Long Road To Wisdom

Then

Madison, WI
August, 2009

When she graduated from Boston College, the last place Shannon Eaves had expected to end up was in her dad’s locker room. She was smart, top of the class, and really freaking good at being a trainer. She could have gone anywhere, done anything.

And yet, and yet there she was. Just a month into being twenty one, she had taken the internship that felt like a family favor. She hadn’t wanted to take the job. Her dad had made it impossible to say no.

She watched the bright young faces of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s hockey team with something akin to fascination. They were mostly younger than her but there was a familiarity about them. She’d played at Boston. She’d played since she was four. Both her brothers played professionally. She was familiar with hockey players. These were her hockey players though. She let that chill sweep through her and settle as she glanced around the room. She was going to be running the training program under the guidance of not only her dad, head coach Mike Eaves, but also Andy Hrodey.

This was shaping up to be the experience of a life time.

Her eyes paused on a freshman, looking down at his hands but listening to her dad with concentration. The sign on his stall above his head read ‘Smith’. She knew from the roster she’d been pouring over that his first name was Brendan and he was from the Toronto area. She’d also read that he was in the 6-foot plus range but only 170 lbs. Tall and skinny. She intended to watch joint injuries closely with this one, something common with folks that had his build.

What she hadn’t intended on was the way his smile appeared when he caught her looking and lit up the entire damn room. No joke. She blinked a few times because it felt like she was staring into the sun. That infectious smile made her grin too.

When he winked at her she laughed a little.

The look on his face was priceless when her dad made her stand up and introduce herself. Two parts panic mixed with three parts curious interest. She winked back. He hid his surprised laugh behind a cough that drew the entire room’s attention.

Shannon hadn’t wanted to work with her dad but maybe it wouldn’t be too bad after all.

*

“Please please please tell me that you’re the awesome sibling. Because I’ve met your brothers and they’re kind of boring.” Shannon smiled as she paused her stocking. She set down the handful of tape rolls and turned to find Smith right behind her.

Right behind her. Her shoulder brushed his chest when she faced him fully. He had a mischievous grin now. “My brothers aren’t boring. They’re reserved.” She gave him a grin that made his eyes light up. He watched her lips curve up. It sent a shock of heat straight through her. She liked flirting and she liked hockey players.

“They’re boring.” He braced a hand against the shelf by her head, effectively trapping her. Shannon leaned back and let him box her in.

“Okay, so they can be kind of boring. That’s pretty common with professional hockey players.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

She rolled her eyes and tapped a finger against her lips. “Hmmm, I don’t remember a question.”

Smith huffed, the air brushing her hairline. “Are you boring too?”

She looked at him again. His eyes were warm as they tracked her facial expressions. “Absolutely not. Boredom is the root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself. I will always be myself.” She raised an eyebrow in challenge. Smith’s brow furrowed for a moment and he looked adorable in his confusion. There weren’t many people who would recognize a Kierkegaard quote when it was thrown at them; Smith was not one but that didn’t bother her too much. He still looked damn good, even baffled.

“Well, okay then.” Smith appeared to make a mental decision. He licked his lips and took a fraction of a step closer. There was a nervous edge to his eyes; it made her feel a little fuzzy in her stomach. A long and charged moment passed between them until his head lowered. Her eyes widened when she realized he was about to kiss her. She pushed him back with one hand to the center of his chest.

“You can’t kiss me.”

The confusion was gone, replaced with a cockiness she had a feeling would bite her in the ass later on. “And why not? Pretty sure we’d both be okay with it.”

Yes. Yes, she’d be okay with it. She would be over the moon to find out what that smile felt like pressed against her lips or other parts of her anatomy. But . . .

“Not here. Anyone could walk in and I like my job.”

That gave him enough pause for her to slip out from underneath his arm. She wanted to head back to the locker room, put some space between the two of them before she did something extremely stupid.

He caught her hand as she passed. “Meet me.” It was her turn to frown. “Meet me later; let me take you out.” He looked damned hopeful.

Her dad had absolutely not forbidden her from going out with the players. He hadn’t actually forbidden her from anything but Shannon knew, without a doubt, that she’d be in deep shit if she got caught in a relationship with someone on the team. The heat in Smith’s eyes suggested he wasn’t looking for a relationship. Honestly, neither was she.

