Page 15 of A Shot at Love
“Yeah, yeah, okay drama queen. For real though, I had some time and wanted to check in on you. How goes things on your side of the pond? Are all the boys treating you well?”
“Yes,mom. Everyone is being very nice to me.”
”Good, I don’t want anyone bullying my little princess.”
“Ew,” Frankie whined. “First queen and now princess? Quit while you’re ahead, please.”
Sydney laughed and in the background, Frankie could hear the familiar sound of pucks hitting the boards behind the back of a hockey net on the ice.
Someone was practising slapshot’s and it was music to her ears.
“Okay, let’s get serious. How are you?” Sydney asked.“And I mean that in the most genuinely sincere way possible.”
Frankie could picture Sydney sitting in one of the seats at the rink in Sweden where her team practiced and played its home games, one leg crossed over the other, an arm stretched out across the seat back beside her, a toque on her head because she was never, ever without one. Frankie missed her.
It had been months since they’d had a chance to see each other in person and she didn’t know when their next chance would be so until then, their frequent phone check-ins would have to suffice.
“I’m good, Syd, seriously.”
And she was good, that wasn’t a lie. Although she didn’t plan on telling her best friend about how lonely she’d felt since settling into Halifax, how isolating it was to be in a new place when you don’t know a single soul and despite sharing a love for hockey, being the only woman amongst a team of seasoned male coaches didn’t make it easy to become friends with her co-workers.
But all that aside, shewasgood. She was enjoying her job, she was sleeping well…mostly, and she was finding ways to spend her free time that made her feel fulfilled. Or…at least as fulfilled as a single lesbian coaching a men’s professional hockey team in a city she’d never been to until she moved there could feel.
“I’m busy but in a good way, I’m tired but in a good way. You actually caught me while I was just getting to my turn around point on a run.”
Sydney coughed and Frankie rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry, I almost choked on my pre-workout. Did you just say that Icaught you on a run? Since when do you run?”
”Since now,” Frankie said, voice thick with a more defensive tone than she intended. She hopped up and started to pace. “What’s wrong with running?”
”You can’t stand running. You used to say people who ran by choice were bad at playing team sports so what’s with the new hobby all of a sudden?”
It was a fair question to ask, especially coming from someone who knew Frankie as well as Sydney did.
Sydney knew Frankie better than anyone, knew what her childhood was like, what her relationship was like with her family, who her favourite hockey player was when she was twelve (Canadian hockey legend Hayley Wickenheiser). Sydney knew who on their college hockey team at Ohio State she had the biggest crush on in freshman year and which teammate she hooked up with on an away trip to play Wisconsin (Jessica McDaniel…she went on to marry a guy from the basketball team and popped out three kids by the age of twenty six).
“I’m trying something new, okay?” Frankie confessed. “I want things to be different here, I want to be different. So, I thought, why not go running on a nice trail by the water every day?”
“Who is she?” Sydney asked without missing a beat.
Frankie stopped pacing and froze as other Halifax locals and tourists alike moved around her on the trail. “What?”
”The woman,” Sydney said, and Frankie didn’t miss the curious and teasing tone to her voice. “The one who has you running. Who is she and what happened?”
“Nothinghappened,I”
“I knew it! How did you meet? What’s her name? Does she know that you’re an icon in the sport now?”
Frankie dropped her head back and closed her eyes. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. There was no getting out of this now. Sydney wouldn’tdrop it and Frankie knew it was easier to fess up, to confide in her best friend about what was going on…or not going on…to be more precise, than it would be to try and deflect.
“Her name is Jules,” she finally confessed, “and we live in the same condo building. We met in the fitness centre three weeks ago and yes, she knows what I do for work but I highly doubt she considers me an icon in the sport. Not when her brother is Cameron Clarke.”
The line was silent for a few seconds and Frankie pulled her phone away from her ear to see if the call was still connected. She scanned her surroundings, wondering if maybe this far down the harbourwalk had bad reception.
Finally, Sydney spoke again.
”Sorry, I just needed to let that sink in. Did you say her brother is Cameron Clarke, as intheCameron Clarke? The guy whose likeness has been copied for the cover of like…every recent hockey romance novel? The same Cameron Clarke who signed a record breaking expansion team contract when he joined the Halifax Harbour?”
“Yes, okay?” Frankie deflated. It shouldn’t feel this complicated when nothing had even happened yet. Hell, she didn’t even know if Jules was gay. “Yes, that Cameron Clarke. But it’s not a big deal, it’s…”
