As much as I love San Diego, and the Jones family, and all my friends there. I know this is where I need to be right now.
Those words ring through my mind over and over. And they may be simple, but they’re like the much needed music I needed to hear; ‘You don’t have to worry anymore, okay?’
Present day
It’s game night tonight, and I’m hoping Beth and Jade will make it. It’s her last night before she heads home, and I’m feeling a few mixed emotions about that concept. I’ve enjoyed her being here, but knowing it’s going to be weeks until I’m in Las Vegas for the wedding seems an awfully long time away.
As I’m suiting up ready to go on the ice, I try to clear my mind by taking some full, rhythmic breaths. Taylor has been instrumental in helping all the guys with tips on clearingour heads before the games with visualization techniques and breathing exercises.
I was a skeptic at first, but as I’ve looked more into it, I’m learning that some of the top athletes in the world use this kind of stuff combined with meditation, and I’m not opposed to it.
The only trouble is, every time I close my eyelids and draw a deep inhale into my chest, all I see are a pair of oceanic blue eyes, stretching to the depths of the sea before me. Soft blonde hair. That heart shaped mouth, soft, luminous skin and a delicate dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks.Jade.
I fling them open again and scrub a hand down my face.
It’s like I’ve taken a Jade Jones love potion and now I can’t seem to get enough.
We’ve been having way too much fun while she’s been in tow, even when I’ve been away here and there for games. On the first week we texted back and forth with the dancing lessons idea she had. Sure it was short notice, but I figured what the hell. Then breakfast the other morning before we went ice skating. Okay, Janice may have been a serious impediment on reinforcing any credibility to my nature, but I think I got away with it. Then there was the first dancing lesson and us laughing so hard my sides hurt. Me fucking around and trying to put a smile on her face with my stupid moves, over exaggerated and with too much energy, but not caring as I whirled her around and around.
We definitely delved deep when we went to the Japanese place right after and we both confessed quite a few surprising things. I couldn’t believe it when she told me about her ex. It certainly has seemed to have taken the wind out of her sails a little, the shift is subtle, and I may have not seen her in years prior to now, but it’s just something I can tell. It did something to her.
Quite rightly. And it’s not something you can just forget or brush over.
Years ago, when I had a girlfriend, Sara, I suspected she was seeing other guys. Our relationship was serious and I’d been in the NHL for a year.We were head over heels for each other, or so I thought.
She came to every game and was there for every after party. She was fun, and I thought we were happy together. The signs could’ve been there, but I saw a future with her. Maybe it was because she was the first proper girlfriend I’d ever had, the rest had just been casual hookups, but I thought we had something special.
Turns out, she just wanted to be with a hockey star, and at the time, I was just a rookie and wasn’t big enough for her. Sara didn’t really care about me, she was just working her way to the top and using whoever she could to find herself a super star. She even admitted to wanting to be kept in a certain lavish lifestyle.
And while she never confessed to cheating, I heard rumours after we split.
Since the breakup, I haven’t been able to trust any other women. I treat them well, show them a good time, but then I’m out. I rarely go back for seconds. And that’s how it’s been for so long now that I don’t really know anything else. I have never given myself the opportunity to even consider that I could trust someone romantically again, or if they weren’t just after my money. Sara was pretty good at spending it, even back then.
There’s no way I could imagine Jade ever doing something like that. She doesn’t have an agenda, hell, she wouldn’t even care what I did for a living. The conversation is easy with her, and I know I can trust her with whatever comes. And it’s fucking refreshing when you don’t know if a woman just wants you for your money and your NHL status, or if she likes you for you.
It sure is one of the pitfalls of being paid millions of dollars and having a high-profile celebrity-style status. It comes with the territory. Funny, with Jade, I’d never have to wonder…
“Hey, man, are you okay?” Ulrich gives me a nudge with his shoulder on the way past, all six foot seven of him, a mountain of muscle and steel. But he’s really a gentle giant, off the ice, anyway.
“I’m fine,” reply. “Just psyching myself up for the game.”
“Not you too,” he chuckles.
“I’ve been hanging around Swifty too long.” I shrug haphazardly and follow him out of the locker room. Swifty is what I’ve been calling Taylor since he got back with Emmerson. Not just because it all happened fast with them, but it’s also a Taylor Swift thing. Em loves to retell their engagement story and what was playing on the radio when they left the rink with a rock on her hand. So now I poke fun at him any chance I get, which is often.
Home game tonight means a wild crowd and I’m here for their hunger as we take to the ice.
It’s a feeling like no other and I’m as pumped as can be. I think my half-second slow breath thing actually did something because I’ve finally gotten Jade’s pretty face out of my head, and now all I’m seeing is my opponent. And that’s the headspace I need to be in.
It’s part way through the first period against the Dallas Tornados that I notice the row of seats behind the players’ bench. Dallas just scored and I’m skating to the center ice for the faceoff with Dallas center player, Deacon Elliot.
As I skate to position, I see a Seattle Hawks pom-pom hat with familiar icy blond tresses flowing onto her shoulders, her eyes flick to mine when I raise my gloved hand in a wave. I see Beth next to her say something and they both laugh. Looks like Em, Mads, Cindy and their friend Susie are all sitting in one long Seattle Hawks’ supporting line. It makes me grin and my heart etches up a notch.
As I stand facing my opponent with my stick in hand, trying to anticipate which way the puck will fall. I’m on it like a flash and go for the backhand sweep to motion the puck over to Jake.
I mix up my motives at any given faceoff from the forehand pull to the chip forward. It all depends how the puck falls and how fast I can get to it.
Dallas is a hard team to beat, but Taylor and Jake in the forward line are both strong players. Jake came in as a rookie last season, and he’s received a lot of media attention being the new guy and the newest forward of the team. I’m thinking he’ll be dropping the rookie status this season because his game time will probably exceed the limit of twenty-five.
