Page 85 of Cheap Shot
“One more thing.” Coach holds out his hand for me to shake, and I grasp it on instinct. “Thanks for what you did for Michele today, but stay the fuck away from my baby girl.”
His baby girl? Oh, fuck.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Michele
The training room is probably cleaner than when the arena first opened. Every surface is scrubbed to perfection. The faint scent of antiseptic clings to the air, but it does nothing to mask the metallic tang of fear flooding my senses. I try to take a seat on one of the training chairs, but the minute I take a seat, my knee bounces, nerves skittering across my skin like static. The clock on the wall ticks far too loudly, every second a needle jabbed into my chest.
“What the hell is taking so long?” I mumble, glancing at the clock for the millionth time as I resume my pacing.
Cole has been gone for too long. Not that I’m exactly sure what time the Hendrix brothers and Jensen left the training room. I tried to sit and wait for one or all of them to return, but my nerves got the best of me. My anxiety once again got the best of me, and I was on my feet, cleaning and organizing the entire room.
“You need to sit down before you create a permanent wear pattern on the floor.” Parker chuckles as I spin around.
“Jesus Christ, Parker. What the fuck did I say about sneaking up on people?”
“It’s probably going to get me punched. Why do you think I said something to you from all the way over here?” He points at the two training benches between the two of us. “I really don’t want to meet Stacey and have to explain how I got a black eye.”
I shake my head, snickering softly as I resume my pacing. “She’ll never let you live it down.”
“Exactly.” Parker climbs onto the bench, leaning over to pat the empty one beside him.
I should go over and take a seat beside him and pretend like this is any old late night at the office, but I can’t. I don’t even know if I could sit still right now. “I wiped down all the tables, washed and folded the towels, took inventory of all the supplies, and sent a list of items we need to your email.”
“I got it. I’ll place an order in the morning. Thanks for doing that. I didn’t realize we were so low on some items.”
“No problem. Organizing is kind of my thing.” I giggle nervously, grabbing the hand sanitizer from the edge of the table and squeezing a healthy amount into my hand.
“I know.” Parker runs a hand through his hair, a soft smile on his face. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate it.”
“Did you finish the plan to present to my dad? I wanted to finish up here before heading to his office to discuss it with him. I figure the sooner we get started, the better, so we can ensure none of the players suspect what’s going on.”
“I got it started, but I wanted to get your opinion on a few things before finalizing it.”
“Great. Do you want to do that now?”
“How about you have a seat and tell me what’s been going on.”
“I can’t sit down. Too anxious,” I mumble, wringing my hands together as I continue to pace back and forth. “But there’s nothing going on with me. Did someone say something?”
I’ve never been good at playing dumb, but I can’t be sure Parker knows exactly what is going on between me and Cole. Besides, we only kissed for the first time a few days ago. Are we even at the point where we want to label it?
“I think everyone in this building knows what’s going on between you and Cole, or at least has an idea.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.This is not good at all. It’s like all my worst fears coming to life all at the same time. I pull in a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. Okay, this isn’t that big of a deal. Cole said that he read the player handbook from cover to cover and didn’t see anything about employee relationships. Granted, I’m the first female staff member to work directly with the team, but I’m going to ignore that fact for a minute.
I should’ve known something was up when Beau and Cooper magically appeared to talk to Jensen. They are both team captains. It seemed logical that they’d want to do damage control and see what caused the rift between two of the team's players. But when Cole arrived to complete the trifecta, I knew there was more going on than that.
“And who, exactly, is everyone?”
“Everyone, Michele. I’m sure people from other teams know by now.”
Now it’s time to panic. It might not be against the rules for us to date, but there’s someone else in this building who may have a problem with it: my dad. Not only does he believe I deserve better than to work for a professional hockey team, he’s made it perfectly clear that I’m too good for hockey players, as well. Not that he wasn’t a player-turned-coach. They always say little girls marry men like their dads, right?
“No need to panic, Michele. Everything is going to be fine. I have a feeling that as long as your relationship doesn’t affect the team, your dad won’t mind too much.”
“Telling me not to panic is a surefire way to make me panic. It's like when someone tells you to calm down. No one calms down. They just get angry at you for trying to dismiss their feelings.” I wring my hands, trying to calm my mind enough to figure out what the fuck we are going to do.
