“Yes!” Jaz threw her arms up in the air, dancing in her seat. “She really said it’s okay? That didn’t take much convincing.”
“Tessa’s cool. She still feels guilty about starting me at a new school senior year. Plus, I think she’s secretly on team Mackenzie in my current showdown with my dad.”
“Will he be mad?”
“That’s tomorrow’s problem,” I replied. We weren’t even at the party yet, but already I felt a weight lifting from my shoulders. Tonight, I was determined to forget all about that nightmare of a game and try to have a little fun.
Chapter 15Parker
“Well, that was a disaster,” Seth said as we headed back to the locker room. “I wonder,” he continued. “Could it have had anything to do with the factsomeof our players were distracted trying to protect our new goalie?”
I wasn’t in the mood to take shit from him right now. I was already well aware I’d made a bad call telling him and Marc to shadow Mackenzie during the third period, but there hadn’t been any other choice.
“She needed us,” I grunted.
“Did she?”
“Yes.” I didn’t explain to Seth how Mackenzie had confided in me that she was scared before the game. I didn’t bring up the fear I’d seen in her eyes when that Sharks player had come flying toward her. Between Mackenzie’s apprehension, her exhaustion, and the fact our opponents were having a field day taunting her, I’d thought a little extra support from our defensemen would help her regain her confidence, especially as she constantly refused my other offers to lend a hand. Unfortunately, it had backfired.
“She was pretty pissed.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
A smile slowly crept onto Seth’s lips as he watched me. “Are you sure you’re not into her?”
I gave him my most disapproving look.
“Don’t look at me like I’ve grown a second head,” he said. “You pretty much threw the game for this girl, and you wouldn’t throw a game for your own mother.”
“I didn’t throw the game. Whatever I did, I did it for the team.”
“Uh-huh.”
I quickened my pace to get away from him and pushed through the locker room door.
Seth was being ridiculous, but for some reason his words left me questioning myself. Had my actions really been for the good of the team? I wanted to believe I’d done it to give Mackenzie the support she needed to get through the game. That I was just doing my part to ensure she didn’t quit the team and we got stuck with Anderson and Elliot for the rest of the season. But the truth was, my chest tightened whenever I pictured the look on her face when that Sharks forward had rushed her.
My thoughts were interrupted as Coach Foster entered the locker room. He’d already spoken briefly to the team, but now his attention was zeroed in on me. “Parker, a word, now.”
I couldn’t work out whether the fact he was using my name instead of my number was bad news, or really bad news. I drew in a breath, and Seth patted me on the shoulder. “It was nice knowing you.”
It did feel a little like a death march, following Foster out into the corridor. I already knew what I was going to get slammed for, and I braced myself for a verbal bashing. I hadn’t been thinking straight, but I could hardly tell him why.
“Care to explain your actions today?”
“Actions, coach?” I did my best to play dumb.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“The goal I scored?”
“No, the fact that you convinced our defensemen to crowd our goaltender. It cost us three goals.”
It was hopeless trying to deny it. This guy saw everything that happened out on the ice. And lying to him was only going to bury his opinion of me under a few more tons of dirt.
“Yeah, okay, maybe. I just thought she needed a little extra support.”
“That’s not your call to make. We were only two goals down. Had you focused more on your job instead of hers, we might have achieved a better result.”
