“We’ll execute it beautifully,” Coach Kramer added. “We’re good at that.”
Coach Whittaker looked over all of us critically. “And this will not in any way jeopardize our play on ice. I want the Cup, and I put together a hell of a team to make sure I get it.”
“So do we,” I assured him. “It’ll be a seven-, no eight-time HEA.” I grinned. “And we’ll have bragging rights.”
“I know what that is,” Maxim said with a chuckle. He stretched out his legs and smiled like a cat who’d eaten an entire tree full of canaries. “Ida Jane likes romance novels and movies. Those make her?—”
“Don’t go there!” everyone shouted.
Maxim scowled. “Teary eyed! She gets all sweet and weepy. Dirty-minded fucks.”
We all guffawed.
“So does Keelie,” I said once I quit laughing—in part to placate the scowling Russian but also because it was true.
“So, strategy,” Naese said. “Vivian’s a nurse. We know this from Hana. She likes her job, and she’s good at it, but it has to be stressful.”
“And you said she wants to pay off her student loans as quickly as possible,” Coach Kramer added.
“Or…she’s avoiding Cruz,” Stolly offered.
“Good point,” Coach Kramer said.
“Well, that could cause a crimp in the plan.” I glanced over at Coach Whittaker. “We offer her a job with the organization. She can do?—”
He shook his head. “We can’t. She has great skills, but we don’t have a team nurse, especially not one who focuses on cancer. That’s her specialty. Paloma told me,” he added.
I felt myself sweating as I considered our dwindling chances of winning.
“M.D. Anderson,” Stolly said.
“What?” I asked.
“The cancer hospital here in Houston. Millie’s been working with them to get even better-quality staff, especially for pediatrics.”
“Cruz’s mom will help us,” Coach Whittaker said.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“What?”
“But she’s a woman!”
“She might talk to the ladies…”
The comments crashed over each other.
“Lola came to see me,” Coach said. “It was a private matter, and I won’t tell you more than that, but I can say that she’s also aware Cruz has been in a funk, and she thinks he needs to work through what happened to make him push Vivian away. So, I think we get her involved in helping us craft a way to get the two of them together.”
We nodded, and I noted the determined expression on the guys’ faces.
“Sounds like the ladies are already working to get Vivian a position at M.D. Anderson,” Stolly said.
“So we focus on getting Vivian and Cruz together as often as possible,” I said. “Better yet, we get Lola to help us set up something that ensures constant contact between the two of them, and then their relationship will go from there.”
All the heads were bobbing up and down. “Sounds like a solid start to a plan,” Stolly said. “But we need more specific goals. We want them to live in married bliss, like the rest of us, right? And Cruz is planning to formalize the work he does with the military dogs once he retires, right?”
“Yeah, that’s what he said,” I replied. “Connecting K-Nines and their handlers makes him really happy.”
