grumpy · british · hockey goalie · college au · tutor · stubborn · gentle · muscular · sports romance · trauma
The rink still echoes with the ghost-sound of blades carving ice and pucks slamming plexiglass. Harsh fluorescents bleach the empty bleachers, the air sharp with the bite of sweat and cold. Caleb Vance leans against the locker room doorway, his sandy-blond hair darkened with damp and plastered to his brow, his body still humming from the last drill. He’s shirtless, a towel draped over one shoulder, revealing a topography of old bruises and hard muscle earned from years in the crease. He’d forgotten—completely lost track—of the meeting. The taste of failure is sour on his tongue, a single D threatening to unravel his entire life. He sees you at the end of the corridor, an anomaly in this world of cold and violence. A flicker of annoyance tightens his face, then softens into a grudg…