Read Home Ice for Free Online

I didn’t.”
    “What do you mean? Where are we going?”
    To the practice rink on the other side of town. The Razors have their practices there and their games at the NorCal Center.”
    “Oh.”
    As promised, ten minutes later Izzy pulled into the Razors’ Ice Practice Arena parking lot on the other side of town. Posted on the side of the building, Ally noticed a huge sign telling her that ‘Razors Ice Arena was the official practice facility for the Red Valley Razors‘.
    That explained why it looked like they had pulled up to a high school gymnasium.
    Ally was glad to finally unfold herself from Izzy’s tiny car. She was feeling claustrophobic after Izzy had razzed her during the entire car ride about Ally’s choice of jeans and tee shirt. Over the years it had become Ally’s uniform. There was no way she was going to dress up, especially for some sporting event that she didn‘t even care about. Only Izzy could pull off wearing heels to a hockey rink. She rarely went without them and today was no exception. Izzy could take her designer clothes and five inch heel and shove---
    “We’re here!” Izzy announced, breaking Ally‘s train of thought.
    Ally looked around at the nearly empty parking lot. “Apparently we’re the only ones.”
    “I’m so excited to see them. Practices are much more intimate than games.”
    Great, Ally thought . Intimacy and hockey. I’m missing General Hospital for this?
    “Hopefully we’ll get to meet some of the players.”
    It was a possibility considering Razors’ Ice was a much smaller arena than NorCal Center.
    Izzy strutted into the building with Ally a step behind her. Inside, it was bright and echoed with voices and the sound of pucks being hit.
    Ally looked around at the stands sprinkled with a few people here and there. It appeared that only a few die-hard fans and a group of kids had cared enough about the team to come to their practice.
    “There’s nobody here.”
    Izzy shrugged and took a seat in the front row. “The Razors haven’t exactly had a stellar season. Game attendance has been low because they probably won‘t even make it to the playoffs.”
    Ally took a seat next to her. “And we are here because…”
    “Because I want to get some player autographs. We just might be able to because there won’t be a million people crowded around. Because I still like the team even though they’ve been playing like crap. Because you needed to get out of the house. You know I love Gram, but you can‘t spend all of your time with a ninety year old woman.”
    “Gram is my life,” Ally defended. “And she’s only eighty-six.”
    “I know, hun. But there’s also more to life than Depends and Polident.”
    “Ooh, that reminds me.” Ally took out a pen and scrap of paper from her purse and scribbled on it. “I need to pick up some more of Gram’s vitamins at the store.”
    Izzy rolled her eyes and turned to focus on the ice. She didn’t come here to argue with Ally. There were professional athletes on display to be ogled.
    The Red Valley Razors’ practice session consisted of a succession of drills. Passing, shooting, face-off, puck handling, and basic fundamentals. The players seemed to be having a good time as they joked around with each other like a band of fraternity brothers.
    After the practice, some of the players milled around to sign autographs for the kids and hand out pucks. Ally admired how these men could be so aggressive on the ice and then so nice to the children grouped around them. She turned to say something to Izzy, but when she looked over she realized that Izzy had left her side. Ally looked around to see where she snuck off to and finally found her sidling up to one of the players. Ally watched as Izzy put her hand on his arm and batted her eyelashes up at him as she asked for an autograph. The player was huge in comparison to her tiny friend. He must have been at least six foot four without the aide of his skates and he made Izzy look