Offside by Juliana Stone Read Free Book Online Page A

looked
away and then she turned back to Mike. “I’m not embarrassed for
myself, Mike. I’m really, really, sorry for you.”
    Mike’s ruddy complexion darkened and he swore
beneath his breath as he took a step toward her. He was too close
and it took everything inside Billie, to stay put and not move
backward. “Why the fuck would you feel sorry for me?” he asked
harshly.
    Billie looked him straight in the eye.
Slowly, she let her gaze drop past the flabby stomach and then she
arched her brow dramatically. Hell, Betty would be proud.
    “Well, for starters you smell like shit.” She
hoisted her bag onto her shoulders and then met his eyes once more.
“And secondly,” she paused, noticing the flush that crept up his
chest and onto his neck. “That is the smallest dick I’ve ever
seen.”
    Someone laughed and she thought Mike’s head
was going to explode. His eyes were wide, the whites bloodshot and
his cheeks were puffed up to twice their size.
    “Seriously,” she paused dramatically. “It’s
not even cold in here.”
    A full blown guffaw echoed in the silence and
though Logan bent over to tie up his skates, she thought she saw a
whisper of a smile on his face.
    She glanced around the room one more time and
made sure to make eye contact with each and every one of them.
Shane Gallagher tipped his head as if to say, good job. “We’re on
the ice in ten minutes. I’ll see you boys out there.”
    She turned and exited the dressing room,
leaving the Angry Pirates subdued, quiet and some of them hurrying
like hell to cover up their privates.

Chapter Five
     
     
    The game was over way before Billie was ready
for it to be. God, it felt so good to be flying around the ice,
weaving through bodies, setting up plays and scoring goals. Sure it
had started out rough, but then it’s not like she’d expected open
arms or anything.
    At first no one would pass the puck, except
Logan, Shane, and a few others including, surprisingly, Jason
Danvers. But, to Billie’s way of thinking, Danvers was probably
angling for a way to score off the ice.
    There were strict rules of no contact, so
while being hit wasn’t an issue, the play tended to get chippy in
the corners and along the boards and while she should have kept
away from them, she couldn’t help it, she was a gamer. Besides, no
one out here was looking to actually hurt her. That would be
crazy.
    By the time the third period rolled around,
the competitive nature that lives inside every hockey player reared
its head and her wingers were doing everything in their power to
feed her the puck. They weren’t stupid…they were winning 10-4 and
she’d scored 8 of their goals.
    But Billie wasn’t stupid either. She dialled
down her skills and coasted through the remaining period. She
didn’t see the need to pulverize the other team. Her line was A-1
in the neutral zone and pressing forward, were pretty much
unbeatable by the other team.
    Sure, she suffered through a lot of cheap
shots on the ice…sticks found their way to the back of her calf,
and up underneath her arms, but she gritted her teeth and carried
on.
    Logan, one of her defensemen, saw a few of
the nastier pokes and she knew he’d hit back when he could and for
what it was worth, she was grateful for the gesture. Not that he
wouldn’t do it for any of his other players, it was code after all,
but still, it felt good to have at least one of her team-mates
standing up for her.
    When the game was over, Billie was high on
the sheer joy she got playing the game. She left the ice ahead of
the others, quickly showered and changed. It wasn’t until she was
drying her hair, and the quiet pressed in on her that she started
to come down from the clouds. Part of hockey, heck, most of hockey
was the fact that as a player, you were part of a team. There was
nothing sweeter than celebrating a win with your teammates . She
knew they were all heading for beers at The Grill, but no one had
invited her along. Not even