Meet Me in the Penalty Box （Orchid City, #1）
Cali Melle
PROLOGUE
NICO
As I walked off the ice and headed back to the locker room, my hair was soaked and stuck to the back of my neck. There was nothing like hitting the ice for practice and having your coach tell you that you’re not practicing with pucks. After the loss that we had on Sunday, I wasn’t surprised. We got spanked and it wasn’t the pleasurable kind of spanking.
“Damn, that man is ruthless,” Lincoln mumbled as we both dropped down onto the bench beside each other. He was in his rookie year too, so we were both working our asses off to prove that we belonged playing on this level.
Ice hockey was competitive as hell and if you weren’t keeping up with the best, you’d easily get left behind. Dropping back to the AHL wouldn’t be a death sentence, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted it all, or nothing.
And luckily, I was right where I needed to be in terms of impressing our coach and being an asset to the team.
Coach Anderson didn’t fuck around and I wasn’t about to be the one who got on his bad side. We had one issue this entire season and it was about me getting into some unnecessary fights. I dialed it back a bit since we had a talk about it and everything had been good between us ever since.
“Cirone,” Miles, one of our new equipment guys, said as he walked over to me. “Let me get your practice socks so I can get you new ones.”
I pulled the clear tape from the material and balled it up and set it on the bench beside me before I continued undressing. Miles looked at the ball of tape and held out his hand for it as I handed him my socks.
“Do you want me to throw the tape out for you?”
My eyes widened and I shook my head. “Absolutely not.”
Wes chuckled from a few guys down. “You never touch Nico’s tape,” he warned Miles. Wes and I played on the same team together in the AHL before we were moved up to the NHL. He knew my weird quirks and superstitions.
“What’s the deal with the tape?” Miles questioned the two of us, genuinely interested.
I shrugged off the rest of my equipment and put it all back in its respective place. “My mom started this thing when I was a kid. I used to piss her off with leaving balls of tape everywhere, so every season she would collect them. It kind of started this weird thing that I do now.”
Wes laughed again and Lincoln shook his head. “Go on, tell him more,” Lincoln urged. “It gets even more interesting.”
I looked between my two teammates. “Like neither of you have your own weird things you do.” I paused and directed my attention at Wes. “You sleep in your damn suit every night before a game.”
Wes simply shrugged. “It’s good luck, bro.”
“And so is my ball of tape.”
Miles looked between the three of us. “You know what, I don’t need to know the specifics. I know now to leave your tape untouched, so we’re good.”
He quickly moved away from all of us and everyone went back to their routine. Some of the guys headed into the shower to wash away the sweat before leaving. Wes walked over to me as I grabbed my keys, phone, and wallet.
“What are you doing tonight, Nico? Some of us are going to meet up at that new club Mirage. You game?”
I shrugged, even though my body was telling me I needed to go home and go to bed. “Sure, why not. I’m going to run home and shower and I’ll meet you guys there?”
“Sounds good,” Wes said with a smile before he left the locker room. I wasn’t far behind him and some of the other guys came out in a larger group. I was still getting to know a lot of the guys and they had been pretty accepting so far.
After hopping into my black Mercedes, I headed out through the ramp that led down to where all the players parked. The man sitting at the booth lifted the gate and waved as I drove through. My apartment was only a five-minute drive from the arena and there wasn’t much traffic so I got home without any issues.
From one parking garage to another, I slid my car into its spot and took the elevator up to my floor. It was a building of condos and each floor was its own separate unit. I didn’t make enough of a salary for a place like this, but my mother had an insane trust built for me and she left me a fortune when she passed away.
The thought weighed heavily on my heart and as I stepped into the shower, I couldn’t help but tilt my head back and wonder where she was in the universe. I hoped wherever she was, I was making her proud. She was diagnosed with cancer when I was finishing up college. Her prognosis wasn’t good and she didn’t last very long with us after she found out.
She was alive when I was drafted into the NHL and I’d never forget the look on her face. It was a memory I had cemented inside my brain. She never got to see my NHL debut, but I knew she was with me that day. I missed her, but there was nothing I could do about it now except hope that I was continuing to make her proud.
After showering, I got dressed and added my ball of tape to the massive one I’d been collecting during the season. I had been keeping it in my guest room and thankfully, no one ever asked to see inside the room. To the guys, it wasn’t anything to be ashamed of. Someone who didn’t understand it might not find it as amusing.
By the time I left my apartment, it was already well into the night and I was pulling into the parking lot at the club by ten-thirty. Wes had already texted me to let me know they were here and to head to the VIP section.
“Took you long enough,” Lincoln said as I took a seat next to him in the booth. There was a bottle of champagne in a bucket in the center of the table, but everyone had mixed drinks and was taking shots.
I shrugged as I grabbed one of the shots and swallowed it back. The liquor burned as it slid down my esophagus, but I welcomed the feeling. “Let’s be real—you guys were probably here for five minutes before I showed up.”
Wes clapped his hand on my shoulder and gave me a swift shake. “Hey, buddy,” he said with a smile in his voice. “Linc was just missing you, is all.”
Lincoln laughed loudly. “I’m here for one thing and one thing only tonight,” he said with a smirk. “And you are not it, Cirone.”
“Bummer,” I chuckled as I grabbed one of the mixed drinks that Wes had. Otto, Mac, and Cole were sitting in the booth talking to some girls who had wandered over. A few of the other guys were here somewhere, but who knew where they wandered off to.
Lincoln stood up from where he was sitting. “I’m heading out to scope out the scene. Either of you want to come with me?”
Wes shook his head as he leaned back in his spot and slowly sipped his bourbon and ginger ale while pulling out his phone. “Nah. I’m just going to lay low for a little.”
Lincoln glanced over at me. “Cirone?”
I shrugged as I picked up my drink and stood up. It was the same thing Wes was drinking. “Fuck it. I don’t have anything else going on, so I’m down.”
Lincoln smiled and he began to wander through the VIP section. I followed after him as the sound of the bass pounded through the speakers and directly into my bones. It was loud as hell but the DJ had a nasty mix going, so I was feeling it as we walked down the stairs and into the main area of the club.