Page 134 of Lucky Laces
I wish it was a nurse or doctor so they’d get their gossiping asses fired.
Unfortunately, I don’t get everything I want.
So yeah, I’m pissed.
But, fuck, the look in DeeDee’s eyes during that first game.
Herfirstgame coaching in the NHL.
How could Jason do that to her?
“…is there something in the water the training staff gives the Eagles’ players?”
I blink, narrow my eyes at the social media team who are scrolling through videos and playing them on a portable screen for us to see.
This line is spoken by a slender brunette who’s fanning herself.“I didn’t think they could get hotter, but sweet baby Jesus, I think I need to move to the Bay Area and throw myself in front of one of their cars.”
“Or beneath a collapsing ceiling,” her friend says with a smirk.
Diana groans and thumps her head against her desk.
I really don’t think the team needs to show us every single video that’s trending.
“They arehawt,”another influencer says.“Have you seen the way he looks at her?”She grins.“It’s a real-life hockey romance.The head coach with her hot hockey player boyfriend.I’m inluv!”
DeeDee groans.
I shove out of my chair, round the desk, and crouch beside her.
“I should step down,” she whispers.“Should take the train wreck of my life far, far away from the team.Let the guys focus on hockey instead of who I love.”
Most of those words piss me off.
The last three keep my temper in check.
They don’t do the same for Jean-Michel.
“You’re not quitting,” he snaps, plucking the words out of my brain and saying them far more sharply than I would have dared to at this moment in the proceedings.
I was thinking soft and gentle, coaxing.
And barring that technique, digging my heels in and out-stubborning her.
Jean-Michel, apparently, is choosing the nuclear option.
“Come on,” she says.“You know better.This is?—”
“Brilliant!”Toni, one of the social media girls, exclaims.
“No,” Dee murmurs.“I was going to say this is a disaster.”
“The internet is on your side,” Toni says, ignoring her.
Stephanie nods, adds, “Do you know how rare that is for women?”
Dee glances at me then closes her eyes.“I know,” she says morosely.“Same as I know it never lasts.Soon enough someone is going to have an opinion about Hudson and me, and that’s going to catch fire.Then there will be more bad press for the team, more talk of inappropriate conduct.”She opens her eyes, locks gazes with Jean-Michel.“The team doesn’t need that.”
Fuck.
