60 We’re bargaining now
CHAPTER SIXTY
We’re bargaining now?
WILL
It’d been a good week. The constant addition of Riley made sure of that. I got to see her most days at training, I got to spend one-on-one time with her while she worked through her PT assessment, I got to fall asleep beside her each night, and I got to wake up wrapped around her naked body. It was a good set up, and one that felt too fucking good to be true.
It was Friday afternoon now and we’d just wrapped up training. The ice part at least. Coach had a gruelling conditioning practice scheduled which honestly made my stomach churn. Talk about a burpee overload. It looked horrendous.
Hilly, one of the freshmen, skated towards Levi and me. A group of his friends were huddled together, subtly watching.
“What’s up?” Levi asked.
“The guys... they wanted me to check if...”
“Spit it out, Hilly,” I ordered.
He stoically cleared his throat. “If you can convince Coach to let us break out early. There’s this themed party tonight at the Kappa house and we need time to prepare.”
While I’d usually bark out the obvious response – no – I didn’t hate the idea of skipping out earlier either. I was taking Riley on a proper date tonight, and getting to that sooner sounded a hell of a lot better than pushing myself to the point of needing to chunder .
Levi glanced at me, his eyebrows raised in question. I slowly shrugged my shoulders. I was kind of over hockey this week. A mini break would go down a treat.
“Coach,” Levi called out.
Coach skidded to a stop. He’d been skating with us all day. Even after all these years, he was still impressive to watch, and he dominated most of the drills.
“Will has something to ask you,” Levi finished.
Coward.
All eyes shot to me. Coach. The rest of the coaching staff. The training team. And all of the guys. Even Riley, from where she stood with the social media girls and the other two student PTs.
I took an encouraging breath. “The team would like to skip dryland today.”
I didn’t bother sugarcoating it. That was the truth.
Coach straightened to his full height, which was still fairly sketchy despite having years on me.
“Do they? And why is that?”
“Because it’s the weekend.”
And they had better plans than death by burpees. And I had a girlfriend to wine and dine.
Coach fell silent, which was unnerving. The entire barn was quiet. I could literally hear Levi breathing beside me.
“Come on, Coach,” Levi chimed in after an awkward extension of silence. “We’ve put in the yards this week. Let the guys enjoy an afternoon off.”
This was a gamble. If Coach didn’t agree, he’d punish us for even asking, and the already unbearable conditioning practice would become un-fucking-bearable. He’d probably crank the heat and shut off all fans so we slowly died.
“Do you think it’s as easy as asking for an afternoon off?” Coach finally returned.
Neither Levi or I answered the rhetorical question. One of the freshmen wasn’t as smart though.
“Well, yeah,” he mumbled.
“Hell no,” Coach snapped. “If you want the afternoon off, you’ve got to prove to me you deserve it.” His menacing eyes narrowed. “Pick your best five guys. If four of them can beat me in a one-on-one, you get your early minute.”
And there was the catch. While Coach headed towards the bench to prep, the rest of the team skated over to Levi and me.
“Let’s start with the obvious,” Morrison began. “Holloway and Caufield.”
Great .
“And O’Connor,” Maxwell added.
Tripp nodded his head in confirmation. He had the best penalty shootout stats in the team, and he’d mastered plenty of trick shots.
“I think Hilly’s got something to prove given this was his idea,” Levi chirped up. “What do you think, Will?”
“Sounds fair to me,” I answered.
Hilly’s face paled, but he was actually a smart pick. The guy was fast as hell and speed was one of the only things that’d faded for Coach.
After locking in Nelson, a junior centre and the guy most likely to take over the captaincy reins next year, we geared up.
Levi was up first to give our guys some confidence. He sailed past Coach easily, cementing the first win. The team erupted into a loud cheer.
Coach cracked his neck. “I was just warming up.”
“Uh-huh,” Levi smugly mocked as he skated off the ice.
Nelson was up next. He started well, but when he botched a direction change and Coach stole the puck away, the team collectively groaned. That didn’t leave any room for error for the rest of us.
Hilly headed onto the ice next. As he passed, both Levi and I mumbled speed . He nodded in response, but the poor guy looked spooked.
Rather than attempting to out manoeuvre Coach, Hilly simply skated straight past him. It was ugly to watch, but it gave us the next win.
Setting my helmet in place, I skated towards Coach for my turn. Despite this being his fourth round, he wasn’t even slightly out of breath.
“What have you got for me, Caufield?” Coach jested.
I simply smirked in response before moving the puck, though my cockiness faded quickly. Coach was like a brick fucking wall. He seemed almost impenetrable to get around.
