Page 8

Elephant in the Room

Aleks

“Oh, God. This is pure gold,” Carter Fabri said, holding his phone up to record as I lined up to take another shot at the golf ball resting on the lush green grass.

I’d missed it the first swing.

“Aleks Suter, Suuuu Man — top scorer in the league, and Most Likely to Whiff on the golf course.”

My eyes narrowed into slits as I glared at him. I turned back to where I was lining up my shot, pretending like I was going in for my second try, but instead, I reached out with my golf club and swiped it under his knees, making him fall backward as the rest of the guys laughed at his expense.

Stupid, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed fucker didn’t even get mad.

He sat up laughing just as hard as the rest of them.

Carter had been a pain in my ass ever since I first met him. I didn’t care that he was a nice guy. He was my particular pet peeve of a teammate — the kind who had the potential to be great, but had the backbone of a salamander.

I’d watched him kill it in practice so many times, playing like he was the center of our dreams, only to witness him throw it all away in a game because he lost his focus. His confidence had to be the equivalent of a five-year-old learning to ride a bike.

It was why he’d been sent down to the AHL time and time again.

He was back in Tampa this summer, promised a spot at camp next month, but he’d have to prove himself to stay any longer than that.

“Aw, leave Su Man alone,” Jaxson Brittain said. “Not his fault he’s an ugly sonofabitch who’s only good at one thing.”

“You mean sniping on your ass every scrimmage? Yeah, seems to be my specialty.”

Jaxson started in on his defense as the other guys laughed. I ignored them, lining up for my shot. I hit the ball this time, but it was a poor showing compared to the rest of them.

I didn’t know why I let them talk me into golfing in the first place.

I didn’t play hockey to make friends — I never had.

The only reason I entertained the idea of today was because Will Perry had been the one to invite me. He was our goalie, a beast of a man who was one of the few I’d ever played with who made me want to be better. He’d also helped me out last season when I was flying too close to the sun, as Mia’s father would say.

Coming into Tampa after being discarded from the Seattle team like a broken hockey stick, I’d felt like I needed to prove myself even more than usual. Of course, for me, that usually turned into my temper getting the best of me. In my attempt to be the best, I was quick to lash out at my teammates, alienate myself, and, more times than I liked to admit, get into fights on the ice that led to me sitting in the penalty box.

Will pissed me off at first because he was trying to tame me from the get go. He wanted me to fall in line and follow his rules.

But when I realized he actually gave a fuck about me, that he actually saw what I brought to the team… something shifted. I was used to being punished and threatened, but it was rare that I felt like anyone saw my worth.

It was rare that I felt like I truly had worth.

So when he pulled me aside and used his words to tell me saw my potential and believed in me, it meant something — especially because, like me, Will wasn’t one to talk about anything, least of all being impressed by another player.

It probably also helped that he was quick to remind me that the team had been doing fine before I got there, and that if I were to leave, they’d find someone else to take my place. It was the truth — no matter how bitter the pill was to swallow.

No one could give you an ego check quite like Daddy P could.

So yeah, when that man asked something of me, even if just to join some of the teammates for a golf outing, I wasn’t going to say no. Add in the fact that my face was plastered all over the Internet at the moment — and not from a bar fight — I guessed I needed an escape.

That’s why I was piling into a large golf cart with Will, Carter, Jaxson, and Vince as we rode toward the middle of the fairway instead of holing up in my condo like I usually would.

Where Will struck me almost as a father figure — though I’d never tell him that — and Carter was like an annoying little brother, Jaxson and Vince were my reliable teammates. I didn’t care to join in on their constant locker room banter, and I sure as fuck didn’t need to be their friend, but I knew when we were on the ice together, I could count on them.

I was silent as we parked the golf cart and the guys took their second shots, all of them easily making it to the green. Vince nearly got his ball into the hole before it was my turn again.

Fortunately, this time, I was able to hit it on the first swing, and I made it to the edge of the green.

“So, are you going to give us details on the wedding?” Carter asked Will as we made our way toward the flag. It was one of those sweltering July days in Tampa, the kind that had sweat sliding down the back of my neck even at nine in the morning.

“Nope,” Will answered easily.

That made me smirk. This was the kind of man I liked to be around. I’d only ever seen him lose his cool one time — last season, when he was falling hard for his nanny and didn’t know how to handle it.

Fortunately, he had me to knock some sense into him.

“Come on,” Vince said. “You bastards made me tell you everything about mine.”

“Maven was telling the whole world everything about yours on social media,” Jaxson corrected. “And don’t act like you didn’t love every second of it.”

Vince smirked and shrugged. “I can’t help it if we’re the hottest couple to ever exist.”

“Nah,” Jaxson argued, tugging on the bill of Vince’s hat as he jumped out of the golf cart. “That title belongs to me and your sister.”

Vince glared at him before chasing him toward the hole, and Will shook his head as he, Carter, and I fell into step next to one another.

“I just want to know if this is going to be a small affair, or if I should start planning a date, ya know?” Carter remarked.

“You’ll find out when everyone else does, Fabio,” Will said. “Nothing to tell yet.”

“And Doc isn’t going to go as your date, no matter when the wedding is,” I chimed in. I couldn’t help it. Any chance I had to rag on the kid was too tempting for me to pass up.

Carter’s face flushed a bit, but he shrugged me off on a smile. “So you say. I think Livvy secretly has the hots for me.”

