One of the Boys

Chapter 40

Christopher

"You know I've been doing some thinking lately." I say keeping my eyes focused on the road as we drive home from practice. "Oh no, that can be dangerous!" Delaney says sarcastically as I laugh. "No for real, I'm being serious here." I reply. "Okay, what about?" She asks. "Well you know after meeting Cash at Jason's place yesterday and watching how cute you were with the pup, I was thinking that maybe after playoffs are done and we're done for the summer that maybe we could uh maybe we could adopt a puppy of our own if you wanted to." I say turning to see Delaney's facial expression.

"Chris are you being for real right now?" She asked with a hopeful tone in her voice. "I mean yes of course I am." I reply putting my focus back into the road in front of us. "Of course I'd love to adopt a puppy!" She exclaims. "Then we could bring our dog for puppy play dates with Cash!" She adds. I smile and place my one hand on her thigh.

"Okay so what kind of dog would you want to adopt?" I ask. "Oouu I've always wanted a golden retriever!" She replies excitedly. "They've always been my favourite dog breed." She adds.

Man the thought of owning a place and a dog with this girl just makes me smile and hearing her so excited about adopting a pup together just makes me smile a whole lot more. She's definitely the one I can see myself spending forever with.

"Chris?" I hear Delaney ask as I'm snapped out of  my thoughts and back into reality. "Huh?" I ask. "I was asking you what kind of dog you would want to have." She says with a smile. "Well, when I was younger, we had a golden retriever growing up which, come to think of it was my favourite type of dog as a kid." I reply pulling into the parking garage of our apartment building.

"Ahah, time to go lay on the couch for a pre-game nap!" She says as I put the car in park. "Let's go then." I say as I open the door at the same time she does. Once the car is locked, I hold my hand out and she takes it as we make our way inside the building. 

******

"Hey man." Riley says taking a seat next to me. "Hey, what's going on buddy?" I ask as we do our handshake. "Not much really. After morning practice I went home and napped for a solid hour. How about you?" He replies taking his gear out from his bag.

"Well on our way home from morning practice, Dels and I talked about maybe getting a dog after the season's over." I smile as I finish taping my stick. "And what were her thoughts on that?" He asked. "She thought I was joking at first but when I told her I was being dead serious about it, she was all for the idea." I reply with a smile. "So what kind of dog were you thinking of getting?" He asked, pulling his dry fit shirt over his head. "We agreed on a golden retriever." I reply. "Nice, those dogs are so cute." Riley says.

"Hey guys." Jack greets, walking into the dressing room. "Hey Jack!" Both of us replied. "Ready to kick Chicago's ass tonight?" I ask. "And get to the finals? Hell yeah! You already know it!" He exclaims going over to his cubby to start heading up.

"Where's Laney?" Riley asked as he puts on one of his skates. "Her and Lee were in the workout room stretching and doing a small workout earlier. They should be back anytime now." I reply and just on cue, the two of them walk back into the room with a water bottle in hand. "Hey guys" Delaney smiles as she takes a seat in her cubby. "Hey Laney, I was just asking Tiago where you were." Riley says placing his hand on my shoulder. "Was stretching up in the workout room before coming down to get ready for warmups." She replies.

******

"Alright! Bring it in!" Coach shouts after the Wolves scored two goals on us in the start of the first. Both goals were scored 5 seconds apart within the first 3 minutes of the game. "Rose and Young, keep the pressure on them when they're coming into our zone. Do all that you can to keep them to the outside and always be aware of who's blocking Jack's view in front of the net. Jones, Santiago and Lee, keep the pressure on their players at all times. Make the Wolves play the puck and create a turn over. Got it?" Coach says as he draws up a play on the white board to explain it to us. "Got it." We all say.

After he explains the play, he passes the play board to the assistant coach. "Any questions?" He asks. Nobody says a word so Mike claps his hands together. "Alright, let's get back out there and score some goals." He exclaims as the ref blows the whistle for both teams to get back and set up for puck drop at centre ice.

The puck gets dropped and I'm battling the other centre man to win the face off. After a few seconds, I draw the puck back and Casey speeds in to collect it. He loops around and carries it up over centre towards the offensive zone. The rest of our line skates into the zone and we create a triangle. I race to the front of the net and screen the goalie while Casey played the puck to Riley.

Riley keeps moving around, the puck still on his stick as the right winger attempts to approach him. He quickly fakes a pass back to Case before psyching out the right winger and playing the puck to Dels. She immediately receives the puck on the blade of her stick and looks up before deciding her next move. When she does look up, she looks towards the net and we instantly make eye contact. I nod giving her the all clear signal to shoot as she nods back and gets in shooting position. Once the puck is released from her stick, it comes flying at the net and skins off my own stick before it reaches the back of the net.

The goal horn sounds and the arena erupts j to a loud roar. I raise my arms in the air before I'm surrounded by my line mates. "Thanks for the assist." I smile at Delaney. "Just doing my job!" She replies back.

"That's what I want to see out there!" Mike exclaims once were sitting on the bench, catching our breaths before our next shift. "Nice deflection man." Jason fist bumps me. "Thanks" I say.

I grab some water and look up to the scoreboard. Even though it was a 2-1 game, we still have quite a lot of time left to get the puck into the back of that net and boost our score up on the board.

"Why does this guy keep giving us dirty looks?" Riley asks snapping me from my thoughts. "What guy?" I ask completely confused as to where Riles was looking. "The clown sitting on the bench! He's been staring at us since the start of the game." Riley replies pointing in the direction of the visitors bench where a mean looking blond left winger sat.

"That's knucklehead's line mate from the first line. He's proposed that 43 got suspended last game for charging at me then picking a fight with Casey." I reply. "You really think so?" He asked. "I don't know but we just got to watch our backs out there in case he decides to play Mr.Tough guy and come after us. Alright?" I say giving Riley a serious look.

"Yeah... Yeah okay." He replies. "And keep an eye out  in case he decides to go after Dels too." I add. "Got it" He replies before he grabs a quick drink before hopping into his next shift.