Save of the Game (2 page)

Ethan retrieved his bags, hauled them outside, and then smoked three cigarettes in a row and made soft, quiet sounds of pure enjoyment. He was starving and he only had four dollars and sixty-two cents to his name. He rummaged through his bag, looking unsuccessfully for his cell phone charger, because he could at least listen to some music. Then he dragged his stuff back inside, spent his four dollars on a magazine, then settled on a fairly comfortable bench outside in the passenger-pickup spot to wait for Riley.

He read the magazine three times and smoked half a pack of cigarettes out of boredom. Next time he was going to think ahead or at least find somewhere badass to go in Tampa. Airports were really boring.

Although if he didn’t stop smoking so much, he should probably get used to being on the bench.

RILEY SAW
Ethan immediately, sprawled out on a bench with a small pile of stuff next to him on the curb. He looked half asleep, but when Riley got out of the car, he jumped right up, grinned, and tackled Riley with a rambunctious hug. “Hey. Oh man, Hunter. Thanks for coming to get me. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Next time, if you let me know sooner, I can pick you up closer to when you actually get here,” Riley joked, helping Ethan throw his stuff into the back of the CR-V.

Ethan shrugged, all smiles, and climbed into the passenger seat. He smelled like cigarettes, and it should probably be annoying or gross, but it wasn’t.

“Nice haircut,” Riley teased, starting the car. “Going for the low-maintenance thing?”

“Nah.” Ethan grinned over at him. “I just hate it when guys pull my hair in a fight.”

Riley laughed. “Gotcha.” He headed out of the airport, which wasn’t very busy, given the hour. “How was your summer?”

“It was cool. Hung out with movie stars. Partied with supermodels.” Ethan yawned and stretched, making the tattoos on his arms move like fluid things. They were bright and colorful, and a lot of them looked like Irish symbolism. “You?”

“I went to a few goalie camps and trained a lot,” Riley said, wondering if he should get a tattoo. Ethan’s looked cool, but Ethan was a lot cooler than Riley, in general.

“Dude, was that a serious answer? Because mine was bullshit. Mostly I just hung out with my family and went to a lot of weddings and baby showers.”

“Weddings and baby showers?” Riley glanced at him as he pulled onto the highway. “Is that a weird hobby of yours or something?”

Ethan snorted. “Kind of. My family’s Irish Catholic,” he explained. “So yeah. Lots of weddings and babies. Rowdy funerals, but luckily none of those this summer.”

“All your family is in New York?” Riley liked Ethan’s accent. He sounded like he walked right off a movie set about gangsters from the nineteen twenties.

“Pretty much. My mom, me, and my two sisters grew up with a lot of extended family. And they’re all girls, man. Like, I’m not even kidding.” Ethan shook his head. “That’s why I love hockey. I get to hang out with other guys.” He grabbed his phone. “Shit. I should let them know I got here all right. My phone’s dead. You got a charger or something?”

“No, but you can borrow mine if you want,” Riley offered. He pushed his phone over at Ethan, who pressed about a thousand buttons and muttered before he finally got to the keypad.

Riley watched the road, but he was unabashedly listening to Ethan’s conversation with his mother.

“Ma? Hi. Yeah, I’m here. No, no. Don’t call the Coast Guard. Why would you do that? Just because it’s Florida? I don’t think it works that way. My phone died, that’s why.” Ethan paused, banging his head back against the seat. “I left it at home. This is Riley’s phone. Yeah. The goalie. The guy I lived with last year?” Another pause. “I will. I
will
, Ma. Geez.”

Ethan turned toward him. “My mom says to thank you for picking me up at the last minute, since I was irresponsible and didn’t get a ride arranged ahead of time.”

“Tell her it’s cool. And hey, if you still need a roommate, my place is furnished and has two bedrooms,” Riley suggested, trying for casual.

“Yeah? You hear that, Ma? Now I got a roommate too. Yes, I’ll buy groceries. Yeah. I—” Ethan sighed again, very dramatically. “I’m twenty-four, Ma. Why do you keep saying that? Peanut butter and jelly is fine, by the way. Kelsey ate it her whole life, and she’s gonna be a NASA scientist. So see? Good enough for me.”

