Overtime(21)

“Gotcha,” Jordie agreed with a nod. “Won’t happen.”

“And stay away from the bottle.”

He didn’t hesitate. “Will do.”

Jim held his gaze for a little longer and then nodded. “I believe in you, son. Now, believe in yourself.”

He then turned and left the room with no other words. Jordie and Jim didn’t always get along, mostly because Jordie was a selfish, drunken bastard—Jim’s words, of course. But the last two weeks had been good. They were clicking and had developed a certain kind of respect between them. He would miss the old coot, but he was ready to go home.

Heading outside to go back to his cabin he had rented for his belongings, he called Karson first. He needed to call to get an airline ticket, but his excitement had to be shared with his best buddy.

“Hey, bro, what’s up?” Karson asked, breathing hard into the phone.

Jordie grinned, almost bouncing as he made his way to the car. “Guess what?”

“What?”

“Been cleared! Coming home!”

“No shit! That’s awesome, bro!”

“I know,” he said, letting out a long breath. “Longer than I wanted, but I’m excited to get home, start training with you guys.”

“For sure, just in time too. Camp starts Monday. Must have been meant to be. Get clean and healthy; come home right in time to show off.”

“I know,” he said, getting in and starting the car he had rented. “Praying I can keep up. I’ve only been on the ice for the last two weeks.”

And oh, how perfect it had been. Jordie couldn’t help himself, he’d found himself face first in the ice, just to smell it. He’d wanted to immerse himself in it, become one with it. He had missed it so much. He’d stayed out for hours, skating and just playing around. While guitar playing had helped with not wanting to drink, when he was on the ice, alcohol was nowhere in his mind. It was only him, the ice, his stick, and the puck. It was perfect.

He was home.

“You’ll be fine. No worries at all.”

“Hope so,” he said, turning onto the highway to get out to his place. “So you are still cool with me staying with you guys till we know my fate?”

Karson laughed. “Don’t be so dramatic. Elli lifted the suspension, you aren’t going anywhere.”

“But I haven’t signed anything, so you never know,” he said, his heart sinking a bit. He hadn’t heard from Elli since he went into rehab—only a text saying to call her once he was released, which was something he needed to do. The only reason he knew that his suspension had been lifted was because his agent had sent him an email saying so. Everything was still up in the air though; he went up for free agency in October. Would he be let go, or would she sign him? He wasn’t sure, but he had to keep his nose clean, that was for sure.

“Yeah, yeah, she’ll sign you. She loves you, but yeah, you’re good. Are you flying in tonight?” he asked. He then huffed before yelling, “Damn it, Dad, that was my foot!”

“What are you doing?”

Karl hollered something unintelligible and Karson huffed out another breath. “My parents are selling their house so they can move to Nashville to be close to us and Mena Jane. So I’m up here doing some home improvements to meet the demands on the offer sheet.”

“Oh, so you aren’t even home?”

“No, but Lacey and Mena Jane are. Are you flying in tonight?”

“Yeah, I was going to, but I can wait.”

“No, go. I won’t be back till Sunday and neither will Kacey. BJ sent her to a trainers’ convention down in Chattanooga.”

“Kacey? Trainers? Huh?”

“Oh, did I not tell you? Kacey got a job with the trainers. She’s our work-out trainer now. She won’t travel with the team, which is good ’cause Lacey can’t be alone right now. But that’s why you going home tonight would be ideal because Kacey just left today.”

Kacey worked for the Assassins now? She was his trainer? Ha. That was gonna be awesome….once he got her to forgive him.

Unable to say that, his next concern was Lacey. “What’s wrong with Lacey? Why can’t she be alone?”

“She’s got a touch of postpartum depression, and she is deathly scared that Mena Jane is gonna get breast cancer or die or something. I really didn’t want to leave them, but she was scared to put Mena Jane on a plane with sick people.”

“Oh shit, dude,” Jordie said, worried about her. He had known about her being nervous, but he didn’t know she had basically lost her shit.

“Yeah, as much as I wanted kids, I sorta wish, for her sake, we would have waited a bit longer. She isn’t handling everything well.”

“I’ll talk to her. She has a soft spot for me,” he said and Karson laughed.

“Never would have thought that would happen. She used to hate you.”

“I grow on people.”

Karson scoffed. “Sure, you do.”

Jordie laughed and then paused before asking the question that had been burning in his soul since Karson brought her up. “So Kacey is living at your place too?”

“Yeah, until Ma and Dad get in. Then she is moving in with them, unless she gets her own place or whatever. We are praying that Lacey gets better before the season starts because, if she doesn’t, then Kacey will stay until she does.”