Page 74 of The Coach

I lift a brow in surprise. “You were with Mark Castillo?”

Her brows draw down and then recognition sparks. “Ah, yeah, you probably played him a couple of times before he was done.”

“He was an asshole. He basically lived in the penalty box.”

She nods. “That’s the one.”

Good fucking riddance to that guy. No wonder Lincoln wanted to kill him.

We’re silent for a few moments, me wondering where this Mark guy was and wondering if it would be too little, too late to pummel him.

“Should we go tell my parents?” Her voice is quiet, her hand flexing under mine, and I turn to her, considering.

“It’s up to you, but I think that’s probably a good idea.” I smile at her, trying to be her calm in this fucked up storm. “I’m surprised they haven’t been told.”

Mick takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, her lips moving with the air, and I track the movement. “Maybe he hasn’t told anyone yet.”

The trilling of my phone cuts me off, and I reach into my pocket, frowning when I see Ed’s name on the screen. “Hello?”

“Tanner, it’s Ed. Listen, you need to come into the office. We have to have a chat.”

“Everything okay?” I ask and Mick squeezes my hand.

“It’ll get worked out; how soon can you get here?”

“I can leave in a few minutes.”

“See you then.” Ed hangs up before I can, and I stare at my phone, wondering what the hell he could need, and dread curdles in my stomach.

“Who was that?”

“Ed Brown,” I reply, still staring.

“Ed Brown? Director of the hockey team, Ed Brown?”

I look at her then. “That’s the one.”

“It’s pretty simple, really. You have a few months until she’s no longer a student. Break it off until then, then get back together.”

My jaw clenches at the cavalier way he’s stated how to live my life for the next few months. Like that’s not going to gut me.

“You want me to break up with my girlfriend for three months because she’s a student.” I know he can tell by my tone how stupid I think this is. It’s not that I wasn’t expecting something like this to happen if we got found out, but the fact that he’s making it into something it doesn’t need to be kind of makes me lose some respect for him.

“It’s a bad look, Tanner,” Ed says from behind his desk, his hands fiddling with a pen as he looks me over. “It could mess with the morale of the team.”

I don’t see how, other than the issue with Ellis.

I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees, and placing a hand over my mouth. “I just don’t get what the big deal is. We’ve dated this far without any issues.”

“You dated in secret because you knew it was going to cause issues.”

I sigh. “Who told you, anyway?”

He twists his lips to the side. “I’d rather we not worry about that. Let’s just focus on moving forward here. Will you break up with her, just until she’s graduated?”

“I need time to think, Ed. I can’t just go break up with her.” I also had absolutely no intention of doing so, even if that means losing my job.

“It violates your contract, Tanner. If you don’t, I have to fire you, and I really don’t want to fire you when we’re this close to playoffs.” I bet he didn’t. If I left right now, it would kill morale.

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