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

Max, Smitty, and I had been drinking all day, waiting for our girls to arrive. We’d been celebrating the end of college for the last week and we were going out with a bang today because it was Cinco de Mayo, and our last weekend before graduating.

It was probably not good that we had so much free time all week. Playing hockey through school we never had time to ourselves; every minute was dedicated to training or trying to pass a class, so we didn’t really know how to use the free time when we had it. This week was probably extremely counterproductive because we just worked out and then trashed our bodies by partying all night.

And then there was the tattoo incident. The three of us were shit faced and bored in the middle of the day on Monday, so we decided to go for it. I’d been wanting to start a sleeve for a while and decided I needed to start right at that second. I was happy with it: a depiction of outdoor skating at Tenny Park on my right upper arm. The image was etched in with just black ink and detailed trees surrounding the swirl of the ice-covered river and small figures playing pond hockey, and a tiny figure doing a layback as well.

Sleeves looked tough as shit. and I wanted to keep Minnesota with me wherever I went. Don’t get me wrong, college had been a great experience, but skating at the League with these boneheads and Jules, and pond skating every weekend of the winter out at Tenny Park had defined growing up for me. It had also been the place where I’d looked into Jule’s eyes for the first time and knew that she was it for me. She was my heart and my home. And now it was on my sleeve, literally. I was a fan.

Brecklin was probably my second favorite place to play. I would miss playing for the rowdy student section and playing on the same team as my buddies, but I was so relieved to be done with school.

I honestly didn’t care about having a degree, but Jules cared, so I kind of had to in extension. I wasn’t going to walk in the graduation ceremony, but Jules convinced me too, telling me we’d have one last fun weekend if I stayed.

Thank the Lord college was over though and thank the Lord I had a place to play the next fall.

I signed to play with an AHL team in Texas and I was planning on asking Jules to come with me. I was keeping it a surprise that I got signed until tonight when I planned on asking her. She hadn’t accepted a job just yet, and she could teach anywhere, but I knew she needed time to start applying for this fall. It’d be a perfect start to our lives together. I couldn’t wait to see her face when I told her about signing and I couldn’t wait to hear her say yes. I was kind of buzzing with nervous excitement because this was pretty damn close to proposing. I did think about proposing but my buds convinced me to wait and rack up some cash first so her grandfather would find me suitable. That was true, while we could elope this year, Jules could probably have the wedding of her dreams if we waited a year or two. We had time, our relationship was strong, I didn’t need to rush things when it came to us.

Paige and Ashlee arrived first and cracked open some alcohol and other fruity liquids and started mixing drinks with little umbrellas in my little apartment’s kitchen.

Paige handed one to Max, who was sitting back on the lopsided old couch he had purchased for my place. He and Smitty were RA’s for the younger players on the team who the university made live in the dorms for their first two years. They hated it, but it was required as co-captains. They spent most of their time at my place anyway.

“Dude, you look like a chick,” Smitty teased, dropping himself onto the couch, causing it to almost drop down to the floor.

“You’re taking that piece of shit with you right? I don’t want it,” I pointed out to Max.

Max rolled his eyes, “Try it,” he said handing his drink to Smitty, “I’ll drink anything my girl makes, she’s a beast bartender.”

I stood up then, I wanted some. I needed to keep my buzz and bravery for tonight.

I heard a car park out front then.

My Jules. I smiled easy seeing her tiny body jump out of her black Jeep Cherokee. Her newly blonde hair was thrown up into a short pony on top of her head for the drive here. I still couldn’t get used to her as a blonde and I kind of hoped she would change it back soon. I had to remind myself to be supportive of what she wanted too… I did start a tat sleeve without telling her, which was definitely a double standard… and maybe worse if she hated it because I did not have the desire or funds to get rid of it. Also, I’d never admit it, but it hurt like a motherfucker to get and I heard it was worse getting one removed.

I stood out on the porch waiting for her.

As soon as she made eye contact with me, my heart hitched. Our connection would never get old. That girl owned me.

Delight overtook her face and she ran up to me and jumped into my arms. I scooped up her butt and she wrapped her legs around me. She immediately found my mouth, and made out with me fiercely, her boobs pushing into me. God, I had missed her.

We’d gone three weeks without seeing each other because I’d been busy wrapping up the school year and she’d been applying and interviewing at various places around the state.

She gave one more quick kiss and pulled back from me then, “I’ve missed that! Let’s never be apart that long again, ya?” She said as she patted my cheek.

“One hundred percent agree,” I laughed. After being able to see each other so often this semester I didn’t want to go back to the long distance we had through college. “Never again, baby.”

She pulled back and giggled, her blue eyes sparkled happily, “are you drunk already?”

“Nope,” I lied.

She turned my hat backwards and kissed me again, “You can put me down now Mr. Scott.”

“Nope, gonna hold you all night. All mine,” I mumbled against her lips, earning more giggles. I loved being able to hold her so easily. When we had first started dating, yeah I could carry her, but not for long. While I had filled out a ton the last four years if I say so myself, she pretty much shrank in tone, becoming even lighter if possible. Now I could probably carry her around all night long if I wanted to.

I carried her into my living room where we were greeted with cheers from the rest of the crew.

