Halfway through practice, Breezy doubled over at the end of a drill and looked as if he might puke.
Phil watched it happen.What could he do?Ben had checked out completely, refreshing his messages from Charlie over and over.If Trout already thought Ben had gone to the police, Phil taking over practice now would only add him to Trout’s list of suspects.
To add insult to injury, the Zamboni drivers must have called in sick because the ice was anything but smooth.The third time Hayes stumbled and fell trying to complete the drill, Trout laughed, loud and mean.
“I’m gonna check in the back to see if we have a walking stick for the old man,” he said.“Or a shotgun to take him out of his misery.”
He made for the locker room as if to actually do so.Phil caught a glimpse of his phone screen in his hand, an incoming call with the same name as the ones Ben had been getting.He elbowed Ben, but Ben only grunted, flipping through his notebook.Phil guessed he was trying to find more proof.Something to make the police believe him and to charge Trout with rather than release him after questioning.
“Aren’t you going to doanything?”Jax asked Ben.
Ben looked up from the notebook.“Huh?Oh.Shit.Um.”
Phil couldn’t stifle the sigh when Ben looked to him.He knew Ben wanted out of pretending to be a hockey coach, but he still had to pretend to be a hockey coach.Phil made a gesture, one he’d used in December when he’d spent his mornings watching from the stands.At least he got to be on the ice now in a no-contact jersey.
“Right,” Ben said, looking for his whistle in his pockets.“Around-the-world drill.”
He didn’t have the damn thing on him.
“Christ, Ben, seriously?”
“I’ve got a few other things on my mind,” Ben snapped, which Phil knew and appreciated, but he had a responsibility to the team.
“When you’re on the ice, you’ve gotta eat, sleep, breathe—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Phil, I’m not even a real hockey coach.”
The whole team looked to Ben.
“Well, shit,” Phil said.Trout would be back any moment.“Tom’s room at the hotel, after practice.We’ll explain everything.Don’t say a word to Trout.”
He resisted the urge to glare at Hayes and Vanderbilt in particular.Things weren’t great on the team right now, but surely, they wouldn’t go that far?
“I’m sorry,” Ben muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
Phil studied him.
Since he’d come clean about his real identity, he hadn’t made it a secret he didn’t care about hockey all that much.He did care about Charlie, and he cared about Phil, and apparently, the thought that his actions or lack thereof had put one or both of them in immediate danger had gotten to him.Or maybe it was the long-term danger of being trapped in a team run by assholes that had stressed him out so much he’d screwed up half a year’s work of subterfuge.
Phil rubbed Ben’s shoulder regardless of the audience.“It’s okay.I get it.”
They made it through the rest of practice at what Phil would charitably call “half-pace.”Ben called Edwards up to him and pretended to take him extremely seriously, going with his suggestions for drills.Edwards blossomed under the attention, and his ideas weren’t as bad as Phil would have thought.He was just too reticent to take control during practice of his own accord.
Trout returned from his phone call looking significantly paler.He didn’t once protest Edwards running the show, and on the return to the hotel, he slid into one of the first seats on the bus and said nothing.
It took the team a few minutes to congregate in Tom’s room.Beforehand, Tom had hastily opened his suitcase and mussed the covers to make it seem as if he’d slept there.
“Stop judging me,” he grumbled at Phil.“You’ve been keeping secrets too.”
“Not by choice.”Though now Phil thought about it, he would have to tell Tom he’d married Ben sooner rather than later.
It was a tight fit.Tom had a big room, a perk of being captain, but hockey teams dressed twenty guys per game as well as three spares, and they had all either heard what Ben had said or been told by a friend.With Tom, Jax, Breezy, and Mooney crowded onto the double bed, Ben and Phil sitting at the table, and Hayes and Vanderbilt occupying the windowsill, everyone else crowded in where they could.Luca and Howie sat on the floor between the bed and the window.Mats hopped up on the table between Phil and Ben.
The noise level grew, everyone chattering away amongst themselves.Ben winced and rubbed his temples.
“All right everyone,” Phil said loudly, and the room went quiet.It was nice that still worked.“We’re going to keep this brief.Ben?”
“Right.So.”Ben sighed and rubbed across his forehead again.“I’m going to start with an apology.You deserve a real coach, and you deserve the truth, and I haven’t been giving you either.”
