Chapter 6
Stefan
Hockey was in his blood, in his gut. His soul.
Vulcanized rubber smelled like ambrosia. Hockey tape could fix anything. And there was no better feeling than skating every, single day.
Stefan wasn’t the best player in the league, not by a long shot. But he worked hard, maybe harder than anyone else.
He also wasn’t an asshole.
Which was how he’d ended up as captain midway through last season.
After Devon Carter—the General Manager or GM for the Gold—had made the disastrous decision of choosing Peter Gordaine at the beginning of the previous year, management had decided to let the team vote.
For some reason, they had chosen him.
Of course, it was probably because Gordaine had very nearly destroyed the team—a team of professionals, who were paid to do a job, and typically didn’t bring bullshit to the table.
He’d done it with a streak of meanness that burned everyone in his path—player or employee alike. It had been Stefan’s most miserable season of hockey ever, which was saying something, because he’d had his fair share of jerky coaches and prima donna teammates.
But, at least, Gordaine was gone, with Stefan in his place.
Being captain was both a blessing and curse.
It was a pretty special thing to have the team look up to him, the notion humbling and a little daunting, especially with the added pressure to both perform and set a good example.
The curse part came from dealing with the fallout from last season’s scandal and now with Brit rocking the boat—
He heard the distinctive pop of puck meets glass and turned, watching as one collided with the boards less than a foot from Brit’s head.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered and started to skate over.
Brit met his eyes, and he stopped mid-stride when she shook her head.
“Ignore it,” that shake seemed to say, before she adjusted the grip on her stick and skated to the empty net.
Stefan bit back a curse. Had he just been thinking the team was special? Nope. Special was definitely not the right word.
Idiotic was more like it.
He was dealing with a bunch of idiotic, teenaged-boys.