Power Play Read Free Page A

prospects and one of the Blades’ most beloved players, defenseman Guy Le Temp. Eric was one of the top scoring defensemen in the NHL. His trade to New York from New Jersey had been one of the top stories in local sports, along with the ego-stoking fact that he’d made People magazine’s “Fifty Hottest Bachelors” issue, coming in at number forty. Eric thought he should have been higher. It wasn’t hard to figure out that his new teammates were envious of him, both on and off the ice.
    In need of a shower himself, Eric grabbed a towel and his toiletries from his locker when someone gripped his forearm.
    â€œWe need to talk,” Jason said tersely. Eric refrained from rolling his eyes. He knew what was coming: big lecture, blah blah blah. He’d indulge Jason—this time.
    â€œSure. Just let me shower, and I’ll meet you in ten.”
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    Eric had no sooner closed the cab door behind him than Jason fixed him with a death stare.
    â€œWhat the hell was that all about?” Jason demanded, directing the cabdriver to West Eighty-fourth Street, where they both lived. Three years ago, when Jason was first traded to the Blades from the Minnesota Mosquitoes and Eric had already been playing for Jersey for a year, Eric had found him a primo apartment in a building four doors down from his own. Both of them loved their places, though Jason’s had become a little cramped now that he and his wife, Delilah, who ran a dog-walking business, lived there together along with their four dogs. Luckily, building rules wouldn’t let her maintain her dog-boarding service; otherwise their place would really be a zoo.
    Eric was nonchalant. “What?”
    â€œ What? Your egomaniac display back there in the locker room.”
    â€œI was just stating fact.”
    â€œBig deal!” Jason retorted. “You know how this shit works: you bust your hump until your prove yourself.” Jason shook his head in despair. “They’re starting off hating you, man. You’re already at a disadvantage because everyone loved Guy. The guys, the fans . . .”
    â€œI was just trying to be, you know—”
    â€œWhat? A macho, arrogant dick?”
    â€œWe’re all macho, arrogant dicks,” Eric pointed out in his defense. “We’re professional hockey players.”
    â€œYeah, but you’re the new macho, arrogant dick. That means eating humble pie until further notice.”
    â€œThey’re just jealous. Especially with the People magazine thing.”
    â€œChrist.” Jason opened his window a crack. “You’ve been even more insufferable than usual since that came out.”
    â€œI believe you mean self-confident, not insufferable,” Eric replied smugly.
    â€œNo, insufferable.”
    Eric enjoyed the image of himself as Manhattan bachelor at play, which was why he only dated brainless bimbos: it saved him having to put himself out emotionally. That was certainly the case with his last squeeze, Brandi. Sweet, great in bed, but the brains of a mackerel. When she started pushing for a relationship, he ended things—like a gentleman, of course. Shallow he could do. Mature? That he wasn’t so sure about.
    â€œYou should go in there tomorrow and tell everyone you’re sorry about coming on like such an asswipe; say that you were just nervous or something,” Jason advised.
    â€œMaybe I’ll just tell them what’s happening next week,” Eric said boastfully.
    â€œYeah, what’s that?”
    â€œI’m doing a cameo on the The Wild and the Free , Bro.”
    Jason’s eyes doubled in size. “No. Fucking. Way.”
    â€œI kid you not, my man. The show got in touch with Lou in PR after People came out, and they asked if I wanted to do an ‘under five’—that’s TV talk for under five lines, by the way,” Eric added.
    â€œYou have got to be shitting me.”
    Eric draped his arm