At this, a small smile lifts the corners of Ramsey’s mouth.
“Yeah, you were.”
“Besides, you’ve been a great coach. You called me on shit I needed called on and we’re playing better as a result. The end.”
He lets out a deep exhale.
“Ok. Great.”
“And Coach,” I jump in, “thanks for having my back on that.”
He laughs, but I truly am grateful.
“No problem, Carter. I’ll do it again if I need to.”
I know he will, which is why I want to keep playing here, regardless of those first weeks.
“So you two are, uh, good now?” He looks between us, clearly still unsure of why I’m here. Ethan jumps in.
“Yeah, Coach. We’re good. We’re…dating, actually.”
Ramsey picks up the coffee cup and takes a long sip, and I wonder if he wishes we’d brought him something stronger. He sets it down and sits staring at us, blinking.
“You good there, Coach?”
He nods, attempting a smile that looks more like a grimace.
“Yeah, yes, definitely. So, this is you officially disclosing your relationship status to the team, right?”
The way he looks at us, it doesn’t seem like we have much of a choice. We must pause just a moment too long.
“Because, gentlemen, shit can hit the fanrealquick if you don’t do this right. As we all learned this February.”
I can feel my eyes widen as Ethan examines his shoes.
“We, uh, hadn’t really planned to tell the whole team. Right now, we want to focus on the playoffs,” I reassure him.
Ethan nods, though he moves his arm to rest on the back of my chair.
“Sure. But there’s a difference between ‘telling the guys’ and ‘making a full legal disclosure to cover everyone’s contractual asses’. And youaredoing the latter, right?”
“Um, yes. Sir.”
“Alexei already knows, too.”
Coach nods.
“It will definitely help that Iknow. I kept wondering if I needed to pull you in, but I was worried you’d think we were planning to send you down.”
He isn’t wrong.
“Now I know I can just tell you to pull your heads out of your asses next time.”
We both laugh at that.
“I’ll pass the info along to Greg and ownership, make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.”
I look to Ethan – again, he’s got years more experience with these people than I do.
