She rolls her eyes. “So close. You really can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” I glare. “Bye,” she sings as she closes the door and gives me a finger wave as she turns and walks into her house.
I get to the plane at the same time as Cam is getting out and look over at him. “Hey,” I say and he just nods, “I didn’t see you at the Family Day thing.”
“Yeah,” he replies, “wife made other plans and booked a weekend away for us.” I just look at him.
“A lot of people had plans also, but they changed them to show a united front.”
“Oh well.” He shrugs, avoiding looking at me as he presses the lock button on his key fob. “Next time I guess.”
I ignore the need to tell him that he’s a fucking idiot, instead I walk onto the plane and take my seat, taking my phone out and looking down to see I already have a text from Victoria. I go into my contact and change her name to Beautiful Goddess before answering her.
Beautiful Goddess:
Have a safe flight. I put on panties.
I chuckle and message her back.
Me:
Then all is right with the world.
I look out at the ice when the whistle blows and then look up at the Jumbotron, where it shows there’s another four minutes to go in the third period, and we are tied.
I put my foot on the bench and look down as the puck drops in the neutral zone. Jaxon and Kirby, side by side, bring the puck up to make the play and the puck is intercepted.
The forward on the other team pushes the puck over the blue line and he has a bit more juice in his legs than Kirby and Jaxon do because he speeds past them, going on a breakaway. “Motherfucker,” I swear, watching him go with Kirby and Jaxon both behind him, when Jaxon does something I never thought he would do. He literally lunges off of his skates and sticks out his stick to slash at his legs, making him trip up. The whistle blows right away and the referee points to the middle of the ice, calling a penalty shot.
“What the fuck?” I shout, throwing the papers in my hands. Jaxon looks up at the Jumbotron and then shakes his head, coming back to the bench.
“What the fuck was that?” I roar at him, walking down the bench toward the defense side. “That fucking play was for novice players.”
Jaxon comes onto the bench, slamming the door shut. “You better fucking hope he saves that shot.”
“Who knows if he would have had a chance had I not tried to stop him!” Jaxon shouts back at me. “Don’t fucking tell me how to do my job!”
Eric comes over to me and pushes me in the chest. “Step away, yeah,” he mumbles.
“I’ll tell you how to do your fucking job because that is my fucking job!” I shout back at Jaxon, and then I hear the referee on the ice calling the penalty.
“Just play the fucking puck,” I tell the referee, and he looks back over at me. “You’ve been fucking us all night fucking long with these fucking calls and you know it.”
He looks right at me and forms a T in the middle of his chest. “Coach Gilmore, two minutes penalty for misconduct.”
“Fuck you,” I call to him, and he holds both hands in the air.
“Game misconduct.”
“I’m not fucking going anywhere!” I shout back to him when he points to the locker room. “Fuck you, I’m not leaving.” My hands are shaking with rage.
The referee is pointing to the dressing room. “I’m not going!”
“All eyes are on you right now,” Eric warns.
“No fucking kidding,” I retort.
“Don’t give them more,” he mumbles, and I look over to see Cam looking at me with a smirk as he leans against the back of the bench. His eyebrows shoot up, as I shake my head and walk out toward the tunnel. The arena erupts in cheers, and no one makes eye contact with me as I stand here watching the monitor as the opposing team takes the penalty shot and scores.
I look over to the wall of sticks and think about lifting one and beating the shit out of the television with it. The four minutes are over in ten, and I stand here waiting for the players to come back. Jaxon avoids me and walks past me. I shake my head and close my eyes.
