Chapter Forty
ARCHER
Me: I’m guessing you’ve heard already.
Sawyer: Yeah. Collins told me, and I was planning to talk to you about it when I got to the rink. Figured face-to-face was better.
Me: It was bad.
Sawyer: Collins said Kendra thought he was going to hit you.
Me: Kendra isn’t alone with those thoughts.
Sawyer: I’m not going to tell you I warned you because it’s not helpful, and honestly, I get it. Sophie lost a baby at ten weeks, and she’d already told her parents and friends. It was hard as hell.
Me: Shit, I’m sorry.
Sawyer: Are you okay? Is Darcy okay?
Me: Currently standing in the hallway outside the locker room, I can’t bring myself to walk inside. Darcy is seeing her mom this morning. She’s doing okay.
Sawyer: I’m sitting in the parking lot, and I’ll be inside in a couple of minutes.
We can talk afterward. I’m not going to lie; this whole thing is going to be an uphill battle for the team.
What I haven’t said to you yet though is congrats.
Married and about to become a family man. How does it feel?
Leaning against the locker room doorjamb and despite the shit show that was yesterday in the airport, I still feel incredible.
Me: Amazing. It makes me wonder why the hell I fucked around all those years, you know? I know I’ve got some work to do in the locker room …
Sawyer: For a lot of guys, until they become a family man, they don’t understand how special it actually is. Welcome to the club, buddy. As for the locker room, I think you need to give it time.
Me: He was pissed. You should’ve seen him.
Sawyer: Oh, I can imagine. You knew it would go down like this though.
Me: I love her so fucking much.
Sawyer: I know you do.
“Moore.”
Coach’s stern voice interrupts my thoughts as I uncross my legs, pocket my cell, and look up into two cold steely-gray eyes.
Shit.
“Yes, Coach?”
He swipes a palm across his forehead before slapping it against his thigh. “I need to speak with you before practice.” He thumbs to a side room.
I could ask him if everything is okay, but we both know it isn’t.
Swallowing hard, I push off the jamb and follow behind him.
With his hand on the door handle, Coach pauses before opening.
He doesn’t turn to look at me, but speaks quietly, a serious undertone to his voice.
“The discussion we’re about to have needs to remain calm.
I’ve got the GM wanting to know what the fuck is going on since a photo was leaked to the press this morning of you and Jack squaring up in the airport.
The PR team had it taken down within minutes, so I doubt much narrative will come of it. That said, it didn’t look good.”
Nausea rolls through me. “Was Darcy in the picture?”
He looks at me then, surprised that was my first question.
It’s the only question I have.
“No. Thankfully, she wasn’t dragged into it.”
“Okay, that’s good,” I say on a long breath that frees my lungs a little more.
Coach’s hand tightens around the handle. “No, Archer, it isn’t good.” I can tell he’s speaking to me as Jon, Darcy’s stepdad. “You just set fire to team dynamics and have me questioning the direction of your moral compass.”
When he opens the door to a small office, Jack is sitting in a black leather chair, resting his forearms on the desk in front of him.
For the briefest moment, his eyes flick to mine, but if I’d blinked, I would’ve missed the contact or the anger behind them.
A night’s sleep doesn’t appear to have done anything to calm him down.
“Take a seat.” Coach rounds the desk and sits in his own chair on the other side. He pushes a keyboard away from him and mirrors Jack’s position while I drop down onto the seat next to my center.
“How long is this going to take?” Jack bites.
Pulling off his cap, Coach sets it down on the desk. “It’ll take as long as it takes. Practice is being run by Jensen right now.”
“Not a great first impression for Schneider,” Jack counters, and Coach lifts a brow.
“It’s not our new defenseman I’m worried about. Because if we don’t get this situation resolved, and fast, the GM is going to start dropping problematic players to the bench—or worse.”
“I’m happy to sit here and talk for as long as it takes,” I say, looking at Coach and then at Jack, who still won’t offer me proper eye contact.
“Look at me, Jack,” I tell him.
He scratches at his chin, eyes fixed on Coach.
“I called Darcy a half hour ago because I needed to know the truth and I can’t trust a word that comes out of your mouth.
She told me you guys were playing around for a while before she fell pregnant.
” Finally, he gives me his attention. “Did you just marry her because you had gotten her pregnant? Because you knew the shit storm that would ensue and you wanted to get ahead of it with a shotgun wedding?”
He might as well have shot me instead, since his words blow me apart at the seams.
“That really and truly is what you think of me, isn’t it?”
He swipes his tongue across his bottom lip. “Well, this time, you couldn’t ‘fuck and flee,’ could you?”
I know what he’s referencing. Back in his rookie season, we got to talking one night on an away series. I told him that was what I did with women to avoid any kind of commitment.
I close my eyes to temper the gnawing cringe. “I’m a very different man now. Darcy has changed me.”
“A good man doesn’t lie to his friends and teammates,” he snips back.
