Page 17 of Two for Charging

“We didn’t have any other colors at the rink,” he told them, which did absolutely nothing to stop them.

He blew his whistle loudly, which was one of the best parts of playing with kids. As an adult, you got to whistle. “Who wants to be goalie?”

Silence answered the question.

Finally, someone called, “Our only decent goalie’s not here.”

“Well, I’m not doing it,” Chris told them.

Jayden pouted. “C’mon, man. You get to play hockey for a living. You can sacrifice yourself for one game.”

Two minutes later, Chris passed off his whistle to Howie, and he and Mooney took their places in opposing goals.

“You are a massive pushover,” Howie told him in an undertone. “You’re going to ruin your own kids.”

“Thanks,” Chris muttered. “Do you know how to do this?”

“What, ref a game of street hockey? Yeah, man, just make sure no one dies. I’m not gonna be calling offsides or anything.”

Chris started to protest. How would the kids learn the rules if Howie didn’t enforce them, even in a casual setting? But it was too late. Howie whistled, and the kids took off, and then Chris had to use all of his concentration to block goals.

He managed to block six out of ten, which gave him a worse save rate than the team’s emergency backup goalie had in his beer league. He was also sweating bullets, and most of the kids had run out of steam. The game ended with a draw when an interruption came, which Chris also disapproved of. They hadn’t managed a full period.

“Snack time,” Mara called from the side door of the house. “I got the weird vegan fruit leather for you, Hanna.”

One of the girls immediately stripped off her orange vest and left the field, though Howie hadn’t blown the whistle to signal the end of the game.

Mooney, distractedly waving to his girlfriend like a dope, gave Chris’s team the opportunity to score on him twice in quick succession. That disappointment signaled the end of the game for the no-orange-vests team, and three minutes later, they lost everyone except Jayden.

“Brutal,” Howie commented. “Hey, d’you know if we can get in on the fruit leather?”

Chris gestured toward the shelter, and Howie took off.

“He’s cool,” Jayden said.

“Really?” Chris asked. “Him?” He’d admit Howie did a decent job reffing. He hadn’t taken any shit, not even from Jayden, and he never committed Chris’s usual error of getting involved in debates about the rules with kids.

“Yeah, man, way cooler than you.”

Chris passed him the bag to grab all the pucks left on the field. Jayden rolled his eyes but started picking up.

“Hey,” Mooney called. “You mind if I…” He jerked his head toward Mara, who was talking to a tall boy in the doorway.

“Go ahead.” Chris had learned at Phil’s barbecue that he hadn’t a chance in hell of holding Mooney’s attention when she was around. “Couples,” he muttered to himself. Why were people so obsessed when they got together? Totally wrapped up in each other and unable to see the rest of the world anymore? It had been unbearable being around Tom and Jax for most of the winter because they kept making eyes at each other and somehow thought no one noticed.

“You still single, big man?” Jayden asked, passing off the bag full of pucks again.

“You don’t have to rub it in.”

“Aww, is someone jealous of his teammate?”

“What? No! I don’t want to date Mara.”

Jayden crossed his arms and frowned. “What’s wrong with Mara? She’s awesome.”

“Okay, but she’s Mooney’s girlfriend. I don’t want to—”

“Oh, so you think she’d cheat on him with you, huh?”