Shutout: Stick Side, #5.5

By Amy Aislin

Shawn Staples hasn't seen his teenage BFF—who also holds the title of his teenage crush—in years. So when Carter Caulfield walks through the door at a New Year's Eve party, Shawn is unprepared for those old feelings to resurface and equally unprepared for Carter to return those feelings.

 

But they live in different countries, and they both have demanding jobs. Can they make it work without caving into the pressures of a long-distance relationship?

 

This novella was previously released in the Pucking Around anthology. The content has not changed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amy Aislin
• Release date: Dec 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223913795

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

The party was hopping.

Not Times-Square-at-New-Year’s hopping, but if Shawn Staples had wanted to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Times Square, he would’ve had the means to do so. No, this was NHL-players-taking-a-load-off kind of hopping, which basically meant that Shawn and his teammates were already half-drunk at nine, three hours before the calendar ticked over into the new year.

Inside the house, it was loud and hot. Outside, it was cold as fuck. A cold snap had hit southern Ontario several days ago, and although Shawn’s Canadian teammates liked to joke that they could handle any weather, even deep-freeze negative thirty-five Celsius, some of those same teammates had begged out of the party last minute because they didn’t want to venture outside to get from point A to point B.

Shawn couldn’t blame them, but come on! It was New Year’s Eve! They’d landed back in Toronto this morning after an away game in Minnesota that they’d won handily 4–1, and their next game wasn’t until the second of January. They could get as drunk as they wanted tonight and have a full day to recover.

Whatever. Their loss. Besides, it was a pretty decent group who’d shown up at his teammates’ townhouse with their significant others. Shawn wasn’t loving the fact that he was one of the only single guys in attendance, but he’d deal. After breaking up with his girlfriend of three years shortly before Canadian Thanksgiving, he was taking a break from dating. He’d been the other person in someone else’s rebound relationship once and had no desire to put another person through that. Plus, it was kind of nice having no one to answer to. No one to check in with about weekend plans before making his own. No one to keep track of at parties and get-togethers to make sure they were having a good time. No one else’s tastes to consider when he was buying groceries or making dinner.

No one to share the ups and downs with either, though. Or to exchange sly, heated glances with from across the room, like LaPlante was currently doing with his girlfriend. She was a little slip of a thing doing tequila shots with three of Shawn’s biggest teammates, while the rest of the wives and girlfriends sipped margaritas and talked about their New Year’s resolutions.

Shawn’s New Year’s resolution was simple: call home more often. He spoke with his parents and sisters as often as he could, yet he nevertheless felt like he was missing parts of their lives. Didn’t help that whenever his sister put his niece on the phone, little Livvy had a dozen more words in her vocabulary.

And it wasn’t like they were far. Just over the border in Buffalo. In fact, he was driving down to visit them tomorrow, and if he didn’t want to do that hungover, he needed to switch from beer to water.

Leaving his Cards Against Humanity cards piled on the coffee table, Shawn rose, taking his empty beer bottle with him. I’m grabbing a drink. Anyone want anything?

The crowd gathered in the living room was too busy howling over the latest Cards Against Humanity fill-in-the-blank, so Shawn left them to it, circled the couch, and headed for the kitchen. John Collet, his fellow D-man, entered from the opposite end with his wife.

Hey, man. Shawn held out a hand for a fist bump. Who’d you leave the kids with?

My mom, Kendra Collet said, a touch of evil in her voice. Sleepovers at grandma and grandpa’s are a treat for the kids and a treat for us. It means I get to have one of these. She made greedy eyes as Alex Dean—another fellow D-man and one of tonight’s hosts—rounded the kitchen island and handed her a margarita.

Help yourselves to the food, Dean said. He made a vague gesture toward the living room. It’s sort of . . . everywhere.

That was true. Platters of finger foods were on the coffee table, side tables, and kitchen table.

I’m about to put more in the oven, and a dozen pizzas should be delivered in about an hour.

Any veggie? Collet asked.

Yeah, I’ve got you covered. And there are veggie appetizers as well. Dean jerked a thumb over his shoulder. Assuming there’s anything left.

The Collets went into the living room, and Dean grabbed two packages of frozen appetizers off the counter. What do you think? He held them up for Shawn to see. Asian Party Pack or Jalapeño Cheese Sticks?

Uh . . . all of it?

Yeah, good call.

Shawn left his beer bottle with the other empties on the counter, tugged the lid off the