He was probably going to remind me that it was all an accident. That we were lucky it wasn’t worse. That I could have died. I didn’t want to hear it, though, because the only thing that mattered was the fact that I might be done with hockey.
Wind stopped by the curb in front of a small, one-story house. It was white with a bright red door. Tall trees hunched over it, and there was a maroon minivan parked in the long driveway.
“Do we know anything about this Grace?” Wind asked as he put the gear in park and tapped the horn. “Willow and Jessa didn’t have much on her.”
“Don’t want to know anything more than I already know.” I tapped TikTok open and scrolled my feed. Anything to avoid looking at the person I’d seen come out the front door. I couldn’t face her. Too angry. And frustrated. I’d hurt her, too, and that pissed me off even more.
It wasn’t fair. None of this was.
The car shook as the back driver’s-side door opened.
“Hey,” Wind said. “Grace? I’m Wind—er—Brodie.”
“Wind, huh?” The door slammed shut. “You guys and your nicknames… Nice to meet you.”
Wind punched my shoulder, then jammed the gear into drive. “And this lump of sunshine is Preach, but you probably already know that.”
“Yeah, his bumper and I met already,” she said with a huff, and then utter silence filled the car.
Wind gave me a glare, and I shrugged.
“Shit,” Grace said from behind us, and I looked over my shoulder.
“What’s up?” Wind asked.
“Dropped my friggin’ phone.”
She mumbled something afterward. I didn’t catch all the words, but I was pretty sure she was cursing the day I was born.
“So, you’re new to Woodhaven?” Wind asked.
“Yep. And you’ve got a great welcoming committee.” She kicked my seat.
Oh, she did not just do that.
“Must have moved from somewhere they didn’t have rules about standing in the middle of the road, then?”
“Dog lover, are ya?”
I huffed again, but I had to give her credit, she was witty.
Wind elbowed me in the side. “Where’d you move from?” he asked as he steered us back down Main Street.
“Alaska.”
“How’d you end up in Small Town, USA?”
What was up with Wind and all the chatter? It wasn’t like this Grace and I would be friends and hang out, so could he slow his roll on being so nice to her. I kept scrolling through my TikTok feed, working to block out Grace’s voice.
Too bad it didn’t work on her perfume. It was nice. Subtle. Rose, maybe. It gently swirled around the car.
“Dad retired from the Air Force. He’s a physical therapist, and somehow he landed a job at the PT clinic here. Though I’m still wondering why he chose this place. How do you live in this lame-ass small town?”
“We play hockey.” Wind cringed as he looked at me.
The pity look. The sad-eyes-can’t-meet-me-full-on look, and the tense jaw. Like the word cut me.
Then again, it kind of did, but that was beside the point. I’d be back out on that ice in no time. I wasnotdone.