Two Minutes for Hooking

Chapter 19

"Janine!" someone shouted across the yard.
"What?!" she yelled back in the general direction the voice had come from. I looked around and finally saw a group of six or so people gatherin in the Adirondack chairs around the fire pit blazing in the far corner of the yard.
"Come play with us!" came the call from a tall redhead. She dropped her hands from where they had been cupped around her mouth and waved at me, her smile lighting up her freckled face.
"Hey Joss, you should come play too."
"Hey Blaire," I waved and smiled in return. Janine and I decided, since we had nothing better to do, we might as well join them in whatever game they were playing.
The group consisted of several people we knew. There was Blaire, the equipment manager for our team; Korine, our first string goalie; and Tammy, our captain and first line center.We exchanged greetings even though it had only been hours since we had seen each other and were introduced to the other members of the gathering.
Dawn, a buxom brunette in her mid twenties who ran the local rink. Bri, our hostess whom I had met several times before, a small blond who looked like a fairytale princess come to life who was also a skate instructor and premed student. Tomas, a former Frost player who had joined Madison U's mens team this season after aging out of the Frost. Elliot, who was a sophomore member of the same team. And Daniel, whom I recognized from campus.
"So, what are we playing?" Janine asked as I rubbed my hands together to ward off my nerves. It was always easier to navigate social situations if I was with at least one person I knew. And with my teammates it was easier than with El. We were a family and had a camaraderie that made me always feel at home whenever I was with them. But I was still awkward with people I didn't know and I was afraid I would say something stupid and make a fool of myself and them by association.
"We're playing Never Have I Ever. Everyone knows the rules and has a drink?" Blaire made eye contact with each of us before raising her party cup in salute to Dawn.
"Alright, oldest goes first. Dawn, you're up."
Dawn cleared her throat and shifted in her chair.
"Okay, um Never have I ever played hockey." All of us except Dawn and Bri took a drink and then Blaire spoke up.
"No, that's too easy. You're supposed to choose something juicy or scandalous," Blaire's hazel eyes shone with mischief as she turned to face her next victim.
"Okay Bri, you're up."
"Never have I ever," Bri shifted in her seat to look at me and I knew what was coming, "slept with a hockey player."
Dawn, Catherine, Blaire, and Eliot all took a drink. "Seriously Joss? You haven't sealed the deal with James yet?" someone asked.
Luckily I was saved from answering by James' friend and teammate Criig McPhearson.
"Hey Bri, I can fix that for you any time you like," he waggled his eyebrow lasciviously causing us all to laugh when Bri jumped out of her chair to smack Criig in the chest. Only to immediately snatch her hand back in pain and glare at Criig like he had hurt her rather than his hard chest, making us all laugh harder.
I felt a warm, calloused palm brush the back of my neck and give it a tender squeeze. I leaned my head back to look at the body the hand belonged to. James' smiling green eyes looked down at me with a mix between humor and heat burning within them.
"Hi beautiful," his voice was low and deep as he bent his head and gently brushed his lips across mine.I heard someone on the other side of the circle clear their throat and smiled when I felt James lift his hand, knowing he was flipping them off.
"I hope you don't mind if we join you?" came the polite voice that I recognized as Ryans.
"Ooh, yes!" Blaire clapped her hands in excitement. "Pull up a chair. Do you have drinks?"
"We're strictly drinking virgin beverages tonight, I hope that's alright. We have practice tomorrow." James lifted his head and smiled at Blaire and I swear her mind went blank.
"Oh, of course that's fine!" she replied sweetly.
A few feet away someone mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "that's bullshit."
I felt James take a steadying breath like he does when he's trying to find the patience not to lay someone out. However, before he could reply Ryan spoke up.
"Shut up McDuffy, it's thanks to you we have a bag skate tomorrow. You really want to skate more when coach smells alcohol in your vomit?"
"I won't puke," came the sullen response.
"Dude, we're all going to puke. We all shit the bed, we all pay." James spoke up.
"What happened?" I asked James. The feed of the game Bri was planning to stream for us hadn't had a good enough connection to see anything more than a few pixels.
He stroked his fingers across my cheek before gently taking my hang and bringing it to his lips.
"I'll tell you later but let's just say we go tour asses handed to us and drew some stupid as hell penalties."
"We tried to watch but the system error-ed out and wouldn't load."
James grimaced, his face betraying his frustration and exhaustion.
"It's ok, I'm glad you didn't see this one."
My eyes traveled over his face taking in his bloodshot eyes and down turned mouth. Trying to think of something to say but knowing what he really needed was some time to think and review the game to analyze his errors. I finally realized how rude I was being by making him stand there when was obviously dead on his feet. I noticed Janine had given Ryan her chair and she was sitting on the ground in front of him leaning against his legs, I filed that one away to question her about later. All the other guys had found chairs to pull up but James was still standing behind my chair and the rest of the chairs had conveniently disappeared.
I jumped up, "I'm so sorry, you must be gassed, take my seat."
"Jocelyn, I won't kick you out of your seat. I'm fine. Sit down." He rubbed his thumb back and forth over the back of my hand. "You know we can always share," he looked at the chair, obviously questioning weather or not it could take our combined weight but, smart man that he is, decided it would be best not to voice that question out loud.
He smiled, his normally dazzling smile only slightly diminished by his exhaustion and lowered himself into the seat, "as long as you don't mind that I just got off the bus."
