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  The Blackhawks won their final preseason game on home. The entire team hurriedly showered and dressed in their matching team shirts, so they could say their goodbyes to their loved ones before boarding the plane for Edmonton, where they would play their first game of the regular season. Jenna waited next to Alex, who was pouting and playing with his crutches. Alex had fallen awkwardly during a rigorous drill on the third day of training camp and had to have his MCL surgically repaired. Because of that, he had been miserable during the entire game, partially because of the residual pain, but also because he was upset that he was going to be stuck in Chicago while the team went on without him as the season started.

  Ryan had taken Alex to the arena prior to the game, and Jenna was supposed to drive him home. She got sucked into it because he couldn’t drive himself during the initial recovery from his surgery. She also had been pressured into checking in on him while the team was on its road trip, since he’d be lonely and handicapped. Alex repeatedly tapped the tip of his right crutch against the wall as they waited for Ryan. She pursed her lips and nibbled on the inside of her cheek, barely tolerating his sullen behavior.

  “Stop it, Freeze,” Ryan said as he walked over and joined them. “You’re all moody and bitchy. You’re worse than Jenna when she’s PMSing.”

  “Ryan!” she huffed, giving him the dirtiest look she could muster at a time like this, when she knew she wouldn’t see him for a while.

  “Like now?” Alex asked with a smile.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. She didn’t want to fight with Ryan now, but she would argue with Alex. “You’re an asshole, Frazier.”

  “You like it,” he laughed.

  “Don’t say such hurtful things,” Ryan lightheartedly directed at Jenna. “It’ll make things awkward when you’re consoling each other, seeing as though the two of you will be missing me very, very much.”

  Jenna opened her mouth to make a smart remark, either about how she was hardly going to miss Ryan or how she wouldn’t voluntarily spend time with Alex if her life depended on it, but Alex beat her to it and spoke first. “I doubt we’re going to be missing you,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders. “We’re going to fuck like spider monkeys on E. I hope you like being on top, Jenna.”

  “I’m worried about catching a venereal disease just by looking at you, Frazier. I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole,” she replied, rolling her eyes.

  “I’ve got a ten-foot pole I’d like to touch you with,” he quipped back quickly, grabbing his crotch.

  Jenna hated when Alex talked like this, and she hated even more that Ryan never did or said anything to stop it. Everyone knew Alex was joking, but it wasn’t funny. It was inappropriate, and he always took it too far or did it too much for her liking—just never enough to irk Ryan, who was too easy going to get riled. “Okay, now that was overdoing it. You’re so revolting.”

  “You say that now that your boyfriend’s here, but you’ll be singing a different tune once he’s out the door.”

  She looked at her fiancé and waited for him to defend her honor. When he didn’t and instead laughed along, she grunted and smacked Alex’s hand until he moved it. She knew he did it solely for this reaction, just to get under her skin and get a rise out of her, and someday she was going to make him pay for how uncomfortable it always made her. “One of these days, Frazier, I’m going to get you back and you’re gonna be sorry you ever messed with me.” She focused on the other man in their group. “Some separation will do you two some good. Frazier is rotting your brain. You need a better influence in your life.”

  “Like who?” Ryan asked, his light eyes sparkling with laughter.

  “I know,” Alex answered, “Yo Marty!” Nick Martin heard his name called and walked over into Alex’s trap, and Alex stuck out his leg in its immobilizer to trip him.

  Nick, knowing Alex well enough to know he was up to no good, expertly dodged his outstretched leg by sidestepping it. He was an athlete in peak condition, and he was quick on his feet. Rolling his eyes, he commented, “What are you even doing here, Freeze? Shouldn’t you be at home icing that thing?”

  “Aw. I came to say goodbye to my teammates and wish you luck against the Oilers and whoever else you’re playing against. You know, team camaraderie or something along those lines that you’re always spouting off about.”

