“So arecreativecurses allowed?” Payne asked innocently. “I have a few waiting to make their debut.”
Temple snorted loudly. “Oh, yeah? What?”
“None of your business, you green fart-face,” Payne said with a grin.
Lucas’ mouth twitched as he removed the heavy helmet from his head, but Coach Gray seemed to have lost his sense of humor along with his voice.
“Quiet! We don’t have a swear jar yet,” he clarified. “But I’m about to set one up. It works wonders at my house.”
“You banned your daughters from swearing?” Fox seemed impressed.
“No,” the coach said sourly, rubbing the back of his neck, “they banned me. They already bought a damn Nintendo Switchwith it. So, if I’m not allowed to swear, then neither are you! And with that miserable last third, you’ve forfeited the right to use flowery language.”
A few of the rookies laughed, and Lucas looked at them pityingly. Rookie mistake.
“Hey,” Gray shouted. “Laughing gets you a ten-dollar fine! I understand that none of you think it’s cool that Alvarez is being tended to by Temple and might be out for the next game, but you can’t all be swinging your sticks like the last of the Neanderthals.”
“Is it weird that he doesn’t mean Dax when he says Temple?” Payne whispered. “Or am I the only one who found that sentence odd?”
Lucas gritted his teeth as he removed his shin guards. No. He also found the idea of Leon being treated by Anna…irritating.
“I thinkswinging stickssounds like the script for sports BDSM soft porn,” Dax mused.
“Love and Hockey: Love at first stick,” Fox muttered.
“Okay, listen up!” Gray shouted. He could be in the movies as the burly giant. “I actually would have liked to have won both home games. It’s going to be harder to win at the other team’s arena. But we only need to win three more games to advance to the second round — and by God, we will.”
“Coach,by Godwould be more inspiring if you were religious,” Blake Ford pointed out.
“And you’d be more inspiring if you’d been on the ice today, backup goalie,” Fox added pleasantly.
“Yes. And I believe in fining you for stupid comments, by the way,” the coach added seriously.
“Why aren’t you bankrupt yet, Dax?” Payne asked innocently.
“So,” the coach said louder, “we…”
The door opened and Lucy strolled in. The red-haired PR manager was about as impressed by half-naked hockey players as Lucas was by their final period. “Hey,” she said, “what the hell was that tonight? And, can I open the locker room to the press?”
“No!” the coach snapped.
“Gray, Leslie insists that someone at least make a statement,” she said impatiently.
Gray paled a little more. Leslie wasn’t nicknamedDragonfor nothing. When she became angry, all she needed was a spark and she’d literally spit fire.
“It’s okay, Fox!”
Fox groaned. “Be the team captain, they said,” he muttered grumpily. “It’ll be fun, they said.”
Lucas smiled. Yep, he was glad he didn’t have the job. Why wasn’t Leon back yet? What exactly was Anna doing to him? And where exactly did she have to touch him to do it?
“What kind of statement is he supposed to make?” Dax asked. “That we played like a wet sack of rice in the final third?”
“Speak for yourself,” Payne muttered. “I was a slim pack of oatmeal. Coarse and gritty.”
“I don’t care at all. Just make it brief, Fox. At least Moreau regained his focus. The last few pucks were simply unstoppable. Don’t forget to mention that.”
“Oh, yeah, his newly returned focus,” Fox murmured. “I wonder why that is.”
