by Kat Obie
Crashing Hard
Kat Obie
Contents
Author's Note
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Loving Baby
Hockey Terms Explained
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Kat Obie
Author's Note
Crashing Hard was originally released under the title of 200 Foot Game and the author name Kathy Obuszewski.
Prologue
Jenna
Jenna was rushing to meet her friend Alice. Alice was visiting from Cleveland and they had a full day ahead of them. The plan was to pick Alice up from the train station, take her to her place, get some pregame drinks and go to the Flyers game that night. But Jenna got caught at work trying to reimage a machine, which was taking far longer than normal. The joys of working in IT.
Jenna was crossing Samson Street, not really paying attention to traffic. Most of the time, there was none since the road was so narrow and would end every couple blocks. Unfortunately, today it wasn’t deserted. There was a car coming down the road at a high speed. There was no way she could avoid it. It also didn’t stop her from trying to haul ass crossing the street. She really couldn’t do anything other than say “Oh, shit” and try to keep her body as loose as she could since she remembered that would keep her from getting severely hurt. She only made it as far as the driver’s side of the car before she felt the impact of the bumper hitting her leg as she was briefly pushed up onto the hood before landing on her ass.
As she was starting to stand up, she saw a tall young blond guy get out of the car asking, “Oh, my God, are you alright?”
Jenna shook her head as if to knock the cobwebs free and said, “Yeah, I’m fine.” To her astonishment, she really wasn’t in pain. She wasn’t sure if it was because her brain didn’t keep with the idea that she should be feeling pain. She wasn’t complaining, since there was a good chance, she would be feeling it soon enough.
A bleach-blonde model type stepped out of the car and looked at the guy. “What are you waiting for? We’re going to be late,” she said in one of the whiniest voices ever. It was clear that she wasn’t concerned about the fact they just hit someone and could have been hurt.
Fortunately, the guy didn’t pay any attention to the blonde and seemed to be focused on Jenna. His full face was full of concern as he asked, “What do you need? Insurance info? Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine,” Jenna said nonchalantly, trying to pretend that she hadn’t just been hit by the car but was pretty sure she was doing a miserable job of playing it cool. “Besides, don’t you need to get back to your girlfriend?” Jenna realized there was a little more venom in her voice than she had meant. But if she was being honest with herself, she kinda fancied the guy even if he was way too young for her. It was his girlfriend who was being a real asshole about the situation.
“She’s not my girlfriend.” He said it a little too quickly and a little defensively like he was repulsed by the model. That made her like him so much better. Then his voice softened as he tried to inspect Jenna, clearly looking to see if she was alright. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry. I’m running late and I’m just going to go.” Then Jenna started walking away from the car. She didn’t get his insurance information and was ready to just move on with her life. It was a steady walk, not as quick as before since she was paying more attention to her surroundings.
As she was walking away and turning the corner toward the station, she did look one last time at the guy as he was getting back into his car. She couldn’t help it, but she thought it was a shame the guy looked like a baby. There was something about him if he just fully filled his frame and had a little more facial hair. Then, she realized, he would have been her ideal guy. She regretted not getting any contact information from him, but she didn’t need to go to the doctor and was going to pretend that she never got hit. So that was a small miracle. She didn’t need a way to contact the superhot guy. She just needed to forget that it ever happened.
1
Corey
Corey got settled into camp. He swore that this year would be different than last year. He knew in the past, he had been a bit of a partier and had gotten crazy. There were more than a few black out drunk nights. But he was haunted by the time he hit that girl with his car back in Philly. He knew he couldn’t ever do that again. He still couldn’t believe how lucky he was that the girl never notified anyone or wanted money. Instead she went on with her life as if it had never happened. He thought about her from time to time and wondered how she was doing and what she was up to. The biggest problem was that he had no idea who she was. She was his wake-up call to clean up his act.
When he scanned the locker room, he saw many of the guys that he knew from either when he played with the Hamilton Crushers or the Cleveland Sound. He knew the room would be packed for the next few weeks until they whittled down who would make the Sound and who would get sent back down to the Crushers. He knew his own spot was technically at risk. He ended his season with the Sound on their fourth line and played in the last ten games of the season. Despite being tighter with the guys from the Crushers, he knew he shouldn’t try to hang out with them too much and slip into old habits. He needed to play his ass off. He really wanted to make his way to the second or third line this year rather than just grind it out on the fourth line and get minimal minutes.
