Then suddenly, we were done. That hurt more than anything fucking had in my life. Our relationship died while I coached a team I spent more time with than I did her, and she got the promotions we both worked for together for her because I knew that’s what she wanted. Yes, she did all the work and I didn't claim a damn thing, other than beyond her support crew and cheer squad all the way there. But we’d done it together and suddenly we were apart.
Because somehow, we still broke. Irrepareable, yet unable to make a clean break at all.
The voice I spent the morning listening to and trying to avoid followed me along the hallway. Sia’s was the sharp tone this time, her arm extended into the room without her head appearing. I frowned as her hand opened, showing two boxes, close to identical to each other. One looked a helluva lot cheaper though, as she gave all of us in the room a chance to study them.
Then, with deliberation, she tipped her hand upside down and tossed them.
Right into the trash.
I smirked. Sia knew exactly where everything was in the rooms I used. Hell, she helped me set up most of them, and I hadn’t moved anything since. Hadn’t seen the need to move anything.
Everything was perfect just the way she set it up.
The hand retracted, and Lewis’ softer, higher voice darted after my wife as she vanished into the maze of corporate weather funding the Chimeras’ rise to fame.
A deep growl emanated from my chest, and a heavy hand landed on my shoulder.
“Easy, Coach.” Solace’s voice shattered my furious haze. “Want me to make sure he doesn’t leave the parking lot?”
I shifted my attention from the open doorway where nothing stood at all, to Solace’s stoic face. He wasn’t kidding now, not any more than he had been the night he found a fool destroying Hux’s car after some other property destruction around the club. That man got a short ride in the boot, his body dumped a decent distance away.
Solace wasn’t a man to trifle with, and he’d always had the club’s best interests at heart in his own strange way. Our visions aligned on that. It was one of the reasons I had selected him in the first place. That, and the fact he’d been a damn fine goalie before his injury took him out earlier in the year.
“Not today, Solace. But thanks for the offer.”
I clasped the man’s hand, letting him know I appreciated his thought. Lewis wasn’t that annoying…yet. If he touched Sia— I breathed out hard.That’s not gonna happen.The poor kid was an intern, for fuck’s sake.
“When you need it. I’m out this time.” He nodded to Hux and left, pulling the door slightly shut behind him.
Hux held his silence for as solid four minutes as I set up the plays I wanted us to go through for the day. I wouldn’t interrupt the player’s time watching during this session. We’d all beenthrough the videos several times, picked them apart. There was no new material at this point. If someone had an epiphany we hadn’t covered in the last week of prep, then they were welcome to share it.
Our set up might be slightly different from other clubs, but for us, it worked. Today’s viewing was about making sure we understood where each of us individually needed to be tomorrow night.
In Sia’s room, tormenting the fuck out of my wife.
I shook myself, and glared at Hux. “Don’t you have a head space to get yourself in?”
He held my gaze, unflinching as the team filtered in, chattering quietly. The perfect foil between me and them, exactly where he should be.
“Yes, sir.”
My teeth creaked as Sia’s heels clattered past my door once more, steady and resolute. Lewis’s soft, too-fast step pattered in her wake like a homeless puppy begging for scraps as Hallie sneaked in my door, her arms full of printed team stats, her cheeks stained, and bearing coffee for the team.
Every one of those things had Solace’s mark all over them.
“Thanks, Hallie.” I gave her a one armed hug.
Someone whistled from the back row. “Gonna earn yourself a death mark, Coach,” Knox called.
I shot the new player a look. “I can pass that right on,” I held the two way forward’s gaze when he cocked a grin at me. “Solace knows I’ll never hurt his girl.”
Hallie squirmed in my hold. I knew one of her kinks was being talked over like an object, and I’d pass this little interlude right along to Solace in a message shortly. “Today’s viewing is to get us in the right headspace for tomorrow night. No snacky snacks until afterward, gentlemen. Settle in.”
A few groans echoed around the large space, but after a moment the room was mine. Quiet. Listening.
I smiled and lowered the lights.
As it should be.
