Page 157 of Slapshot Bride

We lose four to one.

I’m dressed and sitting in front of my stall with my forearms on my knees when the room fills up, and nobody says a word to me, which is its own verdict. Kai puts a hand on the back of my neck as he goes past. Wyatt keeps his mouth shut for what may be the first time in his life.

The team files out to meet the media, but I stay put.

I’m in the corridor with my bag over my shoulder twenty minutes later when Theo comes out.

He’s got his coat on and his phone in hand.

He stops.

He puts a hand on my shoulder, and squeezes. “Fight for what you want, Easton. It won’t always be handed to you.”

He squeezes once again, takes his hand back, and walks off toward the parking garage without looking back to see what it did.

I watch him leave, and his last words ring in my head.

It won’t always be handed to you.

In that moment, there’s only one thing I want. To be free. To be free of everything that has led to this moment. Everything I’ve been holding onto in the past nine months.

The videos. The blackmail from Maya. Keeping it from Diane, even when she asked directly. Indirectly lying to Riley. Keeping Mason in the dark.

All of it.

I rise to my feet, turn around, and walk back into the building.

Diane Mercer is in the office she uses on game nights, coat on, bag on her shoulder, halfway out the door. Coach Brennan is with her, which saves me a trip.

“Easton.” Her eyebrows go up. “It’s eleven o’clock.” Her way of telling me I shouldn’t be there, or bothering her by this hour.

“I need twenty minutes. And I need the team lawyer on the phone.”

Something in my voice does the work. She sets her bag down.

Coach shuts the door. He’s yet to speak to me since the game and I know I deserve it. So, I don’t look at him. My attention zeroes in on Diane.

I don’t sit.

“Nine months ago, after the championship, there was a party,” I start. “The usual team celebratory parties after a win with the guys. There, I met a woman named Maya. I took drugs with her. Cocaine. It was the first and only time. She filmed it, and she filmed what happened after, and she’s had that footage ever since.”

Diane’s face tightens. She’s about to lash out, but I raise my palm to continue.

“She’s been taking money from me since March. Small amounts. Nothing anyone could take to a court. I stopped paying three months ago.”

I make myself keep going because I suddenly realize how stupid I’ve been, but I need to get it all out. “There are photographs as well as video. My face is clear in all of it, and she’s threatening to sell them to the media.”

Coach sits down on the edge of the desk like his legs have gone out from under him.

“You sat in my office,” Diane says slowly, voice sharp. “... and I asked you…”

“I know what you asked me. I lied to you.”

I hold her gaze because she deserves at least that much. “I lied because I wasn't ready to face the truth on top of everything that was happening with the Sinclairs. It felt like too much.”

I let out a slow breath. “I thought... I thought I could carry it on my own.”

Nobody says anything.