Corey sat near Scotty and Lager, who were already chatting as they were putting on their pads. Scott Wheiland was the captain of the team and dynamic center with great two-way skills. Andreas Lagerfield—known as Lags or Lager—played on the same line as Scotty. There were two things that he remembered from last season about those two: they were serious about hockey with hockey IQs off the chart and they weren’t known to party much. Scotty would go out more but was always in control, while Lager would join for shorter periods of time when he would have more fun. Corey wanted to be on their good side and really learn from them.
Scotty turned his head and said, “Hey, Cor, how was your summer?”
“Not too bad. Trying to keep the training going. I worked with a few different coaches in Vermont, Quebec and Vancouver.”
Scotty laughed and said, “That’s what I like to hear, although next year you should train with me in Ontario.”
It was just after the All-Star break but before the real practices started up. Corey was happy to show up for the practice that Scotty put together as a little OTA right before official practices started up again.
No one on the Sound seemed to care that last year he was a wild rookie. Scotty and Lager just took him under their wing this year. They both extended t
heir friendship and hockey knowledge even though last year he barely gave them the time of day.
It helped having Petey with him this year. Corey filled in during the injury after Hunter Kapko was injured and secured a full-time spot through strong play on the third line this year. Petey was in a similar spot, up from the Hamilton Crushers to fill in for an injury and hoping to stay long-term. Petey was his old roommate in Hamilton and Corey was pulling for him to stay. With the trade deadline approaching, there was a strong chance that Petey could get sent back down. Petey decided to take Lager up on the offer to crash at his place instead of Corey’s but they were still roommates on the road. He didn’t blame Petey. He was probably afraid that there would be too many wild nights at Corey’s, or he just wanted to soak up as much information from Lager as he could. Petey seemed to love the fact that Corey was much calmer and sedate in his lifestyle now. They were both working on ways to improve their game.
Corey stepped onto the ice. He was sure of himself even if he didn’t know what to expect with the OTA. But given Scotty’s serious nature, he was sure the guy had a plan for the evening. He wasn’t expecting to see a stranger step out onto the ice with a cage on their helmet rather than the clear plastic visor that all the NHL players wore. Most of the guys, including both Corey and Scotty, had their helmets lined up on the boards. Out of habit, he shouted out, “Who’s the nerd?”
Scotty turned toward the skater. So it was clear his captain knew who that was. Then Corey realized who the newbie was due to their small stature and the tuft of long brown hair coming out of the helmet. It was Alice, Scotty’s new girlfriend. As soon as she ditched the helmet, it was clear that it was her and he felt like a jackass. Corey met Alice the week before when Scotty asked if they could go to the rink at his place since Alice was having a rough go of things at the time.
Almost immediately Scotty started to introduce everyone and laid out his plans for the evening. It was pretty standard drills initially but it was painful at times to see Alice attempt some of those drills despite her improvement. She had no business playing with them even if she was some sort of coaching genius like he claimed. The only good thing about Alice being there initially was the fact that she gave everyone a chance to rest up between drills and ease back into the routine since they all knew tomorrow’s practice would be much tougher.
At one point Petey skated up and said, “A little overkill to get into a girl’s pants, don’t you think?”
“Maybe a little. But this is Scotty…” Scotty wouldn’t have invited his girlfriend just to get laid. He always did everything with purpose and could see the game so much farther ahead than most people. So Corey was just curious.
Things immediately became interesting when they broke up into teams and Alice was just going to coach on the ice. They broke up into the normal practice grouping. Right away Alice asserted herself and switched out some of the guys. He half expected that Alice would break up the top line since the team as a whole have been relying on the scoring from Dykstman, Scotty and Lager. But he never expected that she would have Lager play on the left side or have him play with Scotty and Lager. In some ways, it was a dream come true. Alice actually knew the game as immediately she justified the switch with an obscure hockey fact from Lager’s playing AHL days.
Playing with Scotty and Lager was easy. It was a lethal grouping and the other team was having a hell of a time defending them. Corey was just having a blast. Having his own scoring pick up thanks to the passes from Lager was great for his confidence. He didn’t have any problems keeping up since he’d been working on his stamina. He knew according to scouts that he wouldn’t be a first line guy since he didn’t have the speed and stamina to maintain the pressure. As cheesy as it was, Corey was just trying to take advantage of the time playing with Lager and Scotty. The rest of practice flew by and they easily beat Dykstman’s side.
As they were getting off the ice, Lager skated up to Corey and said, “Awesome job, Cor. Glad to know you can keep up with us.”
“What did you expect? For me to suck?”
“Nah. Although, I did expect you to blow a gasket. I’m going to see if we can get this line in use more often.”
