Chapter 36 – Zane
thirty-six
Zane
“Okay, so the guys have all sent over their statements to Ken,” Jaxon announces. “The only ones we didn’t reach out to were the five in question.” I nod my head at him as he comes back to the table and sits down. “Ken said the team just released their statements.”
Everyone reaches for their phones. As I open mine, I see a picture of me and Ken on the day he announced I was going to be head coach.
“We care about what happens on the ice, not off the ice. Timothy’s piece was misleading, and he should be ashamed of his words.”
“I can’t wait for the next time I see Timothy,” Jaxon says, and I look up at him.
I put my phone down and look up at Manning. “If you have a minute, Manning.” I take the napkin off my lap, placing it on the other side of my phone.
“What?” Victoria’s head snaps to me. “Why would you want to do that?” She looks up at me as I stand. “You literally just came out of the battle unscathed, so why would you rush back in there?”
“It’s fine,” I assure her, and she glares at me. “Oh, when I say it, it’s not okay, but you saying it fifty million times is okay.”
“I don’t make the rules, Zane.” She throws up her hands. “You will be on your best behavior.”
She points to her father.
“Are you going to give me the code for the lock on your bedroom door?” He smiles big at her, knowing she probably will not. “That is your answer.”
“Fine, I’ll give it to you,” she concedes, “but only after you guys finish talking—”
“Don’t fall for that,” Evelyn advises, “get the code before anything.”
“Mom,” she snaps out and I bend to kiss her lips.
“You don’t need that room,” I remind her softly, “give up the code.”
“That’s my room.” She points to herself. “It’s my property.”
“In their house,” I tell her.
“I thought you were on my side.” She shakes her head and I kiss her through my smile. “I guess I was wrong.”
I walk to the living room, following Manning, and when he takes a seat, I sit in the seat in front of him.
“I wanted to sincerely apologize to you,” I start to say.
“When we met the first time, I had every intention of not pursuing anything with Victoria.” I put my elbows on my knees and intertwine my hands together.
“I just couldn’t stay away from her. It was a force bigger than even I knew. ”
“Why now?” he asks me. “What makes now different that you are willing to give up your bachelorhood for her?”
“She’s everything you could want in a woman.
She’s kind, she’s funny, she’s beautiful, and she makes me laugh like no one else has ever made me laugh.
My main focus in my life has been hockey.
Getting to this point in my career. I didn’t have time nor did I want to make the time for it.
But with her—” I look down. “I’d give it all up to have her. ”
“If you hurt her,” he warns me.
“For the record, she’s left me more times than I have left her.”
“Good.” He nods. “Keeps you on your toes.”
“That she does,” I agree with him. “I promise to keep her safe.” His eyebrows go up at this. “I mean from now on.” I shake my head. “We should have expected it.”
“I have to agree with Nico, someone is out to get you. You have my daughter now in the crossfire.”
“She shouldn’t even be there,” I admit and for the first time today, I sound defeated. I know I should be holding strong but the articles that have come up since this morning are horrible.
“I know that and you know that.” He points to himself and then me. “Now it’s time for you to tell them that.”
“If I see Timothy,” I mention the veteran reporter who leaked the story, “I’m going to throat punch him.”
Manning laughs. “That’s what he wants. They want you to fuck up. The best thing you can do is put out a statement and then you say nothing.”
“I’ll take your advice on that.” I nod to him and Victoria comes into the room.
“Uncle Nico says the wheels have to be up in thirty minutes,” Victoria reports, walking into the room. “Which means you have to go.” She makes a sad face. “It was nice to see you.” She makes her way over to him, hugging him. “Next time, maybe you can stay a few days.”
“Next time?” He exhales. “There will not be a next time, Tori, because you will be telling us if you are dating anyone new.”
“There is not going to be a next time.” The words come out of my mouth before I can stop them, and Manning smirks when he looks over at me while Victoria chuckles.
“Yes,” she agrees, “my current boyfriend is saying no to whatever future boyfriends want in.”
“Current boyfriend,” I hiss then say her name, “Victoria.” Making everyone laugh, except me.
We leave at the same time as her parents and Nico, going straight to her house so she can pack a bag and then head back to mine.
