TOP SHELF

“Even though the hockey season is over, business is still great.”

Jared nodded at Elliott’s comment and leaned his shoulder into Sidney’s, seated beside her at a table at the Sin Bin. “I think that’s thanks to this pretty lady.”

Sidney smirked at him and bumped him back. “You got that right.”

“Seriously,” Elliott said. “Usually once hockey season’s over, our business drops off. But not this year. And that review by Cornelia Dunn . . . that helped too.”

“She loved my cocktails,” Sidney said with a smug smile.

Jared grinned at her, and glanced down at her swelling belly. She couldn’t drink her own creations anymore, for a while anyway, but she was dealing with it. Her friends had all jumped in to help her keep her business going and the magazine review had not only helped the Sin Bin, it had helped her consulting business.

Jared spotted Hallsy walking into the bar and lifted a hand to flag his teammate down. Hallsy spotted him and headed their way. They did handshakes and backslaps. “Glad you came out, man.”

Hallsy shrugged and dropped into the empty chair at the four top. “Thanks for asking me.”

He didn’t look much better since the last time Jared had seen him shortly after Ariana’s funeral. Jared had kept in touch, and today he’d called Hallsy to invite him to join them for drinks. Not many players stayed in town once the season was over and Jared was getting lonely. Well, not lonely. He had Sid and her friends. But he missed the guys. Usually he spent more time in Detroit in the off-season, and traveled, but with Sidney here, he was happy to stay in Chicago.

Also he was a little worried about Hallsy and how he was coping.

Elliott rose. “I have work to do. What would you like to drink, Max? I’ll get it sent over.”

Hallsy ordered a beer.

“How are you doing, Max?” Sidney asked, leaning toward him.

“Eh. Okay.” He looked down at his hands on the table.

“It sucks that the season’s over,” Jared said. “You could be playing again. That would be good for you.”

Hallsy gave an indifferent shrug. “I couldn’t play right now. Don’t even care.”

“Don’t say that.” Jared’s insides tightened and he and Sidney exchanged glances. “You’ll be back in the fall, right?”

“I don’t know. Thinking about taking another year off.”

Jared wanted to curse and protest, but hell, his friend was hurting. He couldn’t imagine how he was feeling. Losing Sidney that way scared the crap out of him, so he refused to even think about it. “We need you back.”

“You guys did fine without me.”

“We did okay, but we could do better with you there.”

“We’ll see. I haven’t decided what to do. I am gonna sell the house, though. I’ve been getting rid of stuff.”

“Sell the house? Really?”

A waitress arrived with Hallsy’s beer and a smile. He curved his fingers around the glass and picked it up to drink. “Yeah.”

“I think you’re supposed to wait a year before you make big decisions like that,” Sidney said gently.

“I don’t need to wait a year. That place is way too huge for me by myself.”

“Where are you going to move to?” Jared asked.

“Not sure. I might leave Chicago.”

Jared sighed inwardly. This was not good. “Man, you can’t quit hockey.”

“My heart’s just not in it.”

“Training camp is still a couple of months away. You might feel different then.”

Sidney bit her lip. “Max, have you seen a doctor?”

He frowned. “No. I’m fine.”

“I kind of went through something similar. I mean, I know it’s not the same, but . . .” She slid a look at Jared, then focused back on Hallsy. “My ex-husband and I were trying to have a baby. He cheated on me with someone else and got her pregnant. Then he left me for her.”

Hallsy gave Sidney a sympathetic look. “Wow. That’s shitty.”

“Yeah, it was. I went into a depression. Some medication helped me get out of it. You could be depressed. It wouldn’t be surprising.”

Hallsy gave a tight laugh. “Uh, yeah, ‘depressed’ would be one word. But I don’t need drugs.”

“Keep it in mind.”

“You should start working out with me,” Jared put in. “That would be good for you. Then if you feel like playing in September when training camp starts, you won’t show up all fat and out of shape.”

A smile flickered over Hallsy’s mouth. “Yeah. I haven’t decided for sure. But working out probably would be a good idea.”

“Great. Come to the gym tomorrow.”

To his surprise, Hallsy agreed. Although Jared wasn’t sure if he’d actually show up. He could just be going along with the idea to get Jared off his back.

“How’s the baby percolating?” Hallsy asked Sidney. “Everything okay?”

“Yes.” She set a hand on her stomach and rubbed. She’d started doing that a lot lately. “All is fine, apparently.”

“You feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I feel great. I was super tired at first and starving all the time. Good thing my appetite eased up, or I’d have gained eighty pounds.”

“When’s the wedding?”

Jared’s eyes met Sidney’s. “We haven’t decided yet.”

He was in favor of a quick, immediate wedding. Sidney wanted to wait until after the baby was born, although she was agreeable to something very small.

“It doesn’t really matter,” she said, covering his hand with hers and squeezing. “We’re together.”

Hallsy nodded and dropped his gaze.

Shit.

Jared changed the subject to what some of the guys had been up to this summer. “I heard Ronner’s out of rehab and home in Vancouver. Apparently working out to get in shape for the season.”

“Let’s hope he can stay clean,” Hallsy said. “That sucked about Seabury getting arrested for possession.” He named a player from another team. “Fucking stupid idiot.”

“No kidding.” Jared shook his head. “So many guys are getting sucked into that shit. It’s not good.”

“Nope.”

“Apparently the team is going to do some kind of program in the fall. Educating us about the risks of drugs. Like we don’t already know that.”

“There are a lot of young guys,” Sidney spoke up. “Playing their first years in the NHL, making money . . . think about how Ryan is dealing with the money and the fame. Drugs is just one more thing that can get them in trouble.”

“True.” He still got pissed off thinking about Kirby and the shit he’d stirred up. And how things were going to be between him and Benny next year, after Benny had busted his fucking hand stopping Kirby from getting himself into even more trouble. He knew Benny was pissed. That was going to be a new challenge for them to deal with.

Next year. Of course he was looking forward to it. He loved the sport. He loved his team. They’d overcome a lot this year and made it into the playoffs. He wanted another Cup so fucking bad. But thinking about Ronner and Kirby and Benny, and Hallsy, going through this shit made him feel so tired. He wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to play. Yet the anticipation of the new season, starting again and building on what they had, made excitement curl in his belly and his palms itch to pick up a stick. It was great to have time off, but after a while they all started getting antsy for October.

He couldn’t quit yet.