“No front,” Phil assured him.“You’ve got the build for it, that’s all.”
“It was a long time ago.You want dinner?”
Phil wanted to protest.Ben had spent all afternoon making his house accessible; he didn’t need to cook in addition.But Phil’s stomach growled, and judging by the omelet that morning, Ben was a much better cook than him.
Cook, housekeeper, and handyman.
But not a defenseman.
Ben cooked pasta and fried up shrimp with zucchini slices in a lemon sauce while Phil watched him move.Phil wasn’t crazy enough to believe that every piece of evidence his brain constructed meant anything, but he couldn’t shake the feeling.Ben didn’t move like a forward.He didn’t have that self-assured powerful gait.He didn’t have the awareness of his mass as a thing that ought to take up space.He didn’t move like any hockey player Phil had seen before.His body type was all different.Sure, he had broad shoulders and strong, stocky legs, but for a guy who’d spent all his time on skates professionally, he looked soft.Not in the way older coaches got, with a beer belly incongruous with their long, athletic legs.No, Ben looked soft in the curve of his generous ass and his thick thighs.
There was no way around it: Ben didn’t have a hockey ass.He had a plump, round ass, a far cry from the marble-sculpted pure muscle attached to most hockey players.
It looked good on Ben though.With his stomach swelling just a bit over the top of the thin sweats that clung to his ass, his sturdy legs, the freckles covering his arms… He looked comfortable in his own body in a way that made Phil want to come up behind him and wrap his arms around that soft stomach, feel the curve of that round ass against his—
Abruptly, Phil realized he’d been staring at his coach’s butt for far too long.He tore his eyes away.He was being paranoid.Some guys got softer when they quit playing and started coaching.There had to be a reasonable explanation for Pulvermacher hiring Ben and for Ben’s odd coaching choices, and Phil would find it.
“So,” Ben said over dinner.“You think you’ll be okay while I’m gone?”
“I’ll be fine, thanks to you.You think you will be?”
“Huh?”
“With the team?Mazetti’s shaping up great, but it’s always rough to reshuffle the lines.”
“Oh.Sure.We’ll manage.”
“Hm.”Phil went back to his shrimp spaghetti.He planned on watching every single one of those games, and he wouldn’t be watching the ice.He’d be watching the coaches.
Chapter Four
Olivia Starling [off-screen]: How is Luca Mazetti working out for the team in your opinion?
Ben Morris: Luca is…yeah, Luca is a great player.Gives every practice his all.Quiet guy, but you can see how his work is paying off.
Olivia Starling [off-screen]: He’s already playing a lot of minutes and has replaced Jimmy Hayes in the power play.How does the team feel about such a quick promotion?
Ben Morris: Would we really call it a promotion?It’s not like his pay—
Kayleigh Williams [off-screen]: [clears throat]
Ben Morris: Sorry.Anyway, it’s a team sport, so guys do what’s best for the team.We’re all here to win, right?
Olivia Starling: Any update on Phil Easton?
Kayleigh Williams: Okay, that’s all we have time for.Thanks, everyone!
Top comments:
sealionsfan82: Hope Easton’s recovering well!
Jefferson Howard: Morris is a disgrace.Clearly has no idea what he’s doing, keeps shuffling the lines at random.How is anyone supposed to build chemistry in these conditions?
(From postgame media availability, San Francisco @ Montreal, posted to YouTube on 27/11/2024)
The NHL was exhausting.Why become a hockey player when other sports offered up to six times the salary for playing a fraction of the games?At the end of November, with less than a third of hockey season completed, Ben needed three cups of coffee to get to the team bus on time, and he wasn’t evenplaying.Granted, he, unlike the players, had done zero summer conditioning to prepare for spending a big chunk of his day on ice skates.Also, the real job he had on top of fake coaching and subterfuge was almost as exhausting as an eighty-two-game schedule.
Especially when he lived with the nicest hockey player Ben had ever met.Phil welcomed him back from the road trip with a home-cooked meal and an offer to let the laundry service take care of all the damn suits Ben had to wear on the road.Given Ben was still coming down from a three-day tension headache because of the stupid goal horns during the back-to-back in Montreal and Toronto, he accepted gratefully.