“When and where?”

*

They danced around each other for two weeks before scheduling allowed either of them a free night. She was expecting dinner and then a straight to the bedroom feature. What she got was a legitimate date, with flowers and everything.

She laughed when he shoved them into her face a little nervously. Then she laughed harder when he was insulted because really, the look on his face was priceless. She was just glad she had gotten an apartment of her own instead of staying with her parents. Brendan Smith showing up on the doorstep of her childhood home with a handful of daisies would have been disastrous.

She broke him out of his funk by grabbing him by the tie (who the hell wears a tie to a booty call anyway?) and yanking his mouth down to her level. She was right about the smile. It was present through most of the kiss and when she let him back up, he was still grinning, albeit dazed.

“Wow. Well, hi.”

She laughed and grabbed her jacket. If he wanted to wine and dine her before the bedroom fireworks later, who was she to complain? They had all night, after all, with no games or practices or classes for him the next day.

She flirted shamelessly through dinner and then let her hand wander freely up his left thigh at the movie he took him to. He stilled her inquisitive fingers with a quick squeeze of his own. When she glanced at him, the dark of the theater throwing his face into shadows that made him look a little dangerous, he smiled sheepishly and mumbled something about wanting to really see the film. She should not have been surprised. They were sitting through the G.I. Joe remake. Of course he wanted to watch it.

She expected things to pick up after the movie. She expected to get him back to her place and push him against a wall and make out with his face. These were the sorts of things nineteen year old hockey players liked to do.

Except . . .

Except Smith gave her a hug and a quick peck on the cheek before reminding her to get those flowers in some water. Shannon stared after him, completely dumfounded, as he disappeared into the night.

It kept up like this for a whole week.

Ridiculous flirting in the locker room when no one could over hear them. There were suggestive double entendres daily that left her blood racing, thinking about what he might look like under those jock shorts. He turned innocent and innocuous touches into a fine art form, catching her hip in the hall or her back as he squeezed down the bench. She had to work on him once, just a stretch and tape job on his ankle. She was so wound up afterwards that she had begged off the rest of the afternoon to go home. And “relax”. He asked her to go to dinner again over text right as she got herself off with her favorite vibrator.

She realized something during dinner that night. Brendan Smith was actually trying to date her. She’d been so focused on what he’d be like in the sack that she never imagined he would be silly enough to expect a legitimate relationship.

At her door, he pulled her close to give her his customary hug and kiss good-bye. She actually mumbled fuck it before she caught him by the lapels of his jacket and spun him. His back hit the door with a thunk. She grinned up at him predatorily. If he wasn’t going to make the first move, finally, then she’d do it for him.

His chest was solid under her hands as she ran them up to his neck. Her fingers wove into the hair at the nape of his neck and she rose up on her toes to press their lips together. She moaned when he finally got with the program, those strong hands gripping her hips. He pulled them closer together and she gasped at the length of him, hard and evident in his pants. “Jesus, Smith. You’ve got a canon in there.” She was still trying for flirty. One hand trailed down his front to graze his abs.

He shuddered alarmingly underneath her and made a pained sound. She jerked away immediately, thinking she’d hurt him somehow. He looked absolutely mortified when he raised his eyes and Shannon clapped both hands over her mouth to keep from laughing. He had just come in his pants. From a kiss and some minor dirty talk.

It was then that Shannon had her second revelation for the night.

“Holy shit. You’re a virgin. That’s why, with the wining and dining.” She was fascinated. It was sort of rare to find virgins. But, he was a college freshman. “I just thought you were, you know, trying to date me.”

A pained expression crossed Smith’s face and he shifted, not fully upright still. “I was trying to date you. I am. I- I- “ His face was so red. She kind of wanted to laugh again but knew that would be totally inappropriate. She couldn’t keep all the humor out of her expression however and he scowled at the sight. “I’ve gotta go.”

She tried to grab him as he brushed past, tried to apologize. She really wasn’t just trying to be mean; he’d caught her by surprise is all. Smith eluded her reach and disappeared into the night once more.

Notes