Chapter 4
Theo
I was gonna be late. Nothing worked me up more than missing a deadline. Whether it be an appointment, an assignment, or an oil change, being even a few minutes late stressed me the fuck out.
And this wasn’t any of those things. The meeting was with Coach Reiner. He set up a time to talk after a workout the follow day, but Penny needed to be picked up, along with Daniel, and Em was at her part-time job. By some heroic feat, I had my siblings in the back of my truck as I sped toward the rink.
“You’re driving too fast.” Daniel tapped the window. “Dad would be mad.”
“Dad has other things to worry about,” I said through gritted teeth. Like, avoiding me and his other children, pretending to work, making me the parent. Three minutes until the meeting.
Why did he have to schedule it last minute? Fuck. We were a mile out at least, and parking and the walk… I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated as hell. It wasn’t a good look to be late to a one-on-one. The guys had a hard enough time with me being a rival for three years, but Reiner wanted me on the team.
But to be late?
“I’m hungry.” Penny’s voice had that watering tone, the one she used before bursting into tears. “Snack, please.”
“Pen, I don’t have anything with me.” I swallowed hard and yanked the wheel down the side street. There was an open spot, but we’d have to run to the rink to make it on time. “Okay, I need an hour, please. Then we can get ice cream or pizza. Whatever you want. Just let me talk to the coach, okay?”
“I’m hungry!”
Fuck me. I pinched my nose, taking a deep breath before going into action. “Daniel, there’s a vending machine outside Coach’s office. Use my card and get your sister whatever she wants.”
“What about me?”
“You too, obviously.”
Nine years passed by the time they got out of the damn car. Another decade to get them walking toward the rink. I fired off a quick text saying I was almost there. He could bench me, make me run, skate laps, whatever he wanted. I’d take it.
It was crazy how going through this with my family really did teach me to be more sympathetic toward others. It made me question how kind I was before. Guys who showed up late, who I’d judge harshly, could be going through a million things I’d never know about. Sucked that people had to go through tough moments to grow.
“Okay, let’s walk faster, people.” I hoisted up Penny on my side and jogged. “Daniel, run.”
It was a hot mess, but we got to the rink, and I was only seven minutes past our time. Bad, but not horrible. But I hadn’t thought through this part of the plan. Daniel was nine, not a teenager. He couldn’t watch Penny thoroughly enough.
“What should we do? Where’s my snack?” Penny asked, nervously glancing around the hallway.
“Daniel, you and her need to stay in the hallway until I’m done.”
Tick, tick, tick. Another minute late.
“But what about the food?”
“Guys, please.” I was about to snap. A flash of resentment burst through me. Why did I have to be the fucking parent to my siblings? Why couldn’t I be a normal twenty-one-year-old, focusing on hockey and school? Why did my mom have to have a stroke and my dad essentially left me in charge because he couldn’t handle it? Life wasn’t fucking fair.
“I need food!” Penny yelled and dropped onto the ground. A guy glanced at us down the hall as her cries grew louder.
“Let me talk to my coach, tell him what’s going on.” I gripped my hair, just as Audrey walked down the hallway. She wore a simple olive-green tank top and cutoff jeans. Her hair was down, and she wore a black hat, and damn. She looked cute, but I wasn’t in the mood for her judgement today. And of course, she’d see me at a weak moment. Not that it mattered, but I wished I was working out shirtless or something.
“Snack now!” Penny screamed. “I need food!”
Audrey stopped and frowned at the three of us, but her expression shifted immediately. Not ice queen or timid. She almost seemed concerned. “What kind of food do you like?”
Penny sniffed. “Crackers.”
“Oh, dang. I don’t have crackers, but I have some Pop-Tarts. They are my favorite thing ever. Do you like them?”
“I do.” Daniel chimed in.
“Audrey,” I said, my voice cracking. “I’m so sorry—you don’t, they just?—”
“I don’t mind.” She waved her hand in the air. “Who are you two?”
“I’m Daniel, and this is Penny.” Daniel glanced at her, then at the ground. “I’ll watch Penny. Go to your meeting.”
Fuck me. Twelve minutes late now. “I have to talk with the coach. My siblings… they… it’s complicated.”
“Hey.” Audrey swallowed and met my gaze. “I’ll hang with them. How long do you think your meeting will last?”
“I have no idea. You don’t—please don’t?—”
“Go. If you’re late, you’re screwed.” She jutted her chin. “I promise it’s okay.”