  “You choose now to listen to me,” Nick said with an eye roll, but he smiled and increased his volume. “This day will forever go down in infamy that Alexander Frazier finally listened to—”

  “Okay, let’s not get carried away with ourselves,” Alex laughed.

  “Our bags are all loaded onto the bus,” Nick observed aloud, letting Ryan know that it was time to wrangle the team.

  “All right, come on, boys! On the bus!” Ryan announced, doing his captain’s duty. Suddenly the mood in the room became somber as everyone rededicated themselves to saying goodbye.

  Jenna stood on her tiptoes and threw her arms over Ryan’s shoulders, wrapping them around his neck and burying her face under his chin. He hadn’t shaved that morning, and his face was scratchy. Even so, she would miss it. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her against him and into a tight embrace.

  “I’m going to miss you,” she sighed, letting all the air out of her lungs.

  “I’ll text you pictures. You’ll get to see me everyday,” Ryan promised.

  “Um, that’s why we have Skype. I’d better be seeing your handsome face everyday,” she warned, pulling back to get a good last look at him. With his white and blue toque on his head, his eyes took on a bluish hue. She cupped his cheek and brushed her thumb against his scruff. The ends of his hair flipped outwardly from underneath his hat reminding her to schedule him for a trip to the barber’s once he returned from the road trip. “Be sure to call me when you land.”

  “I will,” Ryan promised.

  Jenna then moved over to Nick and hugged him as well. He was, after all, her second favorite Hawk. “Nicky, please remind him to call. He’ll forget.”

  “Sure thing,” Nick said. It wasn’t a big deal; so many other people had asked him to tell his teammates to call. Brian Cavanaugh’s mother had already made him swear to make him call home when they landed—and so did Brian’s girlfriend, Cara. Something seemed wrong with this situation: that the guy who would actually remember to call someone didn’t have a someone of his own to call. But he didn’t want to have to call someone; he wanted to be able to focus. He gently placed his hands high on her back to avoid any appearances of indecency and then quickly released. “Come on, Biggie. Let’s go.”

  Ryan leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Love you, Jenna.”

  She smiled and gave her usual spiel. “Love you, too, Ryan. Have a safe trip. Be good, but have fun. Score some goals. And don’t get injured.”

  Ryan gave his usual response. “I’ll try my best.”

  Alex and Jenna watched as Ryan and Nick headed for the door and disappeared. “Don’t I get a hug?” he asked her, repositioning himself on his crutches so he could outstretch his arms in her direction.

  She groaned and started to walk away, leaving him to hobble after her. It was going to be a long five days.

  Chapter 4

  Ryan’s start to the road trip did not begin well. First, he forgot to call Jenna after they landed in Edmonton. He tried to tell her that it was so late when the plane had landed, and he didn’t want to wake her. That excuse didn’t work, because she said that she had told him to call when he landed and didn’t care about being woken up. She just wanted to know that he arrived safely. Then he tried to blame it on Nick, that Nick hadn’t reminded him like he promised he would, but Jenna had scolded him and told him that was not a legitimate excuse. Really, he had just been too busy hanging out with the guys and having fun with them, so he never remembered that he was supposed to call.

  He felt weird without Alex. They’d roomed together ever since their second season together, and their close friendsh
ip bloomed right after. If asked, Alex would say that Ryan had asked to be his roommate, and Ryan would further explain that he merely felt bad for Alex, and he was trying to be a good role model and take him under his wing. Either way, those two had a very successful rooming relationship.

  Since his best friend wasn’t around, Ryan had to compensate by hanging around with the rest of his teammates more than usual. He was easy-going, so he didn’t have much of a problem fitting in with any of the groups that the twenty-some guys naturally formed. On the third day of the trip, he had chosen to sit at a table with some of the younger players on the team for their after-game meal at a restaurant down the block from the hotel.

