Chapter 6 – Zane
six
Zane
I slip the black jacket off the hanger and put it on, before pulling my cuffs out of the sleeves.
The nerves in my stomach almost make me feel sick.
It’s our first home game of the season. I take a deep inhale and look at myself once more before I head out.
I’m in a black tailored suit with a charcoal button-up shirt, my hand goes to the knot at the neck.
“Game fucking day,” I say before running my hand through the top of my hair and then down over my beard.
I think I should really cut it off, but I like the way it looks.
The phone rings and I look down to see it’s my dad, “Hey,” I say putting him on speaker.
“Hey yourself.” His voice is gruff, “Whatcha doing?”
“About to head to the rink.”
“You nervous?” He asks me and I give a little chuckle, “You got this son. We’ll be staying up to watch the game.”
“Thanks. I want you to call me tomorrow and tell me how you think I did.” I say and he laughs.
“I’ll take notes.” He chuckles at me, “talk to you tomorrow. Love you.”
“Love you too dad.” I say and hang up.
I turn off the lights in my bathroom and head for the stairs, going up to the top floor where the kitchen, living room, and the front door and garage are.
I’ve been in this house since my house had to be completely gutted and then rebuilt.
I bought this one in the meantime, but as time goes by, I think this is the house I’m going to be living in, and I’ll sell the other one.
I walk to the garage, getting into the car, and pressing the remote to open the door before starting the SUV.
Once the door is up, I pull out of the garage and make my way down the road.
The ocean is on my right and mountains on my left.
The house is on a cliff, which I love since it’s on the beach, but not directly on the beach, which gives it more privacy.
My drive to the arena doesn’t lessen my nerves and as I pull up to the entrance, I know immediately it’s going to be a different type of insanity today.
The media is already set up to take pictures of the guys arriving.
They have not made a secret of it; they are watching my every fucking move.
I pull up and stop my car when I see Clive walking out of his office, a big smile on his face.
“Hey, Coach,” he greets and slaps my arm, “you excited about tonight?”
“I’m not the one on the ice,” I tell him, hitting his arm. As I walk into the building, I hear a couple of the reporters calling my name and I just ignore them, walking in.
I head to my office, taking off my jacket and loosening my tie before I head over to the coaches’ room.
There is a long table in the middle of the room, one wall has three screens on it, and the other two beside it to show us replays.
Then there is the whiteboard with the players’ name written on it with what line they are on.
I take a second to stare at it. “Hey.” I look over my shoulder at Jaxon, who walks into the room.
I have to say, for the last month, I’ve been waiting for him to walk into the room and deck me for sleeping with his younger sister.
It feels like I’m standing in the middle of the room with a ticking time bomb in my hand, and it’s about to explode every single time.
That night, after she called me and she refused to tell me how old she was, I lay in bed trying to think of how old she could be.
Did I know she was younger than me? Of course, but did I know she was just fucking graduated young?
No, I thought for sure she was in her mid-to-late-twenties.
I did not think she had just fucking graduated university.
I closed my eyes and even called myself an old pervert for sleeping with her to begin with.
I know I need to focus on one thing and one thing only – winning this game.
Victoria Stevenson should be the farthest thing from my mind.
“How you doing?” Jaxon asks me, bringing me back to reality, as I look at the door and then back at him. He is usually the first one who gets here, going to work out before everyone else.
“Like I’m going to yack all over the fucking place.” I turn back to look at him. “If it’s not too much pressure, I’d really like to win tonight,” I tell him and he laughs.
“I’ll see what I can do. How’s this, we win, you join us at the bar tonight?”
I groan, “I didn’t even like going to the bar when I was your age. You think I want to go to the bar at my age?”
“You’re about six years older than me, so you can relax with the whole when I was your age,” he states, making me chuckle. “What do you say?”
Cam heads into the room, holding a coffee cup in his hand, wearing a light gray suit, even though the coaching staff talked about it and we decided to be unified with wearing black suits. “What do you say about what?”
“We win, Coach is joining us at the bar,” Jaxon says, slapping my shoulder and squeezing it. “I’m going to go and hit the gym.” He walks out of the room and leaves me with Cam.