This was going to be my fulltime reality soon. I’d always been one of the best for my age, but next year, all the guys would be top-of-the-league types of players. This was a reminder that it certainly wouldn’t come easy. Though knowing it would get me out of a shit ton of burpees, I managed to summon the energy.
I got the upper hand and fooled Coach, managing to skate past him. The team cried out, tapping their sticks against the ice. Coach mumbled something under his breath, but I think it was more at himself than me.
As I skated past the bench, I caught sight of Riley. She was grinning hard. We’d agreed to keep things discreet. Not because we had anything to hide, but because keeping things professional here was smart. She had a lot to prove with Richard, and I didn’t want any rumours starting that could link back to us being together.
“No pressure,” Ryan chided as he smacked Tripp’s back .
Tripp was a showy guy. He was never one to crack under pressure. If that changed now, he owed me one dollar for each burpee I was forced to do.
He started well, moving the needle quick enough to keep Coach distracted. Though as he attempted to round Coach, Coach managed to swipe the puck away and sail it towards the opposite empty net.
As Coach and the training staff cheered with triumph and the team groaned collectively, I remained completely silent. Light-hearted wager or not, I hated losing.
“Hell no,” Tripp shouted, skating after Coach. “That would’ve got you sent to the penalty box. You totally would’ve been called for slashing.”
When Coach didn’t immediately dismiss Tripp’s claims, it basically confirmed them as true. The team were quick to murmur their agreement, though I doubt half of them had been paying proper attention.
“That can’t stand,” Ryan declared. “We need a tiebreaker.”
And the plot thickened.
Coach rested his gloved hands on his stick, his jaw twitching while he pondered. There was no point throwing in suggestions of our own. This was Coach’s show now. Whatever he decided on was what we’d have to go with.
After trailing his gaze along the bench, Coach sneered triumphantly. “If Riley can make a shot from the centre line, you all get out of dryland.”
Levi’s eyes widened in shock, and mine followed suit. That seemed completely random. Riley anxiously blinked as though she was in one of those dreams when you’re naked and everyone is staring at you.
She defiantly shook her head. “I don’t play hockey.”
“You’ll be fine,” Coach returned. “You’ve been around it for enough of your life.”
She had? Did Coach know something I didn’t?
“Come on, Dover,” Ryan encouraged. “You’ve got this.”
A few of the other guys started uttering their support as well. Most of the team knew her now. Whenever I looked up, there was always a new guy beneath her while she tended to his injuries. Even Levi had been having regular check-ins this past week.
Riley didn’t know Coach well enough to understand, but now he’d settled on the idea, he was going to see it through. Whether we succumbed to hundreds of burpees or not was in Riley’s hands.
The same hands that’d tangled in my hair this morning while I’d divulged in her sweet pussy for breakfast.
I slipped off my helmet so she could see my face. She immediately caught my eye. After nodding my encouragement, she let out a defeated sigh.
It was odd seeing her amble onto the ice. She looked so small, surrounded by the arena and hulking hockey players .
Coach skated to the centre of the ice and dropped the puck. Taking the stick from his hand, Riley shifted into position.
“Make sure you–”
“Yeah, yeah,” she drawled, interjecting Coach. “I know how to handle a stick.”
That earnt a series of laughter from everyone on the team, except me. Nobody cut off Coach. And if you did, you didn’t get away with it.
Riley reared back the stick, though before she followed through, she abruptly stopped. “If I make this, the guys get out of Sunday morning dryland too.”
Coach looked amused. “We’re bargaining now?”
“Uh-huh. And no suicides next week.”
Coach laughed. Proper laughed, which I’d never heard before. Not even when we’d been celebrating our championship last year.
“You’ve got tickets on yourself, Riley.”
She shrugged. “It’s in my blood after all.”
She held Coach’s gaze until he conceded and nodded.
“Is it bad that I’m turned on by your girlfriend putting Coach in his place?” Tripp whispered in my ear.
Yeah it fucking was. If that’s what was doing it for him these days, the guy needed to get laid.
Satisfied, Riley readied herself again. Unlike most girls who were out of their element on the ice, Riley evidently knew enough of the basics. She held the stick with the right grip and positioned her body perfectly.
Along with my teammates, we held our breaths once she reared back her arm and unleashed the shot. It looked good. It looked real fucking good.
And it was.
The puck hit the back of the net.
Acting like we’d just won in overtime, the team skated onto the ice and surrounded Riley, throwing their helmets and gloves. Even Levi headed across with a shit-eating grin. From where I remained by the boards, I could only just make out the top of Riley’s head as everyone crowded her.
As the wild cheering of the guys echoed in the arena, Coach skated out of the way of the celebration with a proud smile on his usually stoic face.