Page 6 of Delayed Penalty

With his hand still raised, his finger still shaking, I can tell he’s pissed.

“Are you really interrupting me while I’m working to talk to me about a silly little birthday party? Reservations for dinner should not be more important than my job. If it’s so important to you, why don’t you just plan the whole fucking thing by yourself.”

“You know what? Maybe I will,” I say, turning and walking out, leaving him jaw-dropped in his office, waiting for me to stay there and let him bully me.

Unfortunately for him, I’ve spent the evening with a group of men who actually took the time to talk to me and care about my responses, so wasting my time on a man who only cares about the sound of his own voice isn’t high up on my priorities list tonight.

Maybe it shouldn’t be… ever.

Chapter Three

Harris

“Again, you guys. But I want you to actually fucking try this time,” our coach shouts from the side, forcing us to bag skate since half of the team decided to slack off during practice this morning.

It may be the end of the season, but our coach doesn’t care. It could be the last game of the year, or hell, even a quick skate after the final game and if we fucked off, he’ll make us pay for it. In this moment right now, I kind of hate him for it, but he’s never let anyone slack off.

He always makes us earn our success, and for that I’ll always be thankful for him. Nothing is ever too easy, but damn, when we get those wins or we make the shot we have always dreamed of, it always feels so much more exciting than if it just happened randomly.

But right now, I’m fucking tired and sweaty and just want to be home and demolish the leftover Chinese food so I don’t feel like I’m going to pass out. I haven’t been sleeping the greatest ever since the night at the bar when we ran into Avery and her sister, because all I’ve been able to do is lay in bed and think about her.

I miss her. Fucking dammit… I miss her so much.

It’s like the second I saw her, I forgot she cheated on me with her now fiancé. I forgot that when I went to go talk to her dad and ask his permission for his daughter’s hand in marriage I was met face to face with my assistant coach. I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently he’s Peter’s dad, which explains why he had the pictures of Avery and Peter embracing, her arms wrapped around him while he looked down at her smiling. It was even more heartbreaking being told that neither of them wanted to even speak to me.

It felt like I was being left behind without a second thought.

Coach blows his whistle. “Get off my ice and go get changed. We leave tomorrow for our last few away games and I’ll be damned if I let y’all embarrass me like you tried to at the start of practice. We are a damn NHL team, for Christ’s sake, not a beer league full of dads and has-beens. Fucking skate like it.”

We all skate off the ice, the group of guys who caused Coach's bad mood leading the way. They’re the young guys who go out and party too much and come in hungover thinking they can half ass practice and get away with it.

It’s like they don’t realize there’s a team full of guys just begging to be called up, and Coach would have no problem sending a guy down if they aren’t proving their worth. The guys and I have been on this team long enough that we not only respect the coach, but hell, we respect the sport.

Sure, we fuck off every now and then—I mean, who doesn’t. Hell, I’ll be the first to admit that every once in a while I make a joke or two… or a few too many, but who’s counting. In all honesty, tell me what part of life isn’t made a little bit better with a laugh or a smile.

But just because I like to enjoy myself and make those around me happier doesn’t mean I don’t know how to take my job seriously. I’ve worked my entire life to be on this ice, starting when I was just a kid learning to skate. It’s how I became one ofthe best defensemen in the league. I love being on the ice, I love helping out Cade, or Stewart, when he’s in the net.

I’m blessed to be able to get on the ice for a career and I’ll be damned if I take it for granted—which is a lesson these guys need to learn and if our coach can’t get through to them… I will.

I’m all happy-go-lucky, as long as everyone does their fucking jobs. When they don’t do their jobs, then we can’t have fun and that’s when I get annoyed.

“That was fucking brutal,” Miles says as he sets his skates down and starts getting undressed. “I don’t think I’ve sweat this much since my mom had me reroofing my grandma’s house in Texas in the middle of fucking August.”

“Yeah, he was definitely on one today, but Maxwell and Connor did quite a stand-up job of pissing off Coach when they were incapable of scoring a goal on an empty net.”

“They’ll figure it out. The early days can be rough when you’re figuring out how to balance it all. We all remember when we were rookies and just learning what freedom, money, and women were all about.”

“I mean, I guess. But I don’t remember being that stupid when I was their age,” Trevor mumbles as he heads to the showers.

“Not everyone had their dad as their coach who would whoop their asses into shape if we stepped out of line,” I grumble.

“Facts.” Trevor laughs.

It doesn’t take long until we are all changed and packed up from practice, I’m doing my best to hurry back to my apartment because I’m absolutely starving and am dying to get back to the leftover Chinese food from yesterday.

“How’s everything been going with Anna?” Miles asks.

“Avery. Her name is Avery,” I snap, annoyed that he’s incapable of remembering her name when it’s the only name I’ve been able to think about. It’s the name I’ve said every singlenight while gripping my cock wishing it was her stroking my dick until I come. Based on the smirk on Miles’ face, he knows damn well what her name is and is just giving me a hard time.

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