Our Overtime: Ice League Book 1 (The Ice League Series)

I stormed into Benny’s holding my bleeding hand at a weird angle, trying to stop the dripping blood from staining their floor.

I probably should’ve driven myself to the hospital, but I couldn’t stomach it. I always hated the hospital; it had always been unfriendly to me. As a kid I relied on Jules to help clean me up when I should’ve gotten stitches. My feelings of hate for the place grew even stronger after losing her. In my mind, I lost her when I was banned and she was lying there unconscious. Throughout my hockey career I was treated by the team docs who knew I would never step foot in a hospital even if they told me to, so they always handled things for me.

My hand probably wasn’t even that bad. I figured I was just in a panicked mood and Paige could probably fix it up for me. It just needed some ice. And I needed to ask Paige what to even do about what I’d just learned.

I flinched at the sound of cheers erupting from a group of old timers watching an NHL game. Fuck that. If I couldn’t play there’s no way in hell I wanted to watch. The anxiety and pain raging inside of me made me want to rip the tv off the wall and slam it onto the ground.

Paige turned the corner and slammed into me, causing me to let out a painful grunt.

“Oh my God, Greyson, what happened?” Her eyes widened and she looked from my messed-up hand to my face.

I clenched my jaw and looked away.

“I’ll get the first aid kit for the bleeding, but that doesn’t look okay,” Paige said as she ducked behind the counter. “I’m texting Max to come help. You’re gonna have to go to the hospital, Grey,” she warned. She knew my affinity for the place.

I couldn’t get the words out. I was honestly afraid of breaking down. I felt a burning lump of tears waiting to erupt in my throat, making me feel like an eight-year-old kid again, and was rooted to the spot.

“Follow me to the back,” she snapped.

Her demand irked me but I needed help. I let out a grunt, trying to clear my throat, and followed her past Benny’s kitchen toward the back office. The only times I’d ever been back here were when we were about sixteen or seventeen, horsing around and daring each other to steal beers from the kitchen during summer training days. Things were so much simpler then. It was crazy how back then I had no money or place of my own, but I had a life. It was now that I actually had nothing.

The hallway leading to the office looked so much smaller now. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Max and Paige owned it.

She ushered me into the tiny office.

“You’re all white, are you feeling okay?” Paige asked with eyes full of worry. “Here, sit down, I’m getting ice…” her words trailed off. “It’s swelling really bad, Grey… what happened?”

I still couldn’t answer her. She was looking down frowning like I was a little kid in trouble. My eyes burned and I used my good hand to shut them for a minute. I willed myself not to fucking cry. It wasn’t the pain vibrating through my hand and up my arm, it was how she sliced my heart open. She needed me and I wasn’t there. I had somehow let it all slip away. The most important thing I ever did in life was love her… and I failed.

I felt Paige’s presence step closer to me and she hugged my head. I accepted it as an allowance to break down. I couldn’t take it. Seeing her today and finding out that she didn’t even remember what happened to us. She thought I’d broken up with her for all these years. It was too much. All the anger and hate I had built up and harbored for her over the past decade I now redirected to myself. I couldn’t stop my thoughts. She thought I didn’t care about her and then ended up pregnant. That was supposed to be my baby. Canyon was supposed to be my son.

I tried to calm myself down after I left her place. I really tried. But I couldn’t take it. All of the anger and panic of what she had thought of me over the past decade slammed into me and I slammed my fist against my house. My brick house.

Served me right. I needed to be punished. I needed to feel pain. I should’ve tried harder back then. I should’ve ditched Texas and searched to face her. I had been so convinced that she was done with me, and I was a little pussy who wallowed in my self-pity instead of making sure she was okay.

“Uh.. am I interrupting?” I heard Max ask from the doorway.

Great. Now he’d see my cry too. I couldn’t look up. Paige was one thing; Max was a different story.

“Babe, go take care of the front for a minute,” Paige told him softly and she moved to close the door behind him.

Paige pulled up a chair across from mine. She pulled my hand into her lap and started cleaning it up and bandaging it silently. She poured a water bottle over it and then some hydrogen peroxide, making it sting like a motherfucker, but I deserved it. I willed myself not to flinch, but my whole body jerked as she tried to stretch my hand open.

“Well, that’s not good,” She paused for a beat. “This have anything to do with a tiny brunette and her little son?”

I took a deep breath and nodded.

“She doesn’t remember it. Doesn’t even think I was in it with her. She’s telling the truth about it. She looked at my scar the other day and asked me about it. She had no idea.”

Paige looked at me thoughtfully with confusion on her face.

“She thought I broke up with her. Like I would ever do that!”

She let my words absorb in.

“That does make sense,” she finally said. “What happened to you guys was so sad. But…”

“But what?”

“That means she didn’t dump you,” Paige pointed out. “This whole time you thought she traded you in for that Kevin a-hole… she really didn’t… isn’t that kind of a good thing? He was like a rebound that went wrong.”

“There’s nothing good about this!” I boomed.

“Woah there, take it easy,” Paige said soothingly. “I’m just trying to help you see the good.”

I waved my mangled hand in front of her, “the good?!”

Paige rolled her eyes, “Calm down, Romeo. Pause for a second and think about it. You boys never seem to be able to do that. Obviously you guys aired some things out today and that is definitely a good thing. There is like a decade of bad feelings that have festered between the two of you and they are just now all coming to the surface, it’s probably going to be painful… but at least both of you are finding out truths that you need.”

She blew out a breath, “But just because I’m feeling sorry for you does not mean I’m going to let you get away with not going to the hospital today. This is not cosmetic… your hand is not okay. It’ll remain a blob or like fall off. You need a doctor. I’m going to get Max to take you now, okay?”

I nodded without looking at her and she stood to move and started shuffling out the door.

“Thanks, Mom,” I told her.

She smirked at me and shook her head.