Riley wondered what it was like to have a family like that—who actually cared enough to yell at you about things. And when was the last time he ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

“Can you tell Kelsey and Britt that I’m here? Thanks.” Ethan’s voice went all warm. “Yeah, yeah. I miss you guys too. I get those flight e-mail things you signed me up for, so I’ll let you know if I see any cheap ones. You guys could come see a game.” Ethan gave a bright, happy laugh. “Your hockey superstar son, right. Keep on thinking that, Ma. And of course I’ll give you my new address. You gotta send me a birthday card with some money in it.”

Riley could go anywhere he wanted in his family’s plane, as long as no one else was using it. And here Ethan wanted to see his family, and couldn’t. Maybe he could find some way to help Ethan out sometime. Pretend Ethan won tickets, maybe?

“Your sister Kelsey is an astronaut?” Riley asked when Ethan was off the phone.

“Not yet, but give her a few years,” Ethan said dryly. “She’s so smart it freaks me out. She thinks about stuff like, where did the universe come from?” He made a helpless gesture. “Who even does that? But yeah. She’s going to get a scholarship to college, which is great.” His voice was filled with pride. “And she’s beautiful too. If she comes to a game, I will beat up anyone who looks at her like she’s a real girl and not my sister. Including you, Riles.”

“Good to know.” Riley was thirsty, so he took the exit for a twenty-four-hour McDonalds. “You want anything?” he asked Ethan as he pulled behind the one other car in the drive-through.

“Oh, umm.” Ethan shook his head. “Nah. That’s all right.”

“Are you sure? We have two and a half hours left of this drive. You were waiting for three hours. You don’t even want a soda or something?”

Ethan wasn’t looking at him. He was pretending to be searching in his bag. “No. It’s fine. I spent all my change on a magazine at the airport. My impulse control sucks, dude.”

Riley rolled his window down. “Come on. What do you want? You’re making this really difficult, Kennedy.”

“Fine. Geez. Just get me whatever you’re having.” Ethan ducked his head, looking a little embarrassed. “I can put it on my first rent check. Along with some gas money for picking me up. I’m really sorry.”

“No, it’s—” Riley startled as the voice from the intercom asked him, a little sternly, for his order. Like maybe this wasn’t the first time. He was just planning on getting a soda, but he ordered two double-cheeseburger meals and supersized them. It wasn’t like he couldn’t eat one, and Ethan probably needed more than a soda.

In fact he polished off his entire meal and one of Riley’s cheeseburgers. “You totally weren’t hungry, huh,” Ethan accused him, punching him in the shoulder. “Fucking goalies, man.”

“My eyes were just bigger than my stomach,” Riley lied, going for nonchalant. From the look Ethan gave him, he wasn’t buying it.

“Sorry. I have a hard time letting anyone do shit for me,” Ethan mumbled, still looking down at the floor. “I’ll pay you back. Promise.”

“Not a big deal, man.” Riley flipped on some music, hoping to avoid any more conversations about money. It never seemed to go well when people found out he was rich. Either his friends were like Lane and refused to take any help his money might provide, or they were like a few kids he’d known in high school who only wanted to hang out with him because of who his family was. He especially didn’t want to get into it with Ethan, who was reluctant to let Riley buy him dinner at McDonalds. God knew what Ethan would say if Riley told him that he’d already paid the rent on the apartment for the year, or that the next time he wanted to go home, he could borrow Riley’s family’s jet.

He hoped to switch the conversation, and they talked about the team and some of the guys. It was gossip, basically, though neither of them would call it that out loud. Then they discussed the upcoming season and the talk around the league.

The general opinion was that the Sea Storm, last season’s favorites to win the Kelly Cup, had become the year’s underdogs. They had the league’s top rookie last year, and he was their leading scorer. If that didn’t get them the Cup, how on earth were they going to do it without him?

The Renegades, on the other hand, were finding themselves in the same place as the Storm last season. The favorites. They were fresh off a championship, even though their breakout star and MVP, Jared Shore, had retired.

Riley didn’t mind. He liked being the underdog, and combined with the disappointment from last season, he thought it would only make the team more determined to win. He told Ethan about the team’s new backup goalie and how he was worried he’d get traded if he didn’t pull out all the stops this season.

“Nah. He can’t start his first season. He’s gotta learn and all that shit. Besides, you’re really good. The guys on the Blackjacks always said you were one of the best in the ECHL.”

“Yeah?” At Ethan’s emphatic nod, Riley leaned back in his seat and put his car on cruise control. “Well, all right, then.”