"You showered at the arena?" he nodded. "Then you're good."
Turning, I tried to perch lightly on his knee, so he grabbed hold of my waist and pulled me back so I was sitting snug against his check with his arms wrapped around my waist.
"There, that's much better," his warm breath brushed against the sensitive place between my neck shoulder making me shiver.
"Cold?" he chuckled.I shook my head and relaxed into him. He pressed a kiss gently on the sensitive spot and then rested his chin on my shoulder giving me a squeeze.
"Well aren't you two just adorable," came a smart ass quip and James threw his water bottle at them.
We continued the game with Korine going next.
Her short nails picking at the label on her beer as she thought. Her eyes went wide and she bounced up in her seat,
"ooh, I have a good one. Ready?" Pausing for dramatic effect,
"Never have I ever taken a sexy selfie.
"Several of our group drank, the exceptions being myself, James, Ryan and Criig. I raised an eyebrow at James for an explanation.
"I don't really like taking pictures of myself. Plus you always hear about the crap some of the bunnies do and it really makes you think twice before doing something, you know?"
"Well yeah, I wasn't asking about you though. I thought you said Ryan was in a long distance relationship. I thought that pretty much meant sexy selfies would be send all the time."
His gaze followed mine to where Ryan was sitting talking to Janine. James looked a little uncomfortable an di felt him shift beneath me.
"That's not really my story to tell. . ."
I was burning with curiosity but I figured if he could tell me he would, so I decided to let it drop.
In our own little world we had missed McDuffy's turn and were startled by the shouts of "gross" and "what is wrong with you" that were being hurled in his direction."What?" came his incredulous response.
"I had to dig deep for that, there isn't much I haven't done if you know what I mean." He winked. Beside him, Catherine reached up her hand and smacked him upside the head. "Seriously Lance, you're such an ass."
His hand flew up to protect his head from further attach, "ouch, what was that for?"
She made a sound of disgust, flipped her long hair over her shoulder and turned back to face the group.
"My turn," she rubbed her hands together and smiled maiacally. "Never have I ever. . . stolen food out of the grocery store bulk bins."
There was a collective sigh of relief as every single one of us, except Catherine or course, drank.
"Goody two shoes," McDuffy mumbled against the lip of his soda bottle.
Tammy went next and following Catherine's example said, "Never have I ever skipped school or practice."
Surprisingly only Daniel, Dawn, Korine and Ryan drank. Ryan caught James' questioning look and shrugged his shoulders."What? There was a major raid a few years ago and I didn't want to miss it. So I skipped out of school after lunch. Of course, me being me, and having shitty luck I got caught and benched for the game that weekend."
The answer seemed to satisfy James and I felt his body relax further into the seat behind me.
Things progressed rather in a rather tame fashion until it was Criig's turn, "Never have I ever slept with a puck bunny."
I knew, or rather guessed that James had been with a bunny or two. I had heard the ones who sat near me at the games comparing players. But it still soured my stomach when he drank. He tightened his grip on me and I knew, if I looked at him, I would see the apology in his eyes.
"You okay?" I felt, more than heard him whisper in my ear.
I nodded and snuggled back deeper into his embrace.
"You know there is no one else but you, right?"Again, I nodded and I did know that. But I also knew this was a conversation we were going to need to have sooner or later. I felt his lips press into the hollow of my neck again and then he let out a sigh that I felt all the way to my toes. His forehead came down to rest gently on my shoulder.
"I guess it's probably a good time to have that talk, huh?" I turned in his lap and waited for his eyes to lift to mine. There was a sadness in his green eyes that I ached to erase.
"I would never hold your past against you James. But I think you're right, it's time to have the ex's talk." We kept our eyes locked for several seconds both dreading the conversation but also anticipating the intimacy that could be gained from it.
"Are you two planning to rejoin us or are you going to just stay lost in each others eyes while the rest of us die from the saccharine sweetness you're exuding?" Blaire was standing over us, eye brow raised, hands on hips trying hard to look stern.
I laughed, "well I guess now isn't the time for that conversation after all. Later?"
"Later," he agreed, kissing me again before turning his attention back to the group."I'm sorry guys, what did we miss?"
"Tomas just said he's never been cheated on and we were about to drink but you two were not paying attention." Blaire tapped her foot impatiently giving me a very pointed look.
I sighed and took a drink. "Happy?" I asked her.
"Very," she quipped. Concealing a grin that was only slightly evil as she looked from me to James who also took a drink.
The game continued in this fashion with Blair and McDuffy asking uncomfortable questions. It was fun and we all learned more about each other than even the closest of us knew before. After an hour or so the alarm on James' phone went off.
"Shit," he mumbled, "time to go. Did you want to ride with us?"
"That would be great," moving to get off his lap I replied, "I rode with Helly after practice."
"You guys ready?" James asked his teammates as he stood and stretched, his shirt rising up just enough to see a sliver of his toned stomach. To my surprise, no one argued, not even McDuffy. Whatever had happened had obviously been enough to squash some of the fight out of the normally argumentative goalie.
We said our good nights and I let Helly know I would catch a ride with James.Walking through the yard and into the house with our hands linked, James gathered the rest of his teammates so they could make it home or to the billet houses before curfew.
Ryan clapped a hand on James' shoulder."Criig and I are going to catch a ride with McDuffy. See you at home?"
"Yeah, I'll be home soon."