Page 57 of Behind the Bench

I slowly start to skate backward as I say, “You can stay, but how about a little game of one-on-one?”

Ellie looks like a kid on Christmas morning. Her eyes light up and she’s cheesing so hard I can see the dimple on her cheek. “You’re on,” she says as she skates toward me and center ice.

I shoot all of the pucks but one down into the net and turn to Ellie. “First to three points wins. Both posts and crossbar. Sound good?”

“Sounds good. But fair warning, you’re about to get your ass kicked, Scott.” And then Ellie steals the puck off my stick and takes off toward the blue line.

We’re tied at two. We’ve both hit each post. Whoever hits the crossbar next is the winner. Ellie scored last, so I have the puck between the faceoff circles in front of my net.

Ellie has both hands on her stick that’s currently resting across her knees as she tries to catch her breath. This girl can still fly out here.

I’m doing my best to hide the discomfort in my knee, hoping she doesn’t notice each time I wince when I take a stride. We’ve been chirping each other every chance we get, which is why I can’t help myself when I yell, “What’s wrong, Coach? Out of breath already?”

She stands up straight, resting her stick on the ice now, and calls back, “Just waiting for you, old man.”

“I’m only like, six months older than you,” I shout back.

Ellie shrugs. “Yeah, which means you’re still older. Let’s go, Grandpa.”

Chirping with Ellie has quickly become my favorite thing to do. It’s the reason I have a smile on my face when I grab the puck and take off toward center ice.

Ellie can skate backward almost as fast as she can skate forward, so she matches me stride for stride as we make our way down the ice. She bites when I fake right toward her forehand and I quickly cross back over to go the other way. I gain a step on her as she tries to turn around to catch me.

I have about one stride on her, but I can feel her gaining ground. Damn you, bum knee. She’s about half a stride back now, so I have no choice but to fire the puck at the net before she catches up and steals it from me. I take a quick snap shotand the puck sails over the net, just missing the crossbar by an inch, landing in the far corner.

“Fuck!” I yell, as Ellie takes off toward the puck.

She has the nerve to look over her shoulder and shout, “Nice try, Coach!”

My instincts take over and there’s a part of my mind that’s screaming at me,you can’t let her win. She always wins.

I follow Ellie to the corner and pin her body against the boards just as she’s about to take off down the ice.

We’re both breathing hard and having my body pressed against hers is making me feel some type of way. I can feel the heat radiating off of her, and when she turns her head sideways, my face is inches from hers.

My lips almost brush against her cheek as I say, “Now what,Coach.”

This game between us is just another version of our foreplay. The chirping and insults being thrown, sparking the fire between us even more. I can feel my dick growing hard in my sweats. I’m pressed up so tight against Ellie’s ass, I’m sure she can feel it too.

She glances down to where my dick has taken flight and smirks up at me. “Getting a little excited, Coach?”

Her calling me Coach is the nail in my coffin as my cock stands straight up to attention. I push it a little more into her, and a quiet moan escapes her mouth. She does her best to hide it, but I hear it. And Iloveit.

“Seems like you like it just as much as I do, Coach.”

Ellie turns around to face me, the one-on-one matchup between us forgotten, as she leans in closer. “Maybe, I do.”

I go to meet her halfway, and that’s when she pushes both arms into my chest as hard as she can and grabs the puck, taking off down the ice.

Is that her laughter I hear floating through the air? I take off at full speed doing my best to catch her.

She’s within arm’s reach when my stupid fucking instinctshave me yanking that damn ponytail, just like we’re back in high school.

Ellie stops on a dime and whips her body around. The fury in her eyes has my dick shriveling back up into my body.

Fuck, she ispissed.

“What the fuck, Lincoln!” she screams at me while slapping her stick on the ice to emphasize just how angry she truly is.

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