Two days later, Monday afternoon, Kara was on her way to the Ristuccia Arena to watch the rest of the Bruins training. She wanted to sit there and watch them, get to know their routine. Those were details she needed for her writing. Coach Julian had given her the schedule for the whole season. All the games, the training times, when they would be flying, where they were staying, everything.
On the flight back to Boston she’d managed to ignore Benoit. That at the snack-machine hadn’t been one of her best appearances. Then again, he was a hockey player. He was probably used to things worse than this. At least she hadn’t done this on purpose. If she’d thought, she’s meet someone in the hall, she would have put on proper clothes.
She would see him again in a few minutes, but that was okay. She didn’t feel embarrassed about this anymore and she was actually looking forward to watching the guys. Over the past days hockey has grown on her. Soccer was still her favorite sport though and that wasn’t likely to change.
On the flight she’d talked to Shawn Thornton quite a bit. He’d told her what it had felt like to win the Stanley Cup more than a year ago, why he’d always wanted to play hockey. It was basically a little interview, but they’d also talked about non-hockey stuff.
She entered the arena, walked to the ice and took a seat behind the glass. Only the Coach knew that she’d be there today. There were a few other people watching, so the guys probably wouldn’t spot her.
They were currently shooting pucks at the net. Half of the team on the left hand side shooting at Tuukka Rask and the other half on the right hand side on Anton Khudobin, their back-up goalie. She knew from Coach Julien that Khudobin would play in the game against the Ottawa Senators the following day and he was excited to see him in action.
Kara took out her notebook and a pen and watched the practice. Every now and then she wrote a few notes down. The thing that stood out most during that practice was the fun they were having. At one point Khudobin and Rask were chasing each other around the goals and Tyler Seguin was trying to shove Shawn Thornton onto the ice. Needless to say, he wasn’t successful. Shawn on the other hand only needed one slight shove to knock Tyler flat on his ass.
Kara couldn’t stop laughing at that until she realized that she was being watched. Great. Pouliot and Campbell had spied her. Both smiled at her but didn’t do anything else. They continued their practice.