“Are you ready”—she walks into the kitchen with her phone in her hand—“for us to draft up a statement?”
“I’ll post whatever you want me to post,” I tell her. “I want you to draft it because it matters to you.”
“I honestly don’t even want to put out a statement,” she states. “The only people who really matter are the people who know us.”
“We have to put out something.” She cocks her hip.
“Everyone we know has been dropping statements on social media defending us.” Ken was not wrong, every fucking hour on the hour he was posting a comment from one of the guys on the team.
I’m sure there were a few people who were pissed off by this, but I couldn’t care less at this point.
My main focus was to make sure Victoria was okay.
“I know.” She comes to me and puts her head together with mine. She smiles at the camera; I don’t. “This is perfect. I’m going to caption it. “Put a finger down if you read that misleading article about my dating life.”
“I don’t even know what that means,” he says to me. “How about, drowning out the noise?”
“I guess we could use that also. Would that make you feel better?”
“It would,” I tell her as I grab her hips. “Now hurry up, time for me to get inside of you.”
She gets on her tippy-toes, wiggling her ass in my direction. “That sounds like a good time,” she throws over her shoulder. She posts something on her phone and then reaches for mine, doing the same thing on mine.
“Okay, now that this is taken care of”—she turns in my hands—“time for you to get inside of me.” She winks. “My throat feels a little dry.”
I head into my office the next morning, my head down as I look up and see Eric standing outside my door. “Well, that was an eventful day off.” He snickers at me, and I shake my head.
“Press is coming in today,” I inform him, “to film the practice, apparently.”
“Yup, Ken sent the email out this morning.”
“That should be interesting.” I walk into my office and toss my phone on the desk.
“It should be.” Eric sits in the chair in front of me with a smirk on his face. “Seems to me half the team or better yet the whole team, including a couple who are not happy with you are not happy with Timothy.”
“No shit.” I pull out my chair and sit down. “I dare him to fuck with me today.”
He doesn’t say anything because Ken walks into my office. “Good morning.”
“Why is everyone here so fucking early?” I lean back in my chair.
“Got shit to do,” Ken replies. “You and Jaxon have a press conference after practice.” I put my hands down on my desk. “And we just got word that if we win the next game and get the two points we need, we will officially be in playoff contention. Chasing that wild card spot.”
“I take it that is good news.”
“Haven’t been in this spot in the last four years, so yeah, good news.”
“Great, it might be nice to go a week without my job being threatened,” I mumble, making Ken laugh.
“It’s only Monday, still a lot of week left,” he jokes and I can’t help but laugh.
When the guys come out, we head to practice. Cam comes in right before Eric and I are about to walk out to the ice. “Nice of you to join us,” I tell him, putting on my gloves. “It might be a good idea to get on the ice before the players.”
“Why?” Cam asks, going to sit down at his spot. “It’s not like I’m the one who needs the practice.”
“You lead by example.” I shake my head as he rolls his eyes.
The practice is good, and the boys push hard. I grab my phone from the desk as I head out to the press room, bumping into Jaxon. “We have press,” he reminds me and I nod my head.
We walk into the room and head over to the stairs that lead to the elevated desk in the middle of the room. Some of the reporters are there as I sit down in the chair, and I look around to see Timothy in the back, leaning back with his pad on his knees.
“Let’s start this,” Jaxon urges. “Who is going first?”
“Jaxon,” one of the reporters in the front starts, “this year has been challenging for everyone.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” he jokes.
“Your line has been the constant the whole time,” he continues, “but the other lines are always being switched up. Has that been helping you guys?”
“I think that changing things up is good for the team,” Jaxon replies. “We started off the year in a slump and you have to make those changes in order to find out what is working for us.” He looks up at Timothy. “We’re in a good spot for the next couple of games. We’ll see what happens.”
“Coach Gilmore.” Timothy puts his hand up. “You’ve been in the press a lot these last couple of months. Both good and bad.”
“You don’t say?” I lean back.
“Do you think that maybe your focus has shifted in light of the recent events?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.
” I play dumb. “My focus has always been on the team. I’m sure no one would come to you and ask you if your focus was on your job if you have one article that is bad.
” I raise my eyebrows. “We all have good and bad days. As much as I want to win every single game, it’s just not possible.