Ethan fell asleep about an hour outside of Jacksonville. Riley glanced over at him occasionally, happy to have been able to pick up his teammate and feed him dinner.

I have a hard time letting people do shit for me.

That was the problem with the whole money thing. Riley just wanted to use it to help out his friends, but they didn’t make it easy.

When they were back at Riley’s apartment building, he leaned over and shook Ethan’s shoulder. His skin was warm, and Riley pulled his hand back a little shyly when Ethan came awake.

“Hmm? Oh. We’re here.” Ethan stretched. In two seconds he went from sound asleep to boundless energy and practically vaulted out of the Honda. It was close to two in the morning. “Hey, man, did you get a new car? I just realized it’s not the same one. I thought you had that sweet little Mazda.”

“Oh, that’s… yeah, but Lane has that. His car was practically falling apart, and Shore’s truck was just as bad, so I cut him a deal.” Riley shrugged and changed the subject. “Need a hand with your stuff?”

He helped Ethan bring in his bags, and showed him the second bedroom, which had its own bath. It also had a balcony of its own, facing the ocean.

Ethan gave a low whistle. “Damn. Riles, this is nicer than my apartment in New York. Like, the one I grew up in,” he joked, leaning against the wall. His eyes were sleepy, and he looked like the lead singer of a punk band with those tattoos, shaved head, and sleeveless shirt.

Riley raked a hand through his hair, feeling weird. He was tired. That was all.

Ethan crouched, rummaged through his bag, and came back up with a pack of smokes and a lighter. “Gonna have a smoke and a shower, then enjoy sleeping in an actual bed. I slept on the couch all summer, ’cause my sister Kelsey waited for me and Britt to move out so she could have her own room, and I didn’t think it was fair to kick her out.”

Ethan held up his smokes. “You want one? I don’t think you smoke, but y’know. You can have one if you want.”

That was… huh. “No. That’s okay.” Riley shook his head and decided he should go to bed because he kind of did want a cigarette. At least he thought that’s what he wanted.

“No problem. I won’t smoke inside the apartment or anything. This place is really nice, Riley.” Ethan looked a little worried, but he seemed to shrug it off and gave Riley that grin of his again. “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

Riley felt his face flush, and he nodded. “Me too. I always wanted a roommate.”

“And I always wanted my own room,” Ethan answered, winking at him. “We’ll get up to no good. I just know it. I am so goddamn glad to be back.” He stuck the cigarette in his mouth and grinned at Riley around it.

Riley told himself the pleasant warm feeling was because he was finally able to do something nice for someone. But as he watched Ethan go outside to smoke and saw his silhouette in the shadows and the faint red glow of his cigarette, Riley wondered if that was really all it was.

THAT WHOLE
“goalie brotherhood” thing meant Riley could not possibly hate or otherwise shun his backup, Sasha Vazov. The kid was two years younger than him and a few inches taller, but he hadn’t quite grown into his frame just yet.

Despite having a perfect goalie stare, Vazov was actually pretty shy. He seemed grateful when Riley immediately skated over to stretch with him on their first day of camp.

“I think maybe you would be not as friend… to me,” he said carefully.

Riley shook his head. “I’m a nice guy,” he said truthfully. “Besides, I was new once. The team’s what matters, not the starting job. Which is mine,” Riley pointed out, and Sasha gave him the slightest of smiles.

Along with Vazov the team had acquired a new center, Bennett Halley, who had just finished college at the University of Michigan. He was a gifted player—solid and a good skater—but without Lane’s grace or speed.

While Halley didn’t manage to alienate the entire team like Lane did when he first showed up, Riley immediately disliked him for excessively celebrating when he scored a goal on Vazov the first day of practice. Riley made a silent vow to make sure Halley wasn’t able to get a single puck to the back of the net when Riley was in goal during practice, because that sort of show-off behavior pissed him off.

Riley was a little worried about Ethan, though, because he was clearly out of condition and having trouble in the drills. Not worried enough to let him score or anything, because Riley was still competitive, and that was his job. Nice guy he might be, but he hated getting scored on. He wasn’t there to make anyone look good.

Sometimes it happened, especially when three guys sent three pucks sailing at him at the same time. But his training during the summer had clearly paid off, and he was in the zone by the third day of camp—enough to know there wouldn’t be a problem with his starting the season, which was a relief.