Page 13 of Blindsided

Tom was right. Easton was in Nashville because he wanted to be here. I’d been an immature idiot nearly a decade earlier and walked away without giving Easton a chance to decide what he wanted for himself. There was no way I was going to do that again, no matter how much I wished I could.

On a resigned sigh, I looked over at Tom. “What do we have to do to finalize a contract with Easton?”

The man across the table smiled behind his beard and his shoulders dropped noticeably with relief. “We’ve got to meet with him.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that.”

CHAPTER 6

EASTON

For the second time that week, Tom caused the phone to fall from my hand. This time it didn’t hit my coffee table but his son’s. It also caused the box of crayons Trevor had been coloring with to fall to the floor. Trevor giggled, and Brax rolled his eyes at me and groped helplessly under the coffee table for my phone, only to come up with the box of crayons.

Trevor shook his head and reached beside him, producing my phone and holding it out to me. “Brat,” I muttered with affection in my voice. Trevor wasn’t my boy, but he held a special place in my heart. He’d made my best friend happier than I’d ever thought possible. He stuck his tongue out at me, grinning as he did so.

“Behave. Both of you.” Brax made a shooing motion with his hands, telling me to go out of the room so I could talk to his dad without interruption. Though as I stood up, Brax spoke loudly enough that he knew Tom would hear him. “I see how it is! You love East more than me now!”

Tom was still laughing when I made it to the spare room. “I’m going to have to take Brax and Trevor to dinner to make up for the amount of time I’ve been spending with you.”

I chuckled. “Buy Trev a new stuffed animal. I’m pretty sure that would be enough of an apology for both of them.”

The statement only made Tom laugh harder. I didn’t feel bad talking about Trevor’s love of all things plush because it was impossible to hide. He had more stuffed animals than a teddy bear factory and they were all over the house.

His laugh was contagious and despite the shock he’d leveled me with a few minutes earlier, I was laughing too.

“Glad you’re laughing now. I was worried I had killed you for a few seconds.”

“Not going to lie, I might have stopped breathing for a minute. I kind of expected the offer to be off the table now.”

Tom’s sigh spoke volumes. “I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know what happened with you two, just that the two of you were together in college. Given the way Lincoln reacts whenever your name is brought up, I know there’s a lot more to the story than he’s given me. The two of you are going to have to have a conversation sooner rather than later. For now, all I can say is that he and Daisy agree that tomorrow morning is a good time for the both of us to come in to go over your contract details.”

I flopped backward onto my bed. “Maybe this isn’t meant to be.”

“What?”

My laugh that followed his question lacked any humor. “My agent called today. The Blizzard came through with my contract extension. I haven’t actually seen it yet, but he says it’s a nice package. I could easily retire with them in a few years. I walked into that office yesterday and my past walked right in after me. You said so yourself—he can’t hear my name without negatively reacting. It feels like the universe is trying to tell me this isn’t meant to be.”

Tom let out a pained groan and I felt bad for being the one to have caused it. To my surprise, though, his response wasn’t pained. It sounded more frustrated, and I could tell the frustration was aimed directly at me. “No. It is not the universe telling you to go the other way. It’s the universe telling you that you’re going to have to fight for what you want. What do you want, Easton? Do you want to play for the Blizzard or coach the Parliament with me? I don’t care what you decide. I’ll respect the hell out of you either way because you’re in a position I don’t envy. The real question is will you be satisfied by walking away because this shit is awkward.”

Tom’s words made me let out a groan of my own. “That isn’t fucking fair, Tom.”

“No?”

The question held a challenge for me to argue with him and I took the bait. “It’s not. Because you know I fucking want this job. You know this calls to my soul. It might have come out of left field, but I like the idea of being part of the team as it’s growing. Look at what Trevor has done for the Grizzlies just by being the captain. If the Parliament can feed off that momentum, I think Nashville could become a huge hockey town. I want to be part of that. With you as head coach, I know damn well the team will be inclusive, something that is desperately lacking with so many teams. I know that you’re going to break stereotypes and expectations, and dammit, I want to be part of that!”

“Good.” I could hear the smugness in Tom’s voice and I wanted to kick myself for feeding into his challenge as easily as I had. Except my rant had solidified in my mind how much I wanted to be part of this team with or without Francis Lincoln Lewis-Barrington or whatever his name was. He was just a huge fucking roadblock that I was going to have to figure out how to work with.

“I hate you,” I said with a smile.

Tom’s warm laughter filled my ear and settled some of the restlessness in my body. “I know. But you’ll thank me later.”

Doubtful.

“I’ll send you the details of the meeting.”

“Thanks.”

We hung up and my phone pinged seconds later. The time of the meeting was as I’d expected. What I hadn’t expected was the note attached to the bottom of it.

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