“You think that’s a good idea?” he asks me, and I just look at him.
“Bonding with the team?” I ask him. “Yeah, I think it’s a good idea.” He raises his eyebrows, not saying a word. “What’s up with your suit choice?”
“What do you mean?” he asks me when Eric comes in and he’s wearing a dark-blue suit.
“Was I the only one who got the memo to wear a black fucking suit?” I ask, putting my hands on my hips.
“Wait, what?” Eric questions. “Cam said—” My eyes go to Cam.
“I thought you were joking,” he says, avoiding looking at me as he looks at the board. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“It matters,” I mumble to him and then I call his name, “Cam.” He looks up at me. “Don’t do that shit again.”
“What shit?” he replies defensively. “I thought you were joking about it, my mistake.”
I don’t say anything else because he turns to walk out of the room. “Sorry, Coach,” Eric says, “I should have checked with you.”
“No big deal. What do you think?” I ask Eric, looking at the board. “Think we have the lines worked out?”
He looks at the board, seeing the names of the roster split up. “Yeah, I think we start with this and rework it once we see what happens on the ice. It worked for preseason.”
“Now is when it counts,” I remind him, and then he walks out of the room.
I stand here looking at the names as if willing the board to tell me if it’s right or not.
I walk out when I hear the roar of the crowd, knowing the players are taking the ice for the pregame skate.
I walk down the hallway to the tunnel and stand here looking out, seeing the fans lined up at the ice with their signs.
I see a couple of the players going to see their family, and I force myself to not look and see if she’s here.
Instead, I turn around and head to my office.
Ken is there waiting beside my door, talking to Brad, the VP of hockey operations for the team. He’s basically everyone’s boss. “Hey, Coach,” Brad says, stepping forward, “just coming to wish you luck. All eyes are going to be on you tonight.”
“I don’t know why,” I retort, “all eyes should be on the team.”
“You would be wrong,” Brad replies, turning and walking away.
“He’s a tough nut to crack,” I say as he stops and chats with Cam, who shakes his hand and the two of them chuckle. “Apparently not to everyone, maybe it’s just a me thing.” My stomach gets tight.
“He’s been on the fence about you,” Ken admits. “He thought it would be better to have someone with more experience in there, but Martin was firm on choosing you and handing the team over to you.”
“Good to know,” I mumble as the guys come back in off the ice. “Time to announce the lines,” I say to Ken. “See you out there.”
He nods at me as I walk into my office, grabbing my jacket and putting it back on before I grab the paper with the lines, even though I know I have them memorized like the back of my hand.
I step into the room and then shut the door, not wanting the media to hear what I have to say.
“Boys,” I start, clearing my throat as the room looks up at me.
“We got the lines.” I hold up the paper.
“Nothing changes from the last pre-season game,” I tell the room.
“We are going to start with Knox, Lane, and Nick.” I look at the three of them.
“With Kirby and Jaxon on the D.” I look at Kirby and Jaxon, who just nod at me.
“Between the pipes,” I look over at our goalie, “we’ve got Sammy. ”
I look over at Cam and Eric. “Listen, they are saying that all eyes are on me tonight.” I smirk and then chuckle.
“I don’t know why, I’m not the one on the ice.
” The joke makes them laugh. “I won’t be called out after the game if I don’t skate good; you guys are.
” I point to them. “In all seriousness, there is a lot of noise out there.” I point to the door.
“They are looking at us, wondering if we are going to go down. You look at the guy on the right, you look to the guy on the left, and you know that when you go out there, you play for him. You play for yourself. You can’t win a game with one person.
This is a team. I might be biased,” I hold my head high and my shoulders back, “but I think this is the best fucking team on the ice. Now let’s go out there and fucking do it, so I don’t have to have a sad press conference after,” I say and they laugh.
“Warriors on three.” It’s something I started at the first preseason game. “One, Two, Three.”
“Warriors!” they roar. I clap my hands and open the door, heading out and then going straight for the bench.
I walk behind the bench with Cam right beside me, as the lights go down and they start introducing the staff members.
I take a deep inhale when they start introducing the coaches.
When they get to Eric and then Cam, I wait to hear my name.
