Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Tweetie’s Journal Entry
Eight years ago
Nashville
To my teenage self,
It fucking happened, buddy. My worst nightmare—we’ve been kicked off the team, and yeah, I’m more than pissed. I get it, I do, three injuries back-to-back. First, my shoulder, then my groin. I thought we’d done enough exercises using that part of our body that I couldn’t strain it, but fuck, now my knee. But don’t worry. Jana and Kane might not really believe that we can come back from this, but we will, and we’ll be a champion again. Here’s how it went down…
When the owner of the team, Jana, and her husband, who’s the coach, came to visit me as my sorry ass was stuck on the couch with a pillow under my leg, I knew right away what it was about. I planned on working my ass off to get back to being the player I’d been before the next season started, but I could tell I wasn’t going to get that chance.
“Hey, guys.” Tedi answered the door and let them in. “How are you two?”
I heard Jana say things were good, then she asked how things were here. Things hadn’t been good, and I was to blame. I’d been distant, lost in my head over this injury, knowing that changes needed to be made. We’re not the same Florida Fury that conquered their competition three years in a row. Tedi swore they’d never get rid of me, but that visit said she was wrong.
Part of me knew it. I knew I’d be the one to go. So when I collided into fucking Nick Lipstein and couldn’t get up, I could’ve signed my trade papers right then and there. Still, it didn’t make it easy. My life had been here since the beginning of my career. I took the back seat when Warner came on the roster, happy to be a team player. Sure, it was an ego check, but I loved playing on Cory’s line too. Now, I’d made those sacrifices in vain—stayed true to the Fury instead of hopping over to another team where I could be on the first line—only for them to come here and fuck me over.
“Hey, man.” Kane squeezed my shoulder as he walked by. “How’s the knee feeling?”
“Great. Physical therapy is helping.” I was exaggerating since physical therapy hurt like a son of a bitch. Might have had something to do with me being in a shitty mood that I had to be there in the first place.
“That’s good to hear.”
“Do you guys want anything to drink? Hungry?” Tedi asked.
I wanted to tell her to let them starve, we didn’t need to host them anymore.
“No. No, we’re good. Thanks, Tedi.” Jana sat down next to Kane on the couch.
I could barely look at either of them. The feeling of betrayal was already seeping in.
Tedi leaned over the edge of the couch. “What about you? More water?”
I shook my head and crossed my arms, waiting for them to deliver the blow.
“I have some work to do, so I’ll just be outside on the deck.” Tedi wound around me, but I grabbed her hand to stop her. Let her see what backstabbers our so-called friends were.
“Stay,” I said, staring at Jana and maintaining eye contact.
I’m not sure what I expected, but Jana had no reaction. She could be cold like that when she wanted, but I guess she had to be a tough, business-minded person to run a professional hockey team.
Tedi sat next to me and put my hand between hers.
Kane cleared his throat, shifting in his seat. “Listen, Tweetie, first, we know you’re going to get through this injury.”
“And second?” I raised an eyebrow.
Tedi squeezed my hand, her silent way of telling me to calm down.
Kane opened his mouth, but his wife put her hand on his thigh and spoke instead. “We’re sorry, Tweetie, but we’re trading you to Nashville.”
There was the cold, cunning owner of the hockey team.
She had to be, because Kane was a player first, coach second. He knew what being traded felt like, especially after what our team had achieved together. What we’d won. They’d probably had some conversation on the ride over where she told him she’d do the talking.
I nodded, and Tedi sighed.
“I’m sure you understand, this is just business.” Kane inched closer to the edge of the couch, as if he just wanted to get out of here.
“Of course.” I shrugged as if I didn’t care. They wouldn’t get the satisfaction of a reaction out of me.
“We’d love it if this didn’t affect our personal relationship.” Jana’s gaze veered to Tedi, then to me.
“No. We understand.” Tedi was quick to put the “we” in there.
This affected her too. Her work was here. Her best friend. Her life. Sure, we lived together and said we didn’t need a marriage certificate, but what was going to make her want to upend her entire life and come with me to Nashville? We were either looking at long distance or she moved with me. And her following me wasn’t a guarantee, which was one of the reasons I’d fallen in love with her. She had a mind of her own, goals of her own.
Jana studied me as if she knew the hatred that was filling my veins. My hatred for her, for Kane, for the fucking Florida Fury now. I’d given them everything, and they’d just slammed the door in my face without so much as a conversation beforehand.
“Thanks for coming by,” I said, hoping they’d take the invitation to leave.
Kane went to stand, but Jana put her hand on his thigh again. “Tweetie, please don’t take this personally,” she said.
Tedi shook her head. “We understand, Jana.”
What did she have to understand? She wasn’t the one who hit the ice with a hundred and ten percent every game. Who swallowed his pride when he got put on the second line and stayed faithful because he believed in what they were building. So Tedi might understand, but I didn’t.
And Jana knew I didn’t understand. She knew I was pissed, and this changed our personal relationship with them forever.
“We should go.” Kane took his wife’s hand and stood. “The paperwork will all be signed later today. You’ll have the entire offseason to find a place there.” He ran his hand through his hair. “You have time.” His gaze shot to Tedi. “You guys don’t need to rush anything, is all I’m saying.”
I had never seen Kane uncomfortable like this. He had been the old man on the team before he became the coach, so to me, he’d always been a mentor. Someone I looked up to.
Tedi stood. “Yes, that will give us time to figure out the logistics.”
Tedi was pissing me off. I wanted to see the unfiltered version of her. I wanted her to tell them to go fuck themselves because I was going to make Nashville the best team in the league. But she didn’t. She seemed like she was trying to make them more comfortable while they stuck a knife in my back and twisted it.
Kane walked up to me, putting his hand out between us. I didn’t want to shake it, but I did. Not for today’s bullshit, but for all the years that came before it. The mentorship, the coaching that made me a better player, the friendship that was now over.
I was going to return to the ice and make it clear to them that they should’ve never gotten rid of me.
Jana approached right after Kane, and I shook her thin, soft hand. I looked into her eyes so she could reflect on this moment next year when I had the Cup in my hands. When I was the winner, and she was the loser with whoever she’d gotten in the trade.
They left, and I heard Tedi tell them we’d plan a dinner soon.
The door shut, and she came over to me, crawling on the couch and wrapping her arms around my neck. “I’m sorry, babe, but maybe this will be better. You can get on the first line again. You can be a star there.”
“Are you coming?” I asked. It was the only question in my head.
I was going to Nashville and leaving the Fury. I could figure out all the details of where and when I would leave Florida and where I would live in Nashville, but whether she was coming or not was the only thing I wanted to know in that moment.
She sat back on her heels and stared at me. “We don’t have to talk about it right now. Let’s just deal with this first.” She motioned toward my knee.
And there it was. She wasn’t coming with me.
Something cracked in my chest. Part of me knew I couldn’t expect it, but I really wished I didn’t feel like she shut me down without even considering it.
She was quick to get off the couch. “Do you want to order dinner? Or I can go to the store and make something?”
“I don’t care.”
“Why don’t we just get Cubans? We can binge that new show you’ve been wanting to watch. Have a night in and just relax.”
She didn’t wait for my answer and went about it.
I felt like I did when I was a kid and my dad didn’t show to pick me up. My mom would fawn over me, giving me everything I wanted. Tedi was doing the same, but I wasn’t a naive seven-year-old anymore. I was a grown man, and I knew when someone was trying to pacify me because they wanted to spare my feelings.
So, I prepared myself for Tedi to end things.