Cade: Fire And Ice: A Second Chance Hockey Romance by Jessica Lake, Alana Hart Page B

face.
    "What the fu...? Ellie? What are you doing?"
    Except it didn't sound like that. It sounded like 'Whathefuh? Elliewhayoudoin'?'
    I froze, desperate for her not to turn on any lights.
    "I'm - nothing, mom. I was just putting the boys to bed."
    I could hear my voice shaking as I spoke. So could my mom, because the next thing she did was snap the hallway light on and stare at me. Her thin, greasy-looking hair hung limply over her shoulders and her breath absolutely reeked of alcohol.
    "What did you do this time?"
    She wasn't concerned or worried. My mother doesn't tend to experience those emotional states, especially with me. She said something else, most of it unintelligible.
    "What, mom?" I asked, eager to avoid antagonizing her and possibly causing one of her screaming, plate-smashing rages.
    "I said have you ever seen a hen's first egg, Ellie?"
    I had seen a hen's first egg, when I was very small and we kept them in a small coop behind the trailer. The first egg a hen lays is usually strange-looking or misshapen in some way.
    "Yes, mom."
    "That's you. The hen's first egg. All fucked up.'
    I stayed where I was, waiting to see if she had anything else to say. My mother still had the ability to hurt me deeply, but it seemed to me then that she might be losing some of that power. It was Cade, even if I wasn't consciously aware of it at the time. It was being cared for by another human being and my fragile but growing belief that maybe, possibly, I deserved to be cared for.
    My mom didn't have anything else to say. She turned the light off and disappeared back into her darkened bedroom. I listened until the sound of the ice cubes clinking together in her drink faded and then went back to the kitchen to clean up the mess from dinner. When I went to lay on the deflated air mattress I called a bed, with the sound of the boys sleeping around me, I thought of Cade. I didn't know why he liked me. In fact it seemed highly likely that he was going to wake up one morning and discover that he actually wanted one of the curvy blonde cheerleaders at school. Until that day, I was determined to enjoy every second of my time with him, aware as I was even at that young age that I might not get another chance.

Chapter 8: Cade
     
    I didn't see Ellie for almost a whole week after our evening in the emergency room. I also found the cell phone I'd meant to give her buried in the bottom of my backpack. Dammit.
    My inability to concentrate on anything except Ellie and the incessant worrying about how she was doing distracted me from everything else in my life, including hockey. It didn't go unnoticed. After a particularly lackluster performance during an important game against our main rivals, Coach Hansen called me into his office.
    "Cade. You were off your game tonight."
    It was a statement, not a question and he was right. I didn't know what to say so I just sat there, looking down at the worn blue carpet in the office and wondering what Ellie was doing at that precise moment, whether she was still in pain or not.
    "What's going on? Where is your head at? Is it that girl?"
    Something about Coach Hansen's tone when he said 'that girl' ruffled me. I also wasn't used to being questioned. I was used to being praised and congratulated and, if I'm honest, pandered to. Coach was not in a pandering mood.
    "How important is your future to you, Cade?"
    Ugh, what kind of a question was that? Of course my future was important to me. I could feel myself getting progressively more and more pissed off.
    "My future is very important to me."
    "Glad to hear it. You know there are scouts from three or four NHL teams at all the Ice Kings games, right? And you know these are the guys who are going to determine your place in the draft - or if you even get drafted at all?"
    "I know, Coach."
    There was an old blister on the heel of my left hand. I picked at it absentmindedly, desperate to get the conversation over with.
    "Come on, Cade. Level with me."
    I hated all