thing she couldn’t see me rolling my eyes. “He never came home after school. I’ve turned this town on its ugly old ear and can’t find him. Where could he be? Why would he run off like this? I thought we’d all started to come together as a family unit of sorts.”
Heavier sobbing erupted on the other end. Talk about not knowing whether to shit or wind your watch. I was hours away, and my woman was having a crisis.
“Okay, try to calm down, baby. Did you call the police?”
“No, not yet,” she confided. “He has some red on his ledger already with his childish misadventures back home. If I call the police and they do find him, they might decide I’m an unfit mother and take him from me. I’d like to stay out of the judicial system as much as possible, Seamus. They don’t treat a lady like me as well as they should.”
While I thought she should get the cops involved now, I could see that her fears were overriding her common sense. When my gal got her mind set, she could be a tenacious thing. Maybe I could talk her into contacting the police once I was there and had her settled down.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Lila, try to calm down. He’s probably on his way back to West Virginia or something. You know how impulsive kids his age are.”
“Yes, yes, I assumed that as well. I called his grandmother and asked her to let me know if he shows up,” she said among sniffles. “Will you get in trouble for leaving the team?”
“Fuck them. If they don’t like it, they can fire me. I was just thinking how nice it would be for us to see Scotland in the spring.” I sat down and pushed my foot into a boot.
“Do hurry, Seamus. If anything terrible has happened to him…”
I stopped tying my boot. “None of that talk, Lila. He’s probably sitting in some diner in Wilkes-Barre pouting about something. Can I just say that I plan to kick his ass for upsetting you like this when he comes home?”
“You’ll have to get in line. You be careful, darling.”
“You can worry about a lot of things, baby, but I’m not one of them. I’ll see you soon. Love you.”
“I love you as well,” she whispered, then hung up.
I exited that room within a minute, my bag hanging open and bouncing off my back as I ran down the hall. I skidded to a halt outside the team captain’s door and started pounding on it. Mike jerked it open a moment later, his hair sleep rumpled and his T-shirt and fleece pants twisted and wrinkled.
“Mario, it’s twelve-thirty.” Mike yawned and rubbed at his gummy eyes with his fingertips. “This had better be damn important.”
“Langley is missing and I have to get to Scranton as quickly as humanly possible.”
Every bit of sleepiness left Buttonwood’s plain face. Within ten minutes, he’d found me a flight leaving Greater Binghamton Airport and arriving at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International at four minutes after three in the morning.
“I’ll stop and tell Dewey,” I told Mike as he shoved me out of his room.
“Just meet the cab downstairs and get to the airport. I’ll deal with the coaching staff.”
“You’re seriously one of the best captains I’ve ever played with.” I grabbed his hand, shook it strongly, then ran to the elevator.
/> I stood outside for about five minutes, miserably cold air blowing under my kilt, my mind trying to cook up terrible scenarios that involved horrible things being done to Langley by some pervert. Sure, the kid might be close to sixteen, but he was a still a kid, and a fucking scrawny one at that. I made a promise to myself that as soon as that kid was back home, I was going to teach him how to defend himself, his mother’s protests about violence and fighting not being the answer be damned. She could just be mad at me. It wouldn’t be the first time and I figured it wouldn’t be the last.
The cab ride seemed to drag on for hours instead of the mere fifteen minutes it really took. I bolted through what I assumed was a dandy airport filled with friendly people. My attention was on finding my airline terminal and getting my ass on that plane as soon as I could. Once I had my tickets, I was directed to either relax in the lounge or perhaps enjoy the hoagie chain kiosk by a chipper little girl behind a computer terminal, whose nametag read “Kimberly”. My sight flew to the clock on the wall. I had nearly two hours to kill.
Opting to forgo the eatery, I flopped into a squishy padded chair and conferred with Lila, relaying my arrival time so she knew I would soon be on my way. Nothing had changed. She said she was trying to track Langley via his cell phone and would keep me informed. Her voice shook throughout our conversation. When the call was over, I let my head drop back. How did athletes with pregnant wives, ill and elderly parents, or young children do this? It was sheer torture to be away from your family when a crisis occurred. It struck me how footloose my life had been until the day I’d met Lila Abernathy. The woman had grabbed my interest from that very first meeting and now she and that damn kid of hers were firmly wedged into my heart. Guess Victor had been right on his bullshit call. I did like Langley. Not knowing what had happened to him was killing me by tiny measures.
“I’m going to boot his ass up between his shoulders,” I snarled under my breath as I sat up to watch something on my phone. Anything would do. I just needed something to keep my mind occupied.
I searched around for news. Maybe the problems of the world would make mine seem less horrible. As I was reading over current events links, I spied one that mentioned Gamer Gary, that YouTube dude Langley watched all the time. I clicked on the link and it slowly directed me to a short piece about some gaming con in Philadelphia. Gamer Gary, who it seemed was hugely popular, was going to be on a panel later in the day to answer fan questions. I sat there quietly, listening to this slightly chubby man talking about how great his fans were and how touched he was that so many were coming out from all over the country to attend this panel, because Gary didn’t leave Los Angeles too often.