“Cool.” He didn’t want to say too much more, he didn’t want to appear to be the eager beaver, but he wanted to stay on that line. He wanted more ice time and to break his own scoring slump.
The guys were all starting to gather in the locker room, chattering about the practice. Scotty was the last one to arrive, which wasn’t unusual. Given that his girlfriend was out on the ice with them, Scotty would be chatting with her before coming in. As conversations started to turn toward Alice, Corey knew he wanted to get away. He just wasn’t in the mood to hear about their budding relationship. As long as the captain was happy and scoring, that’s all that Corey cared about. Alice seemed to be a cool girl but he didn’t want to accidentally stick his foot in his mouth by saying something dumb. As Corey walked out, he practically steamrolled into Alice as she was exiting the locker room. “Sorry.”
“No worries,” Alice simply said at first. Then she said, “You did good.”
Corey smiled slyly. He knew that he had played well, but he didn’t want to be too cocky in front of her. He had a feeling that he needed to be friends with her if he wanted to remain on good terms with Scotty, but he couldn’t get a good read on her. She’d been so quiet the first time they met, and he wasn’t sure how much he could say without offending her. It was bad enough he called her a nerd when she first got out on the ice. Thankfully she probably didn’t realize that was him. So he just said, “That was a fun line you threw together. Had you been thinking about that line for a while?”
“Sorta,” Alice said quietly. Corey shot up an eyebrow and Alice continued on, “I knew I wanted to break up the top line some. The Sound is way too top heavy and you know that. But I also knew Scotty would have a fit if I tried to take Lager off the line. So it became more about who would work well with those two. I had no idea that Scotty would be the only true center tonight so that complicated matters some. Okay, I know Andy is a center even if he can’t win a face-off to save his life. So you made the most sense as long as we got Lager off his natural side. Also his backhand is actually wicked strong, you’d just never know it.”
Corey had to laugh. She made it sound so simple and plain. He didn’t want to tell her that he was impressed with her knowledge so instead he just said, “Well, I’m off.” He paused for a moment and said, “You know Scotty is going to be a while, right?”
“Yeah. He’s a rink rat and he’s going to take his time. I just can’t stand to be in the sweaty stuff longer than needs be. Besides, I have time to get a drink before he gets out of there.”
“Makes sense. I just didn’t want you to be too surprised if he took forever. But I’ve got to go.”
“Hot date?”
“Nah. Been avoiding that shit lately. Just want to get home and relax.”
The way Alice’s eyebrow shot up, Corey knew she probably had some questions about why he was rushing off. The last thing he wanted to do was raise any suspicions. Alice knew him completely as a clean slate and not a wild child. Or at least that was how he thought he was perceived. Given her other hockey knowledge, she might know about his wild ways last season. By some miracle of God, she didn’t actually ask any questions. “Have a great night, Cor.”
“You too.” With that Corey headed out the back door as Alice went toward the cafeteria and vending machines near the lobby of the rink.
Jenna
Jenna was relaxing at home. Netflix was on in the background and she scrolled through Instagram when she found a video where her best friend was tagged by the NHL player Scott Wheiland. It was a cute video of two dogs trying to get a puck away from a hockey stick.
“No fucking way!”
Jenna immediately texted Alice and said: Girl, you got some explaining to do.
Alice didn’t respond right away. There was no way Jenna was going to let
things lie. So she sent another text: Dude, I know Scotty plays for the Sound and you have been crushing on him since he came to Cle. Why didn’t you tell me?
Jenna was hurt that one of her closest friends had hid that from her. Sure, Alice had told her some relationship details. She knew Alice was dating a guy named Scotty and that he had been taking her to the Sound games lately. He got her to root for the Sound in addition to the Flyers. Most importantly, Alice felt safe with him and had gone to his place the night she was burglarized. Alice stayed at with him for a few days but returned to her apartment for a few sleepless nights while Scotty was on a business trip. A business trip that coincided with the All-Star game. She couldn’t imagine that Alice would omit so many key details since they were super close. It’s not like she would tell the world about Alice’s relationship. Hell, half the time Jenna would do internet research on any guy that Alice was interested in. Now she was kicking herself for not seeking out more details and looking up things on her own.
After what felt like ages, Alice texted back.
A: Don’t hate me. I just didn’t tell you his last name. I’m sorry but I wasn’t sure who I could tell.
Jenna was about ready to send out a snarky response about how Scotty himself had no problem telling the world about Alice. But Alice beat her with another text.