That made Jaxson and Vince spew out a simultaneous laugh as we approached where Vince was about to putt. Livia was our team dentist and best friend to Maven, Vince’s wife. She was smoking hot, smart as hell, and had a known reputation for being a bit of a freak in the sheets.

In other words — she was so far out of Carter’s league he might as well have been playing another sport.

“In your dreams, Fabio. Livvy would eat you alive,” Vince said, and then he gently tapped the ball and sent it right into the hole.

Fucker got a birdie, and I was just as mad about it as I was when he outscored me in a game.

“Fuck you,” Carter said, shoving Vince enough to make him stumble. But now Jaxson and Will were laughing, too, and I wore an easy smirk. “Fuck all of you. One day, I’ll make you eat your words.”

“If you ever bag Liv, I promise you, I will literally get on my hands and knees and kiss your feet,” Vince said.

Carter shook his head, lining up for his first putt. I thought he would shoot some smart-ass remark back, but he quieted, missing the hole by just a few inches when he finally took his shot. He still hit par with the next one, but he seemed to be in his head now.

Poor kid. We were just giving him a hard time.

Then again, I’d rather him show even half the interest he had in Livia to getting better on the ice. We could use him, especially with the center on my line likely on his way out after this season. He was an older veteran in his early forties. Played like a monster, that guy, but our bodies could only do this shit for so long. Carter would play in the fourth line most likely, but he had the potential to move up quickly — if he focused.

“So, are we going to talk about the giant elephant in the room, or ignore it the way you ignore every call Coach makes?” Jaxson asked me as we loaded up to head toward the next hole.

“Yeah, Su Man, why didn’t you tell us you were hooking up with the biggest pop star in the nation?” Vince chimed in.

Ah. So that was the elephant.

I hoped my smirk came off as cocky and sly as I winked at them, not saying a word as Will took his first shot. But as soon as he did, even he wanted the dirt.

“You know, we all saw something when she came to that game in New York,” he said. “You had a hat trick that night.”

“ And you didn’t get thrown in the box even once,” Carter added.

Jaxson shook his head. “I just can’t believe it. No offense, bro, but… you don’t exactly seem her type.”

My nostrils flared with that comment because I was well aware of that fact.

But I didn’t need this motherfucker to point it out.

“You don’t think so?” I asked, tapping my chin with one finger. “Huh. Maybe you should tell her that next time I have her screaming out my name from her fifth orgasm of the night.”

That made them all laugh. Carter tried to high five me, but I just stared at his hand before he sheepishly put it down again.

Fuck. I hated that I’d said that. It didn’t matter that Mia wasn’t here to hear it, it was a prick thing to say.

Why was that always my defense mechanism?

Everyone already thinks I’m a prat, so I just continue to play into it. That’s easier than trying to change their minds. And why would I want to?

I always felt one bad day away from ruining it all, always felt like there was a part of me born to ruin everything I touched.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said, still pissed at myself for talking about her like she was just one of the many women who were desperate to get in my bed.

But this was who I was to these guys — to everyone.

Aleks Suter: the playboy, the asshole, the fighter.

“You two grew up together, yeah?” Carter asked, taking his shot before he turned back to me for an answer.

I spit in lieu of one.

Maybe I should have opened up, should have told my teammates about how I went from a poor foster kid in Switzerland to billeting with a rich family in Chicago. Maybe a better man would have shared his feelings and detailed how his fucked-up childhood shaped him.

But that wasn’t me.

I preferred to keep the past exactly there — behind me.

The only person who knew more than surface level shit about me was Mia, and even we didn’t talk about it much anymore. When we were teenagers sneaking onto rooftops or sitting by the lake that felt more like an ocean, those conversations came easy.

Well — with her they did.

But she never pushed me, never asked for more than what I was willing to give. Sometimes I’d talk about my biological parents — what little I knew about them, anyway, which was mostly that they battled drug addiction until they both died. Sometimes I’d tell her stories about my foster mom, Annaliese, who was an angel on Earth.

Most times, I’d just talk about hockey.

Hockey was the only thing that felt constant in my life, the only thing I could rely on other than myself.

“Man, I’m sure Dick is thrilled with this news,” Vince said, pulling me back to the present. “I looked last night, and your jersey is the top selling one on the team right now. In the offseason,” he added with a slight shake of his head. “If you two make it to the season and sell out the arena, he’ll be so tickled pink he’ll probably offer you his jet.”

“We’ll make it.”

The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them, and I didn’t miss the looks the guys exchanged.

“Alrighty then,” Carter said with a grin. “Man, can you imagine how fucking wild it’ll be when Mia Love comes to a home game? It was lit when she was in New York. I hope she brings her friends. Those twin models she hangs out with…” He clapped Jaxson on the shoulder and bit the knuckles of his opposite hand, but I ignored whatever he said next as I lined up and took my shot.

For the first time, it sailed farther than any of the other guys’s had, and Will let out a low whistle as we walked toward the golf cart.

“You two are serious, huh?” he asked.

I didn’t reply, but with him, I didn’t need to.

We spoke the same language.

Mostly grunts and scowls.

“She seems great, man. Talented as hell. And I’m not just saying that because my daughter is obsessed with her.”

I nodded.

She was great.

Better than me by all accounts — which was probably why these fuckers could barely believe we were together.

“I know talking isn’t your thing, but if you ever need to…”

“Fuck off, Daddy P.”

He smirked, heaving his bag of clubs onto his shoulder before loading them on the cart.