While they were stretching at the end of practice, Gregory leaned over to Benoit and asked him if he wanted to go grab a beer after the shower again.
“Sure.” Benny nodded his head.
“We should ask Kara to come along.” Campbell got up when they were finished and took off his helmet. “Tuukka already agreed and that way we can get to know her a little bit better.”
“You think she’s hot, don’t you?” Benoit raised an eyebrow while they skated to the edge of the rink.
“She’s growing on me. But more in a little-sister-I-want-to-teach-her-hockey way. And I still have to meet this Stacey girl.”
How could Benny forget about that? Greg was a family man. It might not look like that to a lot of people, but deep down he was. He wanted to find the right girl, settle down and have a bunch of babies. Benoit himself wasn’t so set on marrying yet or maybe ever. He still had to find the right woman that would make him change his mind. Right now he liked everything the way it was.
“Hey Kara.” Greg put on a big smile when they stood next to her. “We were wondering if you’d like to join us for a beer. Benny and I go to a pub around the corner sometimes. Tuukka is coming along tonight.”
Kara looked up at the two men. Her eyes lingered for a moment on Benoit before she looked at Gregory and smiled at him. “I’d love to.”
“Great. Give us fifteen minutes to shower and get dressed and we’re ready to go.”
“Take your time. I’ll talk to coach Claude.” She got up in her black converse and walked past them.
The two of them went to the locker room, took their clothes off and showered really quickly. They dried off their bodies and hair before putting their normal clothes back on.
“We should give Kara one of our jerseys.” Soupy tied his shoes and looked up at Tuukka and Benoit. “You know, she doesn’t own anything Bruins related that she could wear to the games. And it is a nice gesture.”
“She can have one of my jerseys,” Tuukka offered, already looking for the one he meant. “I love seeing women in my jerseys.”
“Of course you do.” Benoit shook his head while he took the jersey behind himself. “There are already enough women running around with the number forty on their backs. She can have mine.”
Benoit didn’t really know why he did that. He just knew that he didn’t want her to wear Tuukka’s number and Greg was right. It was a nice gesture and having her at the Garden without Bruins related clothes might not be so clever after all. He was supporting them, so she should wear their colors.
“It’s not my fault bitches love the Finn.” Tuukka shrugged one shoulder before putting on his black cardigan.
Greg chuckled to himself. This was so typical of Tuukka. He already expected his teammate to vanish from the table after not even half an hour to go talk to some girls at the pub. It always ended like this.
They packed up their stuff and went to find Kara who had just finished talking to the coach. When she turned around to them, a smile immediately lit up her whole face.
“We’ve got something for you.” Gregory was the one to break the news to her. It was his idea after all.
“We decided to give you one of my jerseys.” Benoit carefully places the jersey in her hands. “That way you have something to wear to the games. You should probably wash it though.”
“Are you serious?” Kara unfolded the jersey and took a closer look at it. Slowly she ran her fingers over the spoked B on the front and the number 67 on the arms. A smile was playing on her lips when she lifted her head again. “I haven’t gotten anything like this in a long time. Thank you!” She rose to the balls of her feet to place a kiss on Tuukka’s, Gregory’s and then Benny’s cheek.
“You’re welcome.” Benny smiled down at her but caught himself again pretty quickly. Hey were now ready to go. They only needed to take their bags to their cars first. That way Kara also had the chance to put the Jersey along with her purse in the car. At the pub she would only need her phone and her wallet. No need to take the whole purse and writing stuff with her.
“Tuukka, you’re getting the beers.” Pouliot announced right before they entered the pub. They led Kara to their usual table at the back. Tuukka exchanged a few words with the bartender before he joined them with four beer bottles.
“So, do you have any questions regarding the game?” Greg leaned back, his eyes fixed on Kara who was taking her leather jacket off. Today she was wearing a simple read t-shirt that hugged her body in the right places.
“Soupy said that he wants to teach you hockey. You’re like a little sister to him.” Benoit said the words out loud before thinking about it. He didn’t know why he’d opened his mouth.
“What?” Kara had to laugh. “How cute.” She looked at Soupy with a lopsided grin on her face. “To be honest, I think I understand most of it. I’ve read a lot over the last days and watching the games helps me understand the rest. If I have questions, I’ll definitely ask you.”
“What else do you want to know then?” Tuukka looked around the pub, then back at Kara. There were more people than usual, some women among them who were already looking their way.
“I don’t really know.” Kara thought for a moment. Of course she wanted to know more personal stuff but she didn’t want to scare them away. “The rules are something I can teach myself, but I can only learn about your experiences, your feelings by talking to you and watching you on the ice.”
“So that’s why you were set up with the team,” Benoit observed. He held the beer bottle between his hands and looked at her over the table.
“Pretty much.” Kara looked at Benoit and studied his face for a moment. He looked so serious except for the hint of a smile on his lips. He maybe thought she wouldn’t detect this, but she did. “But let’s not talk about this right now, okay? Let’s talk about whatever you want to talk about.”
“Excuse me for a moment.” Tuukka had hardly paid attention to the ongoing conversation. He got up from the table and walked over to two blonde girls at the pool table. They’d been watching him the whole time and Tuukka couldn’t resist a beautiful woman, not to mention two beautiful women.
The three of them stared at him for a whole minute. He was already joking and laughing with them, touching their arms and showing them how to play pool properly.
“Is he always like this?” Kara asked stunned. Her eyes were wide when she looked at Benoit and Gregory.
“Pretty much.” Greg took a swig from his beer bottle. They should be used to this by now but it still surprised them sometimes. “He’s a chick-magnet.”
Kara nodded. She stole a glance at Tuukka again before she said: “And they probably only want to fuck him and are gone in the morning.” When she finally looked at the two men in front of her again, she was greeted by utter puzzlement. “What?”
“Um –,“ Soupy started and thought for a moment. “You’re surprising us again and again with your language. You’re a writer so I didn’t think you could or rather would talk like this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m impressed.”
“Well, thank you.” Kara was used to this reaction. “If you knew what I write, you probably wouldn’t be so surprised about my language.”
“Maybe I should buy one of your books then.” Gregory emptied his bottle. “I’ll get another one, anyone else?”
Kara and Benoit both still had more than half of their beer left and declined. As soon as Soupy was gone, Benny turned to Kara and watched her for a moment. He was too curious to keep his mouth shut.
“Well, what are you writing then?”
“Maybe you should buy one of my books and read for yourself.” As if she would tell him here that she wrote women’s fiction. Real women’s fiction with erotic, explicit scenes. And a dash of crime fiction woven in.
“Maybe I will.” Benoit didn’t take his eyes off her. He couldn’t stop it there. He had to say something else. “At least you’re wearing a bra this time, I assume.”
“What?” Dumbfounded she looked at him.
“You heard me.”
“Oh God.” Her cheeks turned pink. Benoit thought that it looked cute. “I didn’t expect to see anybody out there. I didn’t think. I only wanted to grab a bottle of water.”
“It was obviously too cold in the hallway to be walking around with barely any clothes on.” His smile widened.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I was wearing pants and a shirt.”
“No bra, no shoes, no socks. And those shorts didn’t even cover half of your thighs.”
“Oh, so you got a really good look at me, right?”
“Nothing wrong with looking when you like what you see.”He tried to hide his smile behind the bottle of beer, but failed miserably.
“What are you two talking about?” Soupy was back at the table.
“Kara’s books.” Benoit looked at Gregory. “And the fact that I’ll buy one of her books to see what she’ll be writing next.”

Notes

Comments? Critique? ANYTHING would be welcome right now, because it doesn't look like anybody's interested, so I should just stop posting this here