Chapter Nine
MAVERICK
Abel sat down next to me.
“I’m not in the mood,” I said.
“Baby pictures,” Abel said. “You have to see Izzy.”
I finished tying my skate and looked at Abel’s phone.
This was a guy who took pride in fighting and sleeping with any woman with a pulse. Now he was forcing me to look at dozens of pictures of his newborn daughter.
“Look at her,” Abel said. “You know what? She loves holding a hockey puck.”
“She doesn’t know what she’s holding,” Matias said.
“Yes, she does,” Abel said. “I hand her a puck and she holds it tight.”
“Babies are smart like that,” Lay said.
“What the hell do you know about babies?” I asked.
“I’m just saying, there’s connections and stuff,” Lay said. “Like connections we can’t see and understand.”
“I can’t believe Lay is making sense for once,” Remi said as he lumbered through the locker room. “Abel, toss me the phone. I want to see.”
“Let me get it set up for you,” Abel said.
“Get what set up?” Remi asked.
“To the beginning of the new pictures,” Abel said. “If you swipe the wrong way, you’re going to see something you don’t want to.”
“Do you have naked pictures of Wren in your phone?” Lay asked.
“Yes,” Abel said. “My wife and I still know how to have fun together.”
“Oh, I’m definitely stealing your phone when you’re not around.”
“Did you really just say that to him?” Remi asked.
“I’m just curious,” Lay said. He put his hands in front of his chest. “Full, you know?”
“Reid, help me out here,” Abel said.
Reid had a hockey stick in his hands.
He swiped at the back of Lay’s knees, making him fall.
Abel threw his phone to Remi.
Remi beamed with pride as though it was his baby.
“She’s such a beautiful baby,” Remi said. “It’s a good thing she looks like her mother.”
“What about you,papa?” Riff asked with a laugh. “Don’t you have pictures of your bitch in your phone?”
Remi launched the phone back at Abel, then stepped toward Riff.