Page 24 of Drop Pass

“You too. And thanks. Again.”

I walked away with the little dignity I had left and hurried inside my apartment. I fell against the door and closed my eyes. Stupid, stupid girl.

It was just the events of the day. He’d saved me twice. Of course, that made me have feelings for him. It was hero worship. Nothing more.

I repeated that to myself as I went back to my room and dove headfirst onto my bed—the one he’d helped me build.

8

Nikolay

“There’s our hero!” Hartman called when I walked into the locker room and everyone stopped what they were doing to start cheering and clapping.

I cringed and moved to my locker.

“Hey! Don’t look so glum. You’re the most popular guy on the team now.” I looked up to see Fisher standing over me with a wide grin.

“What are you talking about?”

“Elena’s crew continued filming between interviews. I guess they wanted more content. They got the whole thing and put it out on their social media last night and talked about it this morning.”

Great. I did my best to avoid attention for anything other than my abilities on the ice. I didn’t want people following me or cameras on me. While I was trying to get permanent residence, I needed to have perfect behavior. I needed to be squeaky clean when they reviewed my case.

I guess saving the life of a woman wouldn’t hurt, but I didn’t want any attention beyond this.

“Dude? Are you okay?”

I shrugged. “I don’t want people watching me.”

“That’s the most Russian thing I’ve ever heard,” Schultz said with a smirk. “You do realize how suspicious that makes you sound.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know I’m boring. I just don’t want eyes on me.”

“Well, it’s a bit late for that.” Murray walked in carrying a massive bouquet of maroon roses, that matched our jerseys perfectly. “The station sent these over as a thank you for saving their newest hire.”

He started to hand them to me, so I took them and walked to the far side of the room where the lounge was and set the arrangement on the counter.

Derrek slid up next to me. “You should milk this for all it’s worth. You can get some great publicity and I bet sponsors will love to have the hero endorse their brands.”

I nodded like I cared and went back to my area and pulled on my practice gear.

“Now’s the time to ask for anything you want. The coaches are pretty happy with you.” Brassard said with a small smile.

That was intriguing. “What did you hear?”

“I was walking past the offices this morning and overheard them talking about how great you’ve been doing and the story just brought you in a lot more fans upstairs.”

I nodded. That was never a bad thing. Management was the political side of hockey I avoided at all costs. I let my agent deal with anything related to them, but if I was in their good graces it might be a good time to ask for some sort of award I could use in my case for residency.

I’d have to go up after practice while I was still on their good side.

“Let’s go, team,” Hartman called and we slowly stood and followed him out to the ice. I was a bit stiff and sore from yesterday, but I’d just need to warm up a bit more to get back to normal. I started with a few laps before going back to the boards to do some stretches.

“That was a great catch yesterday.” I paused mid bend and looked over at Ricky Arnold. I hadn’t said much to the defenseman since we hadn’t played on the same line, so I was surprised he was talking to me. “I mean with the newswoman. She’s hot.”

I grunted and switched legs feeling my hamstring protesting the move. “I just did what anyone else would have.”

He nodded. “Yeah, but it could have been a lot worse. I mean, I wouldn’t mind having her on top of me.”