Coach’s lips popped open, then shut, repeating the movement two more times as he looked at each item on his desk.A messy pile of papers. A puck. A ball of used tape. His phone. A picture of his wife. “I don’t want to know, do I?”
“No.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth. “And you’re sure this is the only answer?”
I gave a single nod. “I’m sure.”
His fingers rubbed his forehead and he tented them at his temples. I’d have told him I’m sorry, and I was sorry for causing him any grief. But the team would survive without me.
Now my actual family was more important than my found one.
“Is this the first time something like this has happened?”
I folded my hands behind my head, spreading my elbows wide. “Yep.”
Sort of.
“And you want me to trade you to Ohio? You don’t just want to retire?”
“No retirement. A trade. A move. It’s the only way out.”
Coach leaned in, his brows stitching together. “Is someone threatening you? We can get you security. This town’s full of people who specialize in that.”
“No. Trade me or I start talking shit in the press so everyone knows I’m trying to leave.”
He cocked his head back. “Jesus, boy. It must be bad.”
“Trade me. Please. Before the deadline. Tomorrow if you can.”
In March, teams have to make their final calls on trades. There’s a deadline mid-March, and if you don’t make the cut-off, the traded player can’t play in the playoffs. There are often mad dashes to trade various players to try and arrange the best playoff odds.
Coach shook his head. “I’m going to need some kind of reason. Otherwise, Ohio’s going to wonder why I need to get ridof you. Your stats are still good, so I have no reason to get rid of you.”
My knee continued to bounce. “I’ll start a fight. On the team. People expect that from me.”
Coach tipped his head to the side. “You can’t injure one of my guys and leave.”
“I won’t really hurt them. I’ll just start a very obvious beef and we’ll push it to where the press can easily find out. A shoving match in the hall or something during a presser.” I thought for a moment. “Mike’ll do it with me. Your two goons. No one will have a reason to doubt it. Hell, he’ll enjoy it.”
Coach paused, looking me over. “I mean, yeah. That would work.” His pained expression made him look like a dog right before they throw up. “You’re sure you have to leave? You can’t resolve whatever this is here?”
“No. I need to leave.”
“I’ve got a connection with Ohio’s coach.” He sighed and chewed his lip. Then he shook his head and lifted his desk phone’s receiver. “Dev’s your agent?”
“So we’re really doing this?”Mikey grumbled under his breath.
“I’ll owe you big, brother.”
“I don’t want to lose you, buddy. You’re sure?”
Sorrento locked eyes with me, raising his brows. He was the only one who had any inkling of what I really did, and even he didn’t know the full extent of it. I didn’t even breathe a word of it to Romelski other than telling me he needed to cover for me about the fishing trip. The bro he is, he didn’t ask questions.
“I’m sure. You want it to be about Jessie and Mara? It’s an easy enough thing to fight about.”
“And Jessie will think it’s hot,” Mikey said with a grin. “That usually works in my favor.”
I shook my head. “I don’t need to know about your kinks. And make sure she knows it was just an act after. Come on. Let’s sell it. There are cameras coming in.”