But I have faith in the guys who are on the ice. ”
“So you aren’t playing favorites with the guys?” he asks me.
“I’m giving ice time to the guys who want to be on the ice.” I look him dead in the eyes. “You come at me right now and tell me who on that ice doesn’t merit being there?” I wait a second for him to answer. “That’s what I thought.”
We walk out of the press conference and Jaxon looks over at Timothy, the two of them sharing a look. I push him out of the room, and he looks back over. “What a fucking tool,” he mumbles as we make it back to the locker room and get ready for the big game the next night.
I get to the rink the next day at the same time as the guys. The press is there snapping pictures. My head is down as I walk into the rink, going to the coaches’ room. The lines are going to stay the same as the last game.
My phone rings an hour before the game and I look down to see it’s Victoria. “Hey,” I say, putting the phone to my ear.
“Hi,” she replies breathlessly, “I was hoping to catch you before you left.” I smile. “Good luck tonight.”
“Thank you.” I lean back in my chair. “I’ll see you after the game?”
“Yes, sir,” she confirms, “and I asked for the day off tomorrow so I can spend time with you before you leave.” I smile big. “I know how needy you can get.”
I look around, making sure I’m all alone. “Well then, I’m just going to have to fuck you hard enough to make sure you don’t forget about me for the three days.” She laughs and it makes my dick stir in my pants.
“Challenge accepted. Go make them skate hard, my love.”
“I’ll try,” I reply. “See you later, yeah?”
“Only if you win.” I can hear the teasing in her voice. “No one wants to go out after they lose a game. It’s all like mopey and shit. Ruins it for everyone.”
“Goodbye.” I disconnect the phone on a laugh.
I get behind the bench when it’s time and look up to the suite.
I know she’s there, seeing movement but not seeing her.
My heart beats in my chest hard. “I’m so fucking nervous,” I confess to the guys, “and I’m not even the one on the ice.
” The whole bench chuckles. “I can’t even imagine how you guys must feel.
Your hearts must be ready to come out of your asses.
” I walk up and down behind the bench. “Three periods. No pressure, but this could make or break us.”
“No pressure.” Eric chuckles as the puck drops. The guys are playing as if their lives depend on it. They are the first ones on the puck; they are winning the battles in the corners. They are shooting the puck and hitting the net, but the goaltender is having the game of his life tonight.
The game is tied and it’s four minutes left in the third period. I look up and down, going to Cam. “Calling a time-out,” I tell him. “Show them the play we worked out in the second period.” He nods at me, going to the side to get the whiteboard.
I noticed the other team is playing the box with four of the players and using a forward to chase the puck, leaving the middle open. If we get a guy to go into the middle, it will leave the sides open for our guys to try and take the shot.
I hold up my hand in the air for a time-out as the referee blows the whistle and the guys come over to the bench.
Standing next to Eric, I mumble, “If this doesn’t work,” and then I hear Cam giving the instructions to the play.
He’s fucking it all up, basically saying to give the puck to the guy in the middle of the box, who will have no chance to get it to the net with all the bodies in front of him.
“Hold on,” I snap and walk out, grabbing the whiteboard and seeing he fucked it up on purpose. “That is not what we are doing.” I look at Cam. “Get the fuck out of here.” Finally confirming my suspicions that he’s the whole reason that half the plays are not working.
“What?” he says defensively. “I’m doing it how you called it.”
I look at the guys in front of me, erasing the board.
“This is how they are playing.” I mark the opponents in X’s.
“I want Kirby and Jaxon here.” I point to the blue line.
“Aaron, I want you in the middle with them, the three of you passing the puck. I want you skating into the middle but passing it back to Jaxon, who one times it to Knox.” I then do two circles.
“Knox,” I look at him, “I want you here.” I do the circle right next to the goalie.
“Lane,” I do the other circle, “you jump on the rebound.”
The whistle blows, telling us that it’s time to get back on the ice. “You are not to touch another fucking play.” I lean over to Cam. “That’s the last time I’ll coach with you behind the bench.” He leers at me.
I’m not even watching the ice when the roar of the crowd makes me turn my head and I see Knox skating to the side, pointing over at the bench. “You fucking did it!” Eric cheers. “You fucking did it!”