Page 84 of The Captain

They told me all of this when I’d gone to their house the night before to apologize for how I acted and see if they could assist me tonight to get Mick to cooperate.

I hoped that seeing what I was doing would get Cassie to talk to me again. It’d been hell these past couple of weeks without being able to talk to her.

I tried. I called, texted, and waited outside her classes. Still, she wouldn’t even look at me when I called out to her.

Chasing her felt like borderline stalking, and so I watched as she walked right past me and out of my life.

I was damn determined to pull her back into it again.

Out on the ice, warm-ups fly by with ease, my brain clicking into hockey mode and my body falling into rhythm without much effort.

My gaze would skip over to the seats where Mick usually sat every few moments, knowing that eventually I was going to look up there and see a blonde head of hair occupying them, and if I wasn’t careful, I was going to trip over my skates the second I saw her.

It wasn’t long that I had to wait, though. About ten minutes into warm-ups, my family arrived as a unit, and Cassie was right along with them, her gaze focused on helping my mom not trip over the stairs, making me fall in love with her all over again.

I wished I had said it. I wished I had told her how my feelings had progressed rapidly over the last few months. Then, maybe, she would take me seriously when I told her how sorry I was for taking shit out on her.

I realized, looking back on it, how wrong I was. She didn’t owe me anything, not even my sister’s secret.

And she was right. When we were together, we weren’t even thinking about other people because we were so wrapped up in each other, in our time together.

I took a deep breath and continued warming up, watching, with every second I could, the woman who owned my heart laugh and put on a brave face with my family. The sight was something I could get used to, seeing her sitting there with my family like she was a part of it.

If I had anything to say about it, she would be.

The time came for me to make my grand gesture to my sister. Even though I wanted to loop Cassie into this, to apologize in front of the hundreds of people here tonight, I knew that she would be more mortified than honored. And she needed to know that Mick and I were good before she made any decisions.

Hopefully, this would be just the first step on the path of forgiveness.

Mick was pissed that I did it in front of people, but with a jersey that read “Coach Mitchum” on the back of it and Tanner coming onto the ice with her and publicly claiming her for all to see, all was—mostly—forgiven.

Of course, my gaze had moved to the stands again, watching Cassie’s reaction to what I did and seeing her wiping under her eyes, her smile stretched wide. But it’s not aimed at me, it’s aimed at Mick and Tanner.

She’s happy. For them.

Then, I watched her while getting out of the way of the cleanup crew for my little display as her gaze switched from her best friend to me, and I saw that happiness dim into something else.

Something that made my heart sink down into my stomach.

I still placed my hand over my chest for her before the game started.

I’d taken the fastest shower of my life that night and rushed out to the tunnel, hoping and praying that she would be there, that we could talk, and I could show her that I was sorry. That I could beg her to forgive me.

I found my sister, who hugged me tighter than she ever had, with gratefulness in her gaze that I didn’t earn. She didn’t owe me anything just for accepting the fact that she was dating my coach. Even the thought of that seemed ridiculous to me now.

Though I hugged her and thanked her for her forgiveness, for letting me own up to my shit, my gaze was over her head, looking right at the woman who’s become my whole world in the last couple of months.

After a few moments of talking with my sister, Tanner and Mick’s friends plus Crew joined us, and he announced that he was dragging Vic and Cassie with us to the bar.

My eyes darted to Cassie’s, where she was glaring at Vic. “Vic is my ride.”

Vic started to drag her away, Crew on their tail already chatting Cassie’s ear off, and I trailed after them, ready to celebrate the win for the night as I watched my sister stare happily at her boyfriend.

At least I got something right tonight.

The bar is packed tonight, and as we sidled up to the bar, Crew ordered a round of beers for the four of us, and by the luck of it, I ended up right beside Cassie. A flashback to the first time I met her hit me out of nowhere, and I gazed over at her, wondering if she was thinking the same thing I was.

I remembered that night so clearly. I found her from across the room. Her long blonde hair had been down around her shoulders and her shy gaze hadn’t left her beer for the first few minutes of our conversation.

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