Page 13 of Home Game

Without thinking, I made a California lane change across three lanes to pull up ahead of her. I sat and waited until she passed.

I debated asking her if she wanted to go grab a bite to eat. I rolled down my passenger window and when she glanced at me I realized it wasn’t Zoey. It was just another petite rocker chick.

I gave the girl a smile and then pretended to look at something onmy phone.Jesus. I needed to get it together. Zoey was long gone and our paths would never cross again.

My phone rang.

“Ryan here.”

“This is Krista.”

“Oh, hey.”

“So, something interesting happened today. The Wolves delivered paperwork promoting you to assistant captain.”

“Wow, that was fast.”

“Ryan, a heads up here would have been nice.”

“They just told me after practice. I’m not even home yet.”

“You should have called me the minute your ass left their office.”

“Sorry.”

“So, congratulations. Did you know they were going to promote you?”

“No. They blindsided me.”

“Is everything okay?” Even Krista knew this was completely out of the ordinary.

“Yeah. No. Fuck, I don’t know.”

“Ryan. You pay me a lot of money to help you. But I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”

I slowly moved my vehicle back into traffic. "They said they know I’m not bonding with the team. They told me I need to make that happen or I’m out."

“That hit you made on Noah Moore was clean. It was a fluke accident.”

“Tell that to my new team.”

“We both knew this would be a difficult transition for you. Everyone loved Noah.”

“Ashford said the only reason why he traded me is because he lost a bet with Paulson. Did you know that?”

Krista sighed. “I’d heard rumors.”

“Why me?”

"Paulson thinks he gave Ashford a handicap by sending you to Vancouver. He thinks you’ll cause dissension on the team."

“Well, he got that right.” It was bad enough that no one on the team wanted me here, but it gutted me that my GM wasn’t behind me.

“Did they say why they are promoting you?”

“They thought it would help me integrate with the team better.”

“That might work or it could completely piss off the team more. Whose idea was it?”

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