“I probably should. We play against each other the day after tomorrow. I need to be able to lay a clean hit without thinking about my feelings.” Honestly, Max didn’t think he’d have a problem, but… well. They’d just gotten back together. He didn’t want to push too hard, too fast. Grady wasn’t the only one who’d cracked. Max needed a little space or he’d break himself open for Grady all over again. “I promise I’ll text him something naughty from my hotel, though, give him something nice to wake up to.”
“True love.” Polly feigned a swoon.
Max slipped his feet into his dress shoes. Grady’s stupid feet were too small. This was what he’d been reduced to—dress shoes in bare feet, borrowed shorts, and a T-shirt. If Grady could see him right now, he’d probably have a nightmare. “It was nice meeting you. I hope I’ll see you again before you leave.”
She smiled and pushed a lock of red hair behind her ear. “I think we’ll have lots of time to get to know each other.”
That sounded nice. He gave her a quick wave of acknowledgment, then turned around and opened the door.
RIVALS’ REMATCH
By Sonia Goldstein
With a few weeks left in the regular season and the Condors and Piranhas neck and neck for the top seed in the Pacific Division, the stage is set for an epic rivalry showdown.
But this West Coast matchup has a little East Coast flavor in the form of former Philadelphia Firebird Grady Armstrong and onetime New Jersey Monster Max Lockhart. The question is, is that flavor as bitter as expected?
You might recall a time several seasons ago when Armstrong came out of an on-ice encounter with Lockhart with a fractured ulna, or a fight the year after that when Lockhart got the business end of Armstrong’s fist to his nose.
But if you’ve spent any time on hockey Twitter in the past two weeks, you’ve also seen Armstrong’s now-infamous reaction to learning Lockhart would be joining him in California. Anyone could be forgiven for interpreting his expression as sweet rather than salty.
So did Lockhart truly miss Armstrong’s pretty face? Tomorrow night’s game should shed some light—or blood—on the subject.
Comments:
I’m here for the blood! Let’s go Condors!
Get you a man who smiles like that when he thinks about you.
I have watched this video 27 times and I cannot come up with another explanation. They are in love. I will be retiring to my bedroom to scream into my pillow. Thank you for your understanding in this trying time.
Who cares if they’re sleeping together as long as they give us a good show. And I meanonthe ice.
MAX ANDGrady still hadn’t made a decision about how to handle the situation by the Condors’ practice the next day, so Grady was unprepared when Jeremy tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, I need you in Natalie’s office for a couple minutes after practice.”
Natalie was the Condors’ GM. “Okay.”
But when he arrived, the atmosphere was very California. Natalie sat in a velour beanbag chair, drinking a green smoothie. Jeremy perched on one of those sit/stand chairs next to a wall-mounted desk space, fidgeting with something on a tablet.
“Hey, Grades,” Jeremy said cheerfully. “Come on in and make yourself at home. You want a kombucha or something?”
Grady wanted a real chair and a drink that had only been fermented if it was alcoholic, so he said, “No, thanks,” and sat awkwardly on the chaise longue.
“Cool.” Jeremy moved to the beanbag opposite Natalie. “So, you’re probably wondering why you’re here.”
Not really.
Before he could go on, Natalie gave an amused smile. “Jeremy’s not giving you enough credit. Obviously you’re here so we can ask if you’re involved with Max Lockhart. Which you’re well within your rights to be and we are not upset about, and if you’d like to call your agent for this conversation, we’ve made sure she’s available.”
Gee, they’d really thought of everything. Grady should absolutely call Erika and she’d be pissed if he didn’t, so he nodded while they got her on the phone.
“Right,” Jeremy said once Erika had picked up and introductions had been made. “So, tomorrow we’ve got our last regular season game against the Piranhas. Very big rivalry game. It’s on their home turf, but the crowd should be split about fifty-fifty.”
As if Grady hadn’t watched an hour of video on the Piranhas in the past week. “Yeah, I know.”
“What you mightnotknow,” Jeremy said, “is that we track engagement on our games on social media by geographic region. Generally speaking, nobody east of Colorado cares what happens in California hockey until the Cup Final. But whether it’s because it’s you and Lockhart and you’re drawing from the Philly-New Jersey market, or if people are invested in you personally because of your interview, or both, we don’t know, but we’re seeing a 30 percent increase in engagement in the Eastern Conference states.”
Either way, Grady guessed, they wanted to capitalize on that.
