“I hope so, too,” I say. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
He grins. “Wanna help me beat up some six-year-olds?”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” I say wryly, knowing I’d be considering it if any of my kids were being mistreated.
That’s why I loathe Kyle Macintire. He fucked over Talia, cheating on her with her own sister, Audra. I love both of my daughters, but Audra made a huge mistake marrying Kyle, and I don’t think we’ll ever be as close as we used to be. If I could spend ten minutes alone in a dark alley, I’d make Kyle regret his choices.
“Shut your face holes or get out of here!”
I turn to see Talia with her hands cupped around her mouth, yelling at the group of players standing in front of her. They quiet immediately.
“So that’s what it takes to get you guys to listen to me?” she quips. “I’ll remember that.”
“I like stern women,” Matt Morgan says, grinning.
Lucien gives him a murderous glare. “Not that stern woman. Respect her. That’s the only warning you’re getting.”
Morgan looks stunned as he mumbles, “Sorry.” He’s another player vying for a spot on the team, and comments like that won’t help.
“She’s his girlfriend, dipshit,” Sebastian Stone says.
“Yeah, she is, but it’s bullshit to treat any female staffers that way,” Lucien grumbles. “Be a fucking professional.”
“You’re right,” Morgan says. “I’m sorry, Talia.”
“Let’s get started,” she says. “We’ll do some torso rotations.”
I can’t linger and look on like a proud dad, though I want to. Talia has a kinesiology degree, and I’m thrilled with her new position on the team. She joined us near the end of the last season, so this is the first time she and our head trainer, Melina, have built a program for the season together.
Talia is also leading a new league-wide program for our players to teach disabled people how to play hockey and attend some of our home games. She shines when she’s helping people.
“Hey, Coach?” my offensive coach, Shawn McCain, calls out to me from the doorway.
When I walk over to him, he asks, “Can we talk?”
“Sure.”
We go to the small office the coaching staff shares when we play here and find two of our other coaches talking there, so we step into a hallway where we can talk privately.
“Hey, I noticed Abbott cringing when he was getting out of the hot tub. I think it’s his groin,” McCain says. “Maybe shorter shifts for him tonight.”
I nod. “He never admits when he’s injured. Everything good otherwise?”
“Yeah. Isaac interviewed me earlier for some social media thing. You know what that’s about?”
I lower my brows. “Apparently there’s a new girl in PR who asked them to get videos for social media.”
His brows move in the opposite direction mine just did. “I see. So that stuff doesn’t go through you anymore?”
“It should’ve. I’ll address it when we get back. You know anything about this new PR person?”
Shawn shakes his head. “Only that Isaac seems to think he works part time for her.”
I scoff and rub a hand over my stubbled jawline. “Sounds like I need to remind him players aren’t allowed to date the front office staff.”
“He knows. Isaac likes to test boundaries, but he doesn’t generally cross them.”
“Well, if he’s sniffing around the front office, that’s a hard line. I’ll talk to him.”
