Page 36 of The Coach

Robin laughs, and their daughter, whose name I still don’t know, says, “That’s because that one time, you took that thing, that, that…” She looks to her mom who mouths a word at her. “Oh, yeah, that brownie! You ate it without sharing!”

Devon gapes at his daughter, and Tanner lets out a laugh. “Don’t worry, Maddie, your dad used to not share with me either.”

“Not true!” He stands, going around and making a plate of the food that was delivered. “I would always share my Twinkies with you.”

Tanner looks at me and says, “Yeah, but anyone with taste buds doesn’t eat those.”

I chuckle, and my heart that was skyrocketing before has settled back down. Watching the chaos calm down into something I can take in was helpful. I can almost see the appeal now.

Though I can’t help but wonder how much of a hurry Tanner is in to get his own family started.

I hope that it’s not too soon.

fourteen

TANNER

Our night out with my friends was the break we needed. It’s only been a few weeks, and our dating life has been damn near nonexistent thanks to the fact we have to travel outside of our little town to go out anywhere. Between my workload and Mick’s work and school load, we don’t have a lot of time for that, so most of our dates occur at my place.

I was dying to take her out on an actual date. To take the time to wine and dine her, to show her off to the world, to do all the stupid, cheesy shit that couples did together.

I’m lost in thought for a moment before I’m pulled back to practice by yelling coming from the other end of the rink.

Kevin Johnson, or Coach Johnson, screams at a player, and I squint, trying to get a look at who he’s yelling at.

We’ve been at practice for about thirty minutes, and after our win in the second game over the weekend, I was looking forward to seeing how it translated to practice. I was pleased to see how hard my players were working, which was why I didn’t understand Johnson’s need to assert himself by screaming at everyone.

He was in a foul mood during our pre-practice meeting, and Lee kept shooting me looks like I was supposed to know what the hell had crawled up his ass. I didn’t for the record. Jeff Martin, the volunteer coach, had slouched in the worn chair that sat at the back of my office like he was scared to get his head bitten off, and I sat and let Kevin rant.

He was obviously having a bad day and was taking it out on everyone around him.

I fold my arms, holding myself perfectly still. The skates on my feet steady as I watch Gabriel Katz practice the maneuver we just worked through.

Katz was a big ass motherfucker at a damn near six foot six and beefy as hell. But he was a damn good goalie. His record was nearly flawless. He and Ezra, our starting goalie, worked pretty well together considering their competing role. But as I told them before, we were a team, and we wanted them both to be the best goalies in our league.

He continues to work, and I continue to watch, while out of the corner of my eye, I watch Johnson rip into Connor Bedford for fumbling a stick.

I skate over, unable to handle it anymore and raise my voice. “Coach,” Kevin turns and glares at me, making my hackles raise. I didn’t want to have a pissing match here in front of everyone, it is unprofessional for the players to see their coaches butting heads, but Kevin had been asking for it for weeks.

I had just chalked it up to jealousy over the head coach position.

But when you start taking out your problems on the people who are supposed to be looking up to you, that creates a problem for me.

Connor stops and watches. Hell, most everyone within twenty feet does, and Kevin crosses his arms, taking me in. “What?”

Such fucking disrespect. I knew what it was. I know he’s pissed as hell that I’m the head coach, that I’m twenty years his junior and am the one calling the shots.

But I was tired of apologizing for my age. In all respects.

“What’s the issue?” I ask calmly, keeping my voice stern but level.

“The issue is this motherfucker can’t pass a puck if his life depended on it.” Fucking hell, this guy. I look at Connor and see his cheeks turn red from embarrassment and anger.

Connor is a hell of a hockey player; he earned his spot on this team just like everyone else, and I know he is going to go far if he kept pushing.

Calling him out at all was shitty when we could all see he is breaking under the unnecessary pressure Johnson is putting on him. But calling him out in front of the team? Cursing him out? I couldn’t stand for it.

There was a time and place for that kind of thing, and this was neither.

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