Page 323 of Playing the Pucking Game
“Casey is on her way back here. She’ll take care of Parker. You have my word.”
“B-but?—”
“It’s okay. You have to go.”
“Fuck that, Parker. You’re hurt. I don’t need to do anything but be with you.”
“I’m okay. Nothing a couple of Tylenol won’t fix.”
Linc gazes down at me, indecision warring in his eyes.
“Please, I want you to play. And I want you to win. Can you do that?” I squeeze his bloody hand. “Can you go out there and score a goal for me?”
“Fucking hell, babe,” he breathes before pressing a kiss on the top of my head.
Footsteps race toward us, and a few seconds later, Casey bursts into the room with her little sidekick.
“What’s happened? What’s wrong?” she asks breathlessly, as if she’s run all the way here.
“There was an incident,” Coach explains, “but I need Linc out there. Can you take care of Parker?”
“Yeah, of course. Linc, you go. I’ve got this.”
“No, I?—”
“You have to,” I beg. “We can’t let that assho—” My eyes snag on Sutton staring at me with wide eyes. “Idiot win.”
“Men like that never win, Parker,” Coach assures me.
It takes a few more minutes, but eventually, Linc releases me and walks toward the door. Casey immediately hops up in his place and wraps her arms around my shoulder.
“I want a goal, remember?” I call.
“Anything for you, pretty girl,” Linc says before forcing himself to walk away.
Silence settles between us all for a few moments before Sutton breaks it with a song.
“Lincoln and Parker sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
Casey, Coach, and I all fall about laughing. It makes my head hurt worse, but fuck, it does good things to my heart.
“Parker, I hate to ask this. But…we’re a man down. Jarad isn’t going to be able to cover?—”
“I’ve got it, Coach. Just give me a few minutes to sort myself out. You can count on me.”
“I know I can.”
The roar of the crowd echoes through the room.
“I’d better get out there,” Coach says, taking a step back. “I’m sorry, Parker. I never want a single member of my team to go through anything like that. I—I didn’t know?—”
“It’s okay, Coach,” I say, forcing a smile. “Onwards and upwards, right?”
His expression softens as he hears the words he used to say to us as kids when a game didn’t go our way, or school was hard.
“Yeah,” he muses. “Onwards and upwards. For what it’s worth, Parker. I just need you to know how much of an asset you are to this team. The guys love you, and the number of injuries is down. Don’t let anything that as—idiot said get to you. It was all lies.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate that.”
