Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
“Yes,” he answers reluctantly.
“Often?” I hold my breath.
“More than I should.”
“You are such a buzzkill,” I groan out my own frustration at his answer.
“You are a temptation I don’t think I could stay away from.” The moment he says the words, my stomach flutters.
“Then stop staying away from me and give into the temptation, Zane.” I inhale deep. “Ball’s in your court.” I close my eyes. “I, for one, would like the balls to be hitting my chin,” I say with a moan. He doesn’t say anything, so I do what I should have done from the beginning, I close my eyes and end it. “Have a nice night, Zane.”
ten
Zane
Me:
Meet me in Cam’s office.
I send Eric the text after getting the email I’ve been waiting for. I push away from my desk and head over to Cam’s office, which is supposed to be right next to mine, but he decided to take the office at the complete opposite end of the hall from me. I pass the locker room that is starting to fill up since we start practice in about half an hour. I get there and see the door to Cam’s office wide open. He’s sitting down behind his desk with five players, and they look like they are having a meeting. No one even looks my way before I knock on the door and see them turn to look at me, Owen’s face goes white when he sees me. “Coach,” he says my name.
“Hey, am I interrupting anything?” I take a step in and the guys get up nervously, shaking their heads and moving out of the room. “What was that all about?” I ask Cam, getting an uneasy feeling in my gut.
“Going over defensive plays,” he replies, leaning back in his chair. “What’s up?”
“Hey,” Eric says, coming into the office and standing beside me, “just got your text.”
“Yeah.” I look back at him. “I know we are having practice today,” I tell them, “but I have something planned with the guys.” I look over at Cam. “The bus gets here in thirty minutes.”
“The bus?” Cam asks me and I smile.
“The bus,” I repeat. “I’ve decided to take the boys out to do some bonding.”
“Bonding?” Cam repeats like I didn’t just say the word.
“Yeah, I think the team needs to be more in sync.” I look at Eric, who nods. “They aren’t trusting each other on the ice, and it’s starting to show.” I look over at Cam to see if he’s going to repeat these words too, but he just leans back in his chair and rocks back and forth. “So I got a hold of a place where they do team-building exercises.”
“I’m not going to that,” Cam declares without waiting for me to tell him what it is.
“Why the fuck not?” Eric snaps out, looking at Cam.
“I just don’t think it’s a necessary activity,” he says. “I’ll make up an excuse that I have an appointment or something.” He shrugs.
“You think that’s a good idea?” I ask him and he nods his head.
“I’m skipping it.” He sits back up, crossing his hands on the desk. “I’ll hold down the fort here and work on the power play and power kill plays.”
“Sounds good,” I reply, turning to Eric. “Looks like it’s me and you.” I slap his shoulder and squeeze it, telling him it’s not worth it. He nods his head, avoiding looking back at Cam before we walk out of the office.
“That guy is a piece of—” I cut him off before he says something and someone reports it.
“To be honest, this wasn’t for him, or for us, it’s for them.” I point toward the locker room. “We have a game on Saturday, and we have to win it.” He just nods at me as we walk into the locker room.
“Guys,” I call out, my voice booms as everyone stops talking. “I know we are supposed to be on the ice in about an hour, but the bus is going to be here in twenty minutes,” I tell them and I see they are all sharing a look. “It’s nothing bad. So get to the kitchen and get some grub before we leave.”
Twenty minutes later, I’m the last one on the bus and I look over to Eric, who is sitting in the back with some of the rookies. I give him a chin lift as I sit in the front next to Jaxon, who is turned in his seat talking to Kirby and Knox. “So we have to know,” he says to me, “where are you taking us?”
“Disney,” I side-eye him, smirking, “the most magical place on earth.”
“I’ve been and it’s, in fact, not magical. It’s where parents go to die,” Knox states as I look out the window. “You think it’s magical until it’s past a naptime and your kid has a mental breakdown in the middle of the fucking sidewalk because she can’t get a Mickey Mouse ice cream,” he groans. “I refuse to take the kids back until they are old enough to not have a meltdown.”