She had no reason to offer this. None. A small part of me thought she’d do it to mess with me, but her face softened when she stared at my siblings. I had a million questions. A billion, actually. Like why, for one, did she offer this?
“Theo, go.”
“Right.” I took off toward Reiner’s office and paused outside the door. Nerves gripped me. We’d talked before, we had to before the transfer, but this was the first meeting he’d requested, and I was fifteen minutes past. I knocked, mentally preparing myself for the consequences.
“Come in.”
Here went nothing.
I twisted the handle and kept my face neutral. Coaches didn’t want apologies for being late, nor did they want excuses. “I’ll take whatever consequences you provide, Coach. I know I’m fifteen minutes late.”
Coach Reiner nodded as he crossed his arms. The dude had a sleeve of tattoos that made him look badass, but compliments were worthless. “Why were you late?”
“Excuses don’t matter, Coach,” I intoned.
“Sure. I agree with you, but I asked you a question.” He leaned against the front of his desk, not quite sitting on it but also not standing. He also spoke in a consistent tone, not giving anything away.
“I didn’t plan accordingly to make the meeting time.”
“Dude.” Another voice came from the corner of the office.
I snapped my attention toward him, unaware there was even another person in the room. Jonah Daniels, the new assistant coach stood there. He looked like he was about to smile. I nodded at him. “Coach Daniels.”
“JD, please. I’ve always been JD on the ice.” He pushed off the wall and jutted his chin toward Reiner. “You’ll learn how Reiner works this year, but he is legit asking why you’re late. He’s an annoying millennial and cares. You’ll get used to it.”
“Jonah,” Reiner warned.
“You hired me as your assistant, so you get my shit talking.”
Okay, I fought a snort but wouldn’t dare laugh. I focused on the puck sitting on his desk.
“Anyway, Theo, JD is right. If its time management, we’ll work on it. If it’s something else, I want to know. I’m about entire player development, not just what happens on the ice. You’re already drafted to the Acorns. You have the talent, so it’s my job to home in on that and prepare you in whatever way you need.”
“I appreciate that.” I cleared my throat. “I take care of my siblings because my parents can’t right now. You know my mom had a stroke, but she’s not getting better, and if I wouldn’t have driven, my brother and sister wouldn’t have been picked up from school.”
“Shit,” JD muttered.
“Where are they now?”
“Currently in the hallway. Audrey Hawthorne offered to sit with them, but that makes me a little nervous because she hates my guts.”
Reiner snorted. “You and her have something in common. Despite being two years older, she basically raised her brother.”
What? I glanced at Reiner, the urge to know every detail bubbling up. “What do you mean?”
“Not my story.” He waved his hand. “I wanted to talk to you about that, actually. How have guys on the team been?”
“How you would imagine.”
Most of the guys were dicks or didn’t acknowledge me. Two in particular, Price Charming and Jaxon Beers, were decent. But everyone else seemed team Quentin. Their goalie Alex Hannigan or their defensive star Liam Levers were probably my favorite teammates so far. They were quiet, focused, and pushed me to be better in the gym.
But Quentin’s crew, they were trouble.
“You ready to address what happened with Hawthorne yet?”
“Is that what this meeting is about?” I didn’t want to discuss that night or that play. It wouldn’t help anyone.
“Please, have a seat. You’re too uptight right now, and it’s stressing me out.”
I moved toward the chair as him and JD sat too. They seemed relaxed and at ease. I forgot what that felt like. “I’m not uptight sir, I just would rather not talk about that injury, it wouldn’t help anything.”
“But we both know the truth of that night.” His eyes flashed. “And yes, I’m talking about the fact Quentin deserved what you did.”
“Fun fact about Reiner, he likes pet projects.” JD hit my shoulder.
“JD, Jesus.”
“What? Theo’s not the problem, you know this. We lost the senior leadership last year, and the guys are too young and not disciplined enough. Q reminds me of Cal Holt a bit, before he grew up.”
“I forgot Cal Holt went here.” I smiled. “He’s having a hell of a career right now in California.”
“He’s coming to visit in a few weeks, actually. Let me know if you want to chat with him separately. Might be nice to hear about the pros.” Reiner tapped his fingers together and leaned forward. “When you approached me about wanting to transfer here, two things came to mind. The first—I want you to elevate the guys we have. They are rough and need a strong role model. That is you. Secondly, I have some guys who I need to have an intervention with, and they are Q and his crew.”
“And I help with that?”
“Yes. Quentin is a dirty player. We both see it. But he’s young and can change. You’re assigned as his mentor this season.”
“Jesus.” I ran a hand over my face. First