  He sat with Brian and defensemen Mike Spencer and Shawn Little. Mike and Shawn were on the same defensive pairing. They had played on the same Junior team and had ended up being drafted by the Blackhawks in consecutive drafts. Having played together for so many years, they seemed to have a psychic connection on the ice, and they could anticipate each other’s moves instinctively. That relationship had transferred to their personal lives, and they were the best of friends and roommates. They could have been twins if they didn’t look so different: Shawn had light blond hair and was short and stocky, while Mike had dark hair, a dark complexion, blue eyes, and was one of the most fit players on the team. In fact, Mike had been featured in the body issue of Sports Illustrated.

  Ryan had finished eating, and he was relaxing as Nick joined them and finally started to dig in to his own dinner.

  “What took you so long, man?” he asked, forgoing any formal greeting. He looked down at Nick’s plate and contorted his face in disgust. He couldn’t tell what he was eating. “And what the hell is that?”

  Nick looked up at Ryan as he hovered over his plate, feeling famished after giving his all out on the ice; he always gave his all, but even more so at the beginning of the season. He tried to keep his straight face, to look like he was okay with this joking around, but really he was agitated. Not only had Nick had a not-so-great game, but he was also not having a good day. Ryan could see that, but he chose to ignore it as Nick retorted, “I don’t know, whatever. Just trying to get something to eat before going to sleep.”

  “It’s a little heavy on the ranch, don’t you think?” Ryan asked back, and the rest of the guys at the table started to laugh. He knew not to push the issue any further. As captain, he knew where the boundary was. “You know I’m just messing around with you. You don’t have to be so uptight.”

  “I’m not being uptight.”

  “Obviously. It’s impossible to be uptight when you’re not dressed in a suit and tie,” Ryan laughed, thinking his own joke was hilarious. “Somehow, though, you still manage.”

  Nick rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Biggie.”

  Ryan looked at Brian, hoping to get some back up as he picked fun at Nick, and watched Brian flush instead. He said, “It’s not my fault. Someone messed with my shit and ruined my nice clothes.” He was often another mark for the team’s pranks since he was too wrapped up in his own world to notice—but usually Ryan was the one pulling the pranks, and he didn’t remember doing anything to Brian’s clothes.

  “I still don’t understand,” Ryan thought aloud.

  “If you were so observant, you’d see that Cav’s wearing my clean suit, you dummy,” Nick groaned.

  Ryan was still a little lost and confused. Sure, Brian and Nick were roommates, but that didn’t mean they needed to share clothes. If anything, Brian looked unkempt and childish in Nick’s clothes, because now that Ryan knew what he was looking at, Brian’s suit obviously wasn’t tailored to his body. The sleeves, for one thing, were too long and ill fitting. However, Ryan wasn’t going to press his luck anymore and press for answers. And if there was one thing Ryan had going for him in his life, it was his good luck.

  It was Nick’s idea to let Brian wear his suit. He was trying to be a good friend and a good teammate. Brian Cavanaugh had enough bad publicity following him around after his summer of debauchery that Nick didn’t want any more to hound to him. Even though he was innocent—and they had the evidence to support that—Brian was painted as a villain in the media. Nick had lent him his suit as much for Brian as he did it for the team. Yes, Nick felt bad for Brian over the sexual assault accusation, which no one on the team dared to talk about, but Nick was angry with Brian over the accusation, too.

  Angry because it affected more than just Brian. This wasn’t about a teammate. This was about the organization. Brian wasn’t thinking when that whole... thing went down. He should have never put himself in a situation that would allow for that to happen. Brian hadn’t been thinking about himself and his own reputation and what exactly was at stake, and he certainly hadn’t thought about the team. How the Chicago Blackhawks were going to be affected. Every reporter was going to be inspecting them with an electron microscope, looking and searching for something to write about and blow out of proportion. The team didn’t need that; the team had enough pressure on them to perform well this season without Brian’s added scrutiny.