I placed her in a seat next to Paige and turned to pick up my drink when she caught sight of the ink peeking under my short sleeve.

“Greyson Patrick Scott!” She hissed.

Everyone kind of stopped and looked. My face faltered. I hoped she wouldn’t be mad because I wanted today to go perfectly. I would just have to explain that it was too late now. That’s what I’d told my mom, and I hoped it would work on her too.

I heard Smitty softly joke to Max, “here we go!”

She stood up, not taking her eyes off the sleeve and came close to lift it.

I consciously kind of flexed, not wanting my girl thinking I was weak.

I saw her eyes skim over it, studying it. She put a finger in the collar of my shift to pull me closer to her. That was her sign for wanting to whisper into my ear.

“That’s so hot,” she giggled into my ear. My dick perked up at her hot whisper, didn’t take much when it came to her, and my eyebrows shot up in surprise.

The crew went about their business then. They were probably disappointed with not getting a firework reaction out of her.

“You recognize it?” I asked her.

She smiled in remembrance, and I was struck with the need to kiss her beautiful smile again, “Tenny Park. How could I forget our first date?” she asked.

“Just wait til you see the next one I have planned, baby,” I whispered and wrapped my arms around her and pressed a kiss against her temple.

After spending hours hopping around to all of the Brecklin bars, we started to get our drunk asses back to my place. We shared a loud uber to Taco Bell and then feasted like kings in my tiny living room space.

Paige and Max, and Ashlie and Smitty decided to crash at my place in the living room and extra bedroom.

Poor Paige and Max were sharing the cot in my extra room, which I don’t think they would’ve done sober.

Jules and I retired to my room then.

I closed the door softly.

“Dance with me,” I whispered to her.

She giggled, “we just danced the last three hours away,” she said softly back.

I grabbed her hand gently and pulled her close to me.

“No, slow dance. Here, stand on my toes.” We’d done this hundreds of times as high schoolers, messing around in the Hurley’s almost permanently vacant kitchen. I remember always thinking that was sad, how Jules never had anyone waiting for her at home. But she had me. Always.

Her head only made it to the middle of my chest. She wore heels so often I sometimes forgot how tiny she was.

“You’re so small,” I teased her.

She kissed my chest and looked up at me. Killed me when she did that. Made me feel invincible.

“Fuck, babe.”

…And then we did just that.

Coming down from our high, with our limbs tangled around each other, I faced her in the dark and dared to ask what had been in the works for what felt like an eternity.

“Julianna, will you move in with me?”

She turned to me, looking so serenely beautiful.

“Yes,” she smiled. “I was hoping you’d ask.”

Feeling my chest swell, I grabbed the back of her neck and kissed her, “You don’t even know where I’m going and you just said yes?” I asked, amazed.

“I’m going with you, wherever you go,” she said confidently with a nod.

“Texas.”

“Texas,” she repeated and smiled. “They signed you, didn’t they?” She touched my cheek, “Congratulations, baby. I’m so proud of you.”

The next morning, she put on a white dress with a blue ribbon on it for my graduation, which matched my blue robe. My parents couldn’t make it, but that was okay because she was my family. She was probably the one who cared the most and was the proudest of this degree anyway.

My dad found it funny that she cared so much about a piece of paper when my real accomplishment was signing with an AHL team in Texas.

She sat with Paige and Ashlie during the ceremony, Paige would be taking another year to graduate, so she wasn’t up here with us. Ashlie was in cosmetology school back home in Northfield but had come up to watch Smitty walk.

Jules took about a thousand pictures of me and with me, which felt a little ridiculous, but it made her happy, so I obliged. I had missed her graduation back in December because it was a game weekend, so it was the least I could do.

After graduation, we packed my entire apartment up in a couple of hours and loaded everything into Jules’s car. I was quite the minimalist besides my hockey gear, so it wasn’t too big of a job. I was going back with her to Northfield to train at the Ice League all summer and staying at Max’s parents’ place. Max was sticking around Brecklin to coach a clinic and kindly offered his bed back home to me until I’d be moving to Texas come August.

Max’s mom was the best. I was afraid I was imposing, but she called me and told me she was looking forward to having one of her “bonus sons” come back. She’d honored only me and Smitty with that title.

I could tell Jules was tired from the long day and I told her to take a nap in the passenger seat.

She nodded, sleep already coming down heavy on her eyelids.

I was driving down the interstate for about a half hour listening to some new country jam Jules had uploaded onto her playlist.

That was when it happened.

It’s funny, the stupid details you remember when you come close to death. My life didn’t flash before my eyes. I just remember her nodding-off head and that dumb playlist.

In the dark, I saw the brake lights of the old pickup truck in front of me swerve fast. So fast that I had no time to figure out why the hell they’d done that.

A split second later I saw the eyes.

I slammed on the breaks and tried to swerve the wheel as hard as I could.

I should’ve just hit the thing.

Because what you don’t remember when you’re trying to avoid one deer, is that there’s usually another deer coming after it.

I swerved just enough to hit the next one and the direction I’d aimed the car caused us to leave the highway.

Glass sprayed everywhere. My body hit the wheel harder than any check I’d ever felt on the ice. I felt the shift of gravity and heard the horribly loud crunching of glass and metal telling me we’d flipped.