Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
“How do you keep up with all those pages? For the team, and your other ones, plus the travel with the team and having some sort of life outside work?”
I shrug. “I love what I do. It doesn’t even feel like work.”
Isaac blocks the puck and everyone in the box cheers. I stand up to cheer, too, and when I look to the side before sitting back down, I see a dark-haired woman with a lovely face, her hair back in a tight bun, glaring at me.
I lean closer to Lainey and whisper, “Who’s the dark-haired woman a few seats down in the blue sweater?”
She glances over casually, then hums disdainfully and leans back in. “Stella Seaborne. Ignore her. She’s a mean girl.”
“I can’t imagine what her problem with me is.”
Lainey lowers her brows, looking uncertain. “Her problem is that she’s insecure and you’re very pretty. That’s it.”
My brows shoot up in alarm. I lower my voice to a whisper. “She talks about me? Seriously?”
When Lainey nods, I can tell she’s questioning whether she should have told me. “She’s Paxton Griffith’s girlfriend,” she whispers in return.
He’s one of the lowest on the roster. A defenseman who doesn’t play as many shifts as the others. I’ve hardly even spoken to him.
I mentally retreat into myself, worried. I know there are mean girls everywhere, but I haven’t encountered anyone affiliated with the team and its players who was anything but nice until now.
Lainey leans over again, still whispering. “Ignore her. Paxton has cheated on her and she doesn’t trust him. She’s jealous that you travel with the team. You didn’t do anything wrong, she’s just a bitch.”
I relax slightly. I’m about to ask her if she knows anything else Stella has said about me when the box quiets. Lucien just dropped his gloves and he’s punching one of the Vancouver players like this is a boxing match instead of a hockey game.
“That’s Kyle Macintire,” Lainey says softly. “Do you know about all that?”
I nod, my gaze shooting to Noel. He’s still standing there, his arms crossed, looking unconcerned. Kyle slips and falls to the ice, Lucien dropping down to straddle him and continue his one-sided fight.
The refs end it, but it takes three of them plus Leo to pull Lucien off Kyle. Something tells me this might be about what’s going on between Audra and Kyle.
Lucien yells back at Kyle as he’s forced toward the penalty box by two refs.
“This isn’t good,” I say softly.
Lainey smiles. “It happens every time we play Vancouver. One hundred percent of the time. Those two hate each other.”
That makes me feel a little bit better, but I’m still concerned. I wish I could talk to Noel alone. Not that it’s my business, but I know he’s worried about his daughter.
The Crush pull out a 2–1 win, Leo scoring the winning goal in the last minute of the game. Noel is smiling as the team heads for their locker room.
I’m sticking to my plan of not going into the locker room tonight, but I wait in the tunnel so I can film the guys walking out in their suits.
I linger after that, leaning my back against the wall as I update the team’s socials and respond to comments. Even though I could go board the bus that’s taking us all to the airport from here, I don’t. The tunnel is emptying and this might be my only chance to catch Noel and have a quick, private conversation with him.
He finally emerges from the locker room ten minutes later, but Caroline is right beside him. They’re leaning close to each other, clearly having a conversation not meant for anyone else.
An arrow of jealousy shoots through my chest. It’s not rational. Caroline seems like a nice woman, and I have no claim on Noel. She’s much closer to his age than I am, and it makes sense that the team’s coach and doctor would spend time together and get close.
How close, though? He doesn’t even see me standing here. He doesn’t see anyone but her. They stay in their little huddle as they continue down the tunnel, shutting out the world. He doesn’t act this way around male colleagues.
I hide my disappointment, putting away my phone and following the assistant coach, Shawn, down the tunnel toward the exit.
Once again, I set myself up to be disappointed by a man. I never seem to truly learn.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Noel
We were fucked before, so I guess now we’re super fucked.
Not only is our captain and best forward out injured, but Lucien will get suspended over that fight. It’s only a question of how many games he’ll be out for.
“You gonna make any comment?” Shawn asks me from his seat beside mine on the plane.
“No.”
Our team owner, Hudson McClain, and our PR director, Deb, have been blowing up my phone since the fight happened a few hours ago. We’re in the air on our way to Boston now, and I asked McClain to put the whole organization under a gag order. No one says a word to anyone about the fight or anything else. We need some time.