BLAZE: Enemies to Lovers College Hockey Romance by Eddie Cleveland (ebook reader macos .txt) 📕

dining room, I’m not far behind him. Everyone yells surprise, and even though it’s not what I want to be doing, I try not to be a total dick about it.

“Alright, everyone, grab some pizza and cocktails. They’re already in the kitchen,” Kaylee instructs us. Maybe it’s her big, round glasses that makes her seem like the mom of the group. Maybe it’s because she’s Player’s girl, and he’s the Team Captain. Whatever it is, everyone tends to listen when Kaylee speaks.

“Cocktails?” I look at Rookie.

How great would it be if he lied to me about the booze and bunnies? The island in the kitchen is stacked high with pizza boxes. All the guys in the house are descending on it like gulls dive-bombing a dumpster. On the counter lining the kitchen wall are a bunch of tall glasses with slushy drinks filling them. There’re sticks of fruit poking out, and, for some reason, little umbrellas.

No one else seems to have any questions about the drinks because everyone grabs one. The pizza is fine, but I normally don’t drink these even when they have alcohol in them. A sip the slushy mixture confirms it… not a hint of booze. Not a drop.

I plop down in a dining room chair, and Canuck takes a seat next to me. “Happy Birthday, Blaze.” The seats fill in around us, and just about everyone wishes me the same thing. Canuck nods at the drinks. “Those remind me of my grandmother.” He lifts his and takes a sip.

“Enjoys a good daiquiri, does she?” I ask.

“What? No.” He shakes his head. “Well, yes.” He laughs, and now other people are listening, so a bunch of us laugh with him.

“My Nan did like a strong drink. She passed away when I was in high school, and she could drink me under the table then.” Canuck smiles. “She used to make herself stuff like this, but with tons of rum in it.”

“So, how it was meant to be enjoyed?” I don’t have to look up to feel Player’s angry stare burrowing into me. I ignore it, eat my pizza and decide I’d rather pay attention to Canuck than Player.

“Yeah, and she was a strong, French-Canadian farmer. When she’d babysit and I was being a rowdy little fuck at bedtime, she’d just stay calm. She’d fix a drink like this and slowly sip it down. Anyway, when she decided she wanted some peace and quiet, she’d tell me I could eat the fruit that had been in her drink the whole time. I loved my sleepy fruit so much.” Canuck laughs.

“Sleepy fruit.” Griz nudges his sister, Etta. “That reminds me of the Christmas punch. Remember, we’d fish out the fruit the morning after the parties?”

“Oh yeah, those were so good,” she agrees before taking a huge bite of pizza.

“Yeah, except you always took all the good fruit. I’d get stuck with lemon slices.”

“When life gives you lemon slices,” Etta cuts in.

“You eat them and get a buzz,” Griz answers.

“Well, there’s no sleepy fruit in these.” Kaylee smiles.

“That’s a fucking shame,” I cut in. “I could use a lot of fucking sleepy fruit right now.”

Player is getting pretty tense. I can see him clenching up. “Why don’t you go smoke another joint. That usually does the trick, doesn’t it?”

He’s always on my ass about everything, so I’ve gotten used to ignoring his comments. Player has looked down his nose at me since I got arrested last year. Now that he’s with Kaylee, he acts like his entire fucking nickname wasn’t given to him because of how much pussy he used to get. Now that he’s settled down, and I’m still doing the exact same stuff he did as a single guy in college, I’m the fucking degenerate. Hypocrite.

Not only is he a hypocrite, he’s lame now. Player used to be a fun guy to hit the clubs with. Now, he’d rather cozy up to his girl and binge-watch Netflix. Like my parents. Life is too short to settle down when you’re young. Player and Kaylee might be dreaming of sharing a house with a white picket fence, but that’s not for me.

“No, you don’t need any sleepy fruit.” Kaylee also ignores her boyfriend’s comment and looks at me. “We got you a cake, and that’s way better. Cake won’t get you kicked off the team.” She gives me a look. As the unofficial mom of our group, a look is all she needs to give me to shut me up.

“I’ll grab it.” Etta pops up from her chair and heads out to the kitchen. She returns quickly and starts singing a warbly Happy Birthday. It doesn’t get less awkward when more people join in.

“It’s an ice cream cake.” Kaylee is so much more excited about this than I can even pretend to be.

“Perfect.” I fake a half-smile. I know she means well, but this is… “It’s every ten-year-old’s dream.”

“That’s a pretty fucked up way to say thank you.” Player glares at me. “Especially since Kaylee bought this stupid cake for you. I told you that grocery store one was fine.” He gives her one of those pointed looks that couples do. The ones that say, “See?”

“It’s okay, I had a coupon for it and it was going to expire, so…” Kaylee pushes her glasses up her nose and shrugs.

Player’s eyes flash when they land on me. “Coupon or not, she went out of her way for your stupid birthday cake. So, how about you shut the fuck up and eat it. No one cares if this is the party you wanted. It’s still way more party than you deserve.”

“You make one lousy porno and don’t deserve a twenty-first? Fuck off, man. You’ve had your own scandals before you got college-married,” I answer.

“No, you fuck off.” He stands up. I do too. Kaylee grabs his hand, and that seems to deflate him a bit.

“We would’ve taken you out to the bar, but you fucked that up for the entire team. And