I pull at the back of my neck, frustration coursing through me. The second Abbie’s name left my lips, I regretted it. Lying isn’t something I do, but I felt like I had no choice but to play along. “It’s not that black and white, Jack,” I reply.
“I swear to fucking God if you hurt my baby sister and leave her stranded with a baby, I will tear you limb from limb,” he growls so deep that I can hardly make out the words.
“Not going to happen,” I volley back. “I’m in love with her.”
Sitting back in his chair, Jack pokes his tongue into his cheek. “But you didn’t respect me enough to be straight from the outset? Apparently, everyone else knew, apart from a few guys on the team and me and Jon.”
I grip the metal handles on my chair so tightly that my knuckles turn white. “I respect you, Jack. I just don’t think everything has to be all of your business all the time. And do you blame me when you react like this? You’re like a fucking book; I can read you so easily.”
Coach shifts in his chair, anticipating that this conversation is heading nowhere other than south.
“We’re all personally involved in this, but the time for hashing out emotions isn’t now.
” He leans forward, resting his elbows on the table.
“What’s important right now is your professionalism.
You are two of my most valuable players, and we have had the best start to a season in a long fucking time.
The GM and I do not want that fucking up. ”
I clear my throat, arms folded across my chest. “My ability to be professional and friendly isn’t the issue here.”
“You’re precisely the issue!” Jack’s temper frays as he points to the center of his chest. “Do you know how humiliated I am? I thought we were friends. I thought we had each other’s backs.”
“We do,” I say quietly, emotion clogging my throat as I remember our exchange in the bathroom. “But I’ll always put the woman I love first. And that woman is Darcy.”
I watch his shoulders deflate, and I fucking hate it. I hate this for us.
“I’ll always be there for my sister, and I’ll always show up for my team.” He pushes back his chair, clearly done with the conversation.
Coach doesn’t stop his center as he makes for the door, pulling it open quickly.
Jack pauses, looking straight into the hallway. “But when it comes to you, Archer, I really think I’m done.”
My head finds my hands as I drop my face down into them, voice muffled as I speak.
“It wasn’t supposed to work out this way.
When we flew in from Miami, we planned to go and see him the next day, after this practice.
He can’t hear what I’m trying to tell him because he’s so blinded by betrayal, and I don’t know how to fix this. ”
For a few seconds, I wonder if Coach left the room with Jack. You could hear a pin drop; it’s that quiet.
Finally, I hear him sit back in his seat.
“I have to admit, Archer, when Felicity told me last night, I spent the first hour with my jaw firmly glued to the floor. The next hour was spent trying to temper my rage. Now, in the cold light of day, I can see more clearly why you held off from saying anything. But that doesn’t mean your reputation for fucking women around suddenly disappeared overnight.
Darcy might be a grown-ass woman, but she also just got out of a toxic relationship, and I’m concerned to think she’s potentially in another.
You married her for visa purposes and because she was pregnant, and she had gotten pregnant because you were messing around in secret.
And why were you messing around in secret?
” His question is a rhetorical one as I lift my head to catch his raised brow.
“Because you didn’t want to get caught.”
“That’s not true.” I shake my head at him. “I married your stepdaughter because I love her.”
“Liam told Darcy he loved her too. Felicity’s ex-husband, Elliott, told her he loved her. Both were absolute fuckers.”
I’m back to squeezing the bars on my chair. “I’m not in their category. I pursued Darcy because I wanted her for more than just sex. She wanted fun. I was desperate for more.”
He nods like he already knows this. Maybe Darcy told Felicity how it all went down.
“I get your frustration, and that’s why I’m not going off at the deep end on you.
All I’m doing is setting out how others will see this.
I was a guy with a reputation when I met my wife.
I spent a lot of time convincing her I was the one, but what I didn’t do was lie.
Your biggest error here wasn’t going after Darcy because you’re right—you can choose to tell who you want and when; it was trying to cover up your actions with lies.
That’s what’s eating at Jack and, to be really fucking honest, me too.
You’re my player, and I need to know I can trust every single guy on my team.
I’ve told the GM he has nothing to worry about, both from the image leaked online and with the strained relationship between you and Jack. Do not prove me wrong, Moore.”
I think he’s finished when he leans forward again, his eyes locked straight on me.
“But more important than that, do not break my beautiful stepdaughter’s heart. You fuck with her or your baby girl, and I swear to God, no trade or appearance on the farm team will compare to the way I will come down on you. You hurt them, you hurt my family.”
I roll my lips together and lean forward, matching his determined stance inch for inch. “I’m happy you got that off your chest because you clearly needed to, Jon. However, allow me to participate in your cathartic exercise for just a second.”
I offer him a warm smile that doubles as a warning of my own.
“You don’t need to concern yourself with thoughts of my two girls getting hurt because let me tell you this: if anyone—and I mean, anyone—lays a finger, passes a questionable glance, or fucks them over in any way while my feet are still on this earth, they’ll wish they never took their first breath. ”
I push back my chair and stand, knocking my knuckles on the table twice. “And if you’re looking for evidence of my promise, I’d suggest you give Liam a call.”