“Your head coach for the season,” the announcer says, “Zane Gilmore.” The crowd cheers loudly and the only thing I do is give them a nod.
The team is introduced, one at a time taking the ice: Kirby, Knox, and Jaxon the last three.
When it’s over, everyone comes to the bench and the first line takes their positions.
“Here we go,” I say, watching center ice for the puck drop.
I think I hold my breath the whole fucking game.
The whole game. Until the last fucking second.
I finally let it out when the siren goes off and I put my hand in a fist and hold it up.
“One down,” Eric states, “the whole season to go.” I shake his hand then go to Cam.
“Nice game,” I tell him, and he smiles at me.
We walk back to the dressing room as I stop at the beginning of the tunnel, Cam looks back at me. “What are you doing?” he asks.
“I’m the first guy who is going to be there to congratulate them or greet them when they lose,” I tell him as the guys start coming back through the tunnel. “Good game.” I hold up my hand and, one by one, I congratulate the boys.
Jaxon is the last one off the ice, doing his own thing with the boys and making his way to me. “You know what this means, Coach,” he reminds me, taking off his gloves. “See you at the bar.”
“A deal’s a deal,” I tell him and then walk into the room with him.
“Okay, let’s do this; a new thing we are starting this year.
” I look over at Cam and Eric, who come in with a helmet and a hammer.
“They call me Coach Viking.” I laugh at the nickname the press gave me.
“Not sure if it’s my beard, but,” I run my hand over it, “we’re going to do Viking of the game, win or lose, there has to be someone chosen.
I’m going to start it off. I really wish I could give it to each and every one of you because there was not a battle out there that you guys didn’t fight to win.
” I look at the guys. “Whether it was in the corner or on the open ice, you guys fought hard. I have to give it to the C Man,” I tell Jaxon.
“Two goals, one assist.” I walk over to him and hand him the hammer and the helmet.
He takes the helmet, putting it on his head and then shakes my hand and comes in for a hug. “Thanks, Coach.”
“Okay, the press is about to come in, and I have to go and do my own and take credit for all your hard work,” I tell them, turning and walking out of the room and heading straight for the media room where they are waiting to ask me questions.
Media lasts a full thirty minutes and I am finally free of them. I head to my office, Cam and Eric having already checked out and left. Jaxon comes out of the changing room, and I look at him. “Ready to go?”
“I’m not getting out of this, am I?” I ask him and he smirks.
“Nope, good news though, it’s not too far from here.”
“Oh good,” I reply.
“Can you give me a lift? My wife is going to meet me there with my ride.” I nod at him as we walk out.
Heading to my SUV, I pull open the door and get in. It takes under ten minutes to get to the bar and by the time I park and get out, I’m already dreading this. The music can be heard from the parking lot. “Ugh,” I groan, walking with him to the door and walking in after Jaxon.
He quickly goes off to the side as the rookies see me, and they all holler at me.
I turn to walk toward them, but my vision catches on Victoria.
She’s holding a glass of wine in her hand as she talks to one of the equipment managers – Robert.
The smile she is giving him is fake and then she shakes her head.
I swear, I only have eyes for her, and then I’m stupidly making my way to her.
“No, I think I’m good,” I hear her say, “but thanks.”
He grasps her arm and I have to stop myself from grabbing the nape of his neck when she looks shocked that he’s touching her. “Come on, just give me your number.”
“Robert,” I snap out his name and his eyes come to me. “Leave Ms. Stevenson alone,” I demand, my voice tight. He nods his head and turns to walk to the other side. His eyes going big at her last name and he finally gets that she’s off-limits.
“Thanks for that,” she says as she steps toward me and I again, for the second time tonight, I mistakenly look at her up and down. She’s wearing black jeans that hug her every curve and a black shirt with a blue jean jacket. Her white sneakers make it sporty.
“No worries,” I reply, and then I get a whiff of her perfume.
My cock again springs into fucking action.
The minute I saw her, he was ready, but now knowing she’s close to me, knowing what she tastes like, what she feels like, he wants nothing more than to end this night with her.
I nod at her and turn away, heading straight for the rookies, knowing whatever she wants or needs, I can’t give it to her.