Page 59 of Snowflakes and Ice Skates

“Well, Taylor and Jessica are going to be gathering the list from all of you, so they’ll coordinate and make sure that there are no duplicates,” Chloe clarified.

“So have backups in mind just in case,” Dani added.

“Who gets priority if there are doubles?” Erik asked. “Like, whoever tells them first or seniority on the team?”

Dani looked at him as if she were questioning his intelligence. “Does it matter?”

His head shot back. “Of course. How else would it be fair?”

Chloe closed her eyes and inhaled. “Erik, come up with something unique, and it won’t matter.”

He glared at his sister but didn’t say anything else. It was because of moments like this that I lived far away from my family. There were too many complicated relationships in and around the team that kept things nice and full of drama. It was entertaining from the outside, but I never wanted to deal with it personally.

“Fine,” he grumbled.

Our waiter appeared with a loaded tray and began handing out our entrees. I looked down at the roasted chicken and veggies and tried to suppress my groan. I was working on leaning out, which meant eating clean. I noticed I was slowing down at practice and I didn’t want it affecting us during games, so it was necessary, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed it.

Especially not when I looked across the table to Jake shoveling forkfuls of pasta in his mouth. He had the opposite problem. He couldn’t put on weight if his life depended on it. He was always drinking protein shakes and putting in extra time in the gym trying to put on muscle. But his body type was just lean, making him fast and hard to block on the ice.

We all had our strengths and weaknesses, but it sucked watching him pound food when I had to limit myself. This was our job though. Our literal career and responsibility. During the season, I had to be careful and precise with what I put in my body. It was the cost of playing at the professional level. My complaining seemed pathetic when I reminded myself how lucky I was to be playing for the Fury. It wasn’t like I was starving. I was just eating healthy.

Poor me. I shook my head and took another bite.

“Don’t forget we have doubles tomorrow,” Reese said as we finished eating.

Erik groaned. “Why did you have to remind us?”

“It doesn’t change that you have to go,” Madi said with a laugh.

“But I didn’t have to think about it right now,” he said with a frown.

“It’s the only way we can have some time off around the holidays,” Reese reminded him.

Doubles meant we had long practice plus training and weight lifting. It would be a grueling day, for sure, but it wasn’t something that we weren’t used to. It wasn’t like this was a once a year thing that only happened in December. It was more like every other week. The game schedules dictated that, not coach. When we had long gaps between games, we increased our workouts to stay sharp, physically and mentally.

Erik was being a baby.

“Get over it,” Chloe scolded him. “You get four days off this year.”

Exactly. I almost said the word aloud. We had four days without practice or games, giving us the opportunity to go visit family if we wanted. That didn’t happen every year.

Not that I was taking advantage of this time. My relationship with my parents was … complicated. I planned on sticking in town and hanging out with the others that weren’t leaving. Coach usually hosted a dinner and game night on Christmas Eve for those of us that stayed, so at least I wouldn’t be totally alone.

Plus, these guys were my family. Despite the teasing, they were the people I was closest to in the world. I’d rather be here for the holidays than anywhere else.

Three

Jessica

“So we’re just going to not talk about it?” Dani said unexpectedly as we organized the centerpieces into separate totes so setting up would go smoothly and quickly.

“Talk about what?” I counted the candles in the tote in front of me before moving to the next one.

“You rejected Lance again.”

I straightened and fought the urge to roll my eyes. Dani might be my friend, but she was also my boss. “It wasn’t like he was asking me on a date. He was inviting me to dinner with all of you, and I didn’t lie. I had work to do.”

“Work that could have easily been done today,” she countered.