  So he lent Brian his clean suit to wear to the game and took the ass chewing from the coach about not being prepared and not having a clean suit, and how he needed to set more of a good example since he was an alternate captain. Apparently, no one bothered to notice that his suit was currently on Cavanaugh.

  And Brian wore it after the game to dinner when Ryan just had to point out that he was dressed so casually and called him uptight. It wasn’t that Nick didn’t know how to let go, relax, and have fun; no, instead he found fun in discipline and playing the game and most of all winning said game. He didn’t think there was anything wrong in that, even if sometimes it felt like everyone else did. If that made him uptight, then so be it. He could live with that. The Blackhawks were supposed to be good role models for young kids, and they were respectable athletes of whom the league could be proud. Nick never gave anyone a reason to think he was anything less than that.

  When Shawn started throwing food in his and Ryan’s direction, Nick shoveled the rest of his fare into his mouth and headed for the hotel, avoiding this situation altogether. He tried not to encourage their obnoxious behavior, but there was little he could do at that point. When the captain of the team got involved, there was nothing he could do to corral the guys and get them to act accordingly. Ryan was the one who should have been stopping the food fight, not participating in it.

  He wasn’t going to try to interfere. Not tonight. He was too tired and irritated to deal with it. Nick was still feeling jet-lagged, so he hadn’t played in tip-top shape during the game. No points. Only three shots on net. In the game the day before, he had two assists. How did he regress? He should have been playing better as the season progressed and performing just as well, if not better, than the previous day. As he got ready for bed, he ran through the game in his head and looked for his weaknesses and areas to improve.

  “I don’t know, I think it looks pretty bad,” Alex said, ridiculing Ryan’s hair cut as they talked over Skype. Ryan was sitting in front of his laptop in Winnipeg as Alex sat in his living room in Chicago with his leg propped up on an ottoman and an ice bag over his knee. Alex had been feeling lonely and with no one else around but Jenna to keep him company, he decided to check in on his teammate and see how he was doing on the road trip without him.

  Jenna took offense to that comment since she was so proud of Ryan for taking the initiative to get a haircut on his own while he was out on the road. She snorted in the background and said quietly, “Like your hair looks any better, Frazier. You look like a stupid frat boy.”

  Alex smiled at Jenna and laughed at her, even though she was out of sight of the webcam and Ryan didn’t even know she was there. Ryan, however, didn’t even seem to notice, and he carried on the conversation.

  That’s when Jenna got a brilliant idea for a little payback. She knew she shouldn’t; she never acted this way, ever, so they might not be able to tell that she was pulling their legs. Just bec
ause Jenna had a more subtle sense of humor, the guys all treated her like she had none.

  “Alex, baby,” she cooed, even though that particular phrase sounded repulsive coming from her own mouth. She sat on his lap—careful to make sure she wasn’t perched on his bad leg—and wrapped her arm around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. With her free hand, she cupped his cheek and made him look at her. “Come back to bed. You were right. You’re so much better than stupid Biggie.”

  Alex’s entire body stiffened beneath her, and he kept his arms down at his sides. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “What are you doing?” Ryan likewise questioned, cocking an eyebrow at the scene on his computer screen. He knew that Alex was a joker, a kidder, and that he never meant a word that spewed out of his mouth. He was the perfect agitator like that. But Jenna.... She was serious all the time. And she couldn’t possibly be serious about Alex. She would never ever do something so outrageous.

  Jenna let the smile curl her lips, unable to hold her straight face any longer. “I got you so good. So good,” she giggled to both of them. First, she spoke to Alex while she lightly tapped his cheek with her open hand. “Never ever in a billion years, Frazier.” She stood and looked back at the camera and directed her next words at Ryan. “Not so funny when I joke about it, huh? I hope this makes you think twice next time you allow me to be the butt of this clown’s jokes.”

  “All right. Freeze, no more talking about my beautiful, wonderful fiancée that way,” he announced loudly. He more quietly added, “You, Jenna, are going to get a severe spanking when I get back to Chicago.”