Jacob readied himself for Coach Tremaine to start the race.
THREE.
TWO.
ONE… BANG!
Jacob flew into an early lead, his legs suddenly feeling as light and gazelle-like as ever. But around the halfway point, the leaden feeling returned to Jacob’s legs and he could practically feel the lactic acid building inside his quads.
Worse, Jacob could sense that Tane was rapidly gaining ground on him.
No no no no.
Keep going.
Don’t let that grumpy asshole win…
But try as Jacob might, Tane simply powered past him and ran out a fairly comfortable winner at the end of the one hundred meter track.
With the sound of the players cheering and whooping for Tane, Jacob felt a mixture of fury, humiliation, and total despondency.
Tane had beaten him fair and square, and there was nothing that Jacob could do about it.
“Good race, kid,” Tane said, walking over toward Jacob, holding his hand out for Jacob to shake. “Now shake my hand and We’ll move on as a team.”
Jacob didn’t want to shake Tane’s hand.
But the longer Tane held his hand out, the more Jacob’s resistance grew.
“You’re coming with me, boy,” Tane snapped, a hushed silence coming over the squad – including Coach Tremaine. “We’re going to settle this here and now.”
Tane took Jacob by the arm and marched him out of the athletics track and into a nearby weights room.
Jacob didn’t know exactly what Tane was going to say once they were inside the room – but instead perhaps what he should have been wondering was what Tane was going todo.
Chapter 6
Tane
After Jacob stormed out of the house, Tane felt a familiar sense of exasperation and frustration with the young player.
Tane had been around in professional hockey for long enough to see plenty of supposed superstar players burn out way too early as a result of too much partying, ego, and hype. Jacob seemed like he was a good boy deep down, but in that moment Tane was seeing far too many of the traits that could see Jacob fail to live up to his potential.
“What do I care,” Tane grumbled, stripping the guestroom bed. “That asshole kid can do what the hell he likes.”
The reality of the situation was that Tane was only so invested in Jacob because Antonio Cardini has instructed him to be. Were it not for that order from the Cardini family, Tane would probably have ignored Jacob and focused only on finishing his final season as a player in the most successful way possible.
“But…” Tane said, his mind drifting off to the same kind of thoughts that had seen him pleasure himself so satisfyingly in the bath. “No.Notgoing to happen.”
Tane was determined to put his lust for Jacob out of his mind and concentrate on having the most relaxed Sunday possible. After all, Tane knew that he would be back on the training and game prep treadmill on Monday.
After such a long career, the one thing that Tane was looking forward to was a little bit more time to himself. Even though Tane loved meeting up with the likes of Alex and Connor and shooting the shit at Pine Rise, he certainly wasn’t going to miss the grueling training schedule.
Tane tossed the laundry down the laundry chute and walked downstairs.
“Time for my own big breakfast,” Tane smiled, imagining the amount of calories he was about to consume all in the name of physical recovery.
But before Tane could settle into making his feast, he saw a message flash up on his cell phone. And just like before, Tane felt the very same sinking sensation when he saw that the message was from Antonio Cardini…
