Free Captive by Brenda Rothert

streak couldn’t last forever, but for now, I couldn’t pay for a beer at the downtown bar the team hung out at after home games.
    “Hat trick!” A burly fan clapped me on the back and howled his approval. “Dude, that was awesome!”
    “Thanks man,” I said, tipping my bottle against his.
    “You’re on fire lately! Seventeen goals in your last nine games. What’s going on with you, man?”
    I didn’t want to discuss my sexual frustration with a guy wearing a t-shirt that said, ‘Puck You’, or with anyone else for that matter, so I just shrugged and threw back some more beer.
    “Dude, don’t shave a hair on your body, don’t change your underwear, and don’t switch sticks!” he bellowed, clapping me on the back again. “Don’t ruin it!”
    He wandered away and I finally had a few seconds to myself. When I’d woken up this morning after a restless night on the couch in the hockey room, only Mimi had been in the kitchen. She’d told me Kate was gone to work and pretended not to notice we slept apart.
    I’d done my pregame skate, lifted light weights, and played my game. The whole day had fucking sucked, even the celebration I pretended to enjoy after the game.
    I pulled my phone from my pocket and glanced at it. Still, not one word from Kate. Not even a congratulatory text about the game. She probably hadn’t even watched it on TV.
    Lauren Monroe approached, holding out a fresh bottle of beer. I looked down at the empty one in front of me.
    “Uh … thanks,” I said, taking the bottle and tipping it for a long drink. She took my acceptance as an invitation to sit down and slid onto the stool next to me.
    “What’s up, Center of my world?” she asked. She’d been calling me that since I started playing for my team almost nine years ago. I found it funny at first, a play on the fact that I was the team Center, but now it just annoyed me.
    “Not much.” The new beer was almost halfway gone already. I wanted to drink alone, but didn’t want to be rude.
    Lauren was the kind of woman I couldn’t let my guard down around. She was tall and gorgeous, with long brown wavy hair and bright blue eyes. Her family had money, and she didn’t work. Her dad was a good friend of our team owners, and she spent a lot of time with the team. It was common knowledge she had her heart set on landing a hockey player husband.
    She befriended me after Maggie’s death, bringing food by my apartment and trying to get me out of the house. I told her that it was nice, but I needed space. A few months later, she was out with the team and I kissed her at a bar in a weak moment when I was drunk as shit.
    I managed to avoid her after that, and things had never been comfortable between us again. She was plenty hot, but I wasn’t interested in anything serious after Maggie until I laid eyes on Kate and fell in love hard and fast.
    “You’ve been down lately,” she said. “If you ever want to talk, I’m a good listener.”
    “I’m okay. I’m sure you know what’s going on.” My anger at everyone knowing the intimate details of my life flared again.
    She flipped her hair over her shoulder and I caught the scent of her perfume. “Yeah. I heard your wife can’t have children. That must be hard for you.”
    “It’s not—”
    She cut me off. “Can I tell you something?”
    “Uh, sure.”
    “I’ve always had a huge crush on you.” Her cheeks reddened. “I never had the nerve to say anything, and then you started dating Maggie, and … you know. I was sorry when she died, but after a few months went by … I guess I started selfishly thinking that maybe I might still have a chance with you. When you kissed me that time … Anyway, I was crushed when I saw you with … um, Kate for the first time, because I knew. I could tell.”
    I sighed. An emotional woman was last on the list of shit I felt like dealing with right now.
    “I’m married, Lauren. Happily married.”
    “Why doesn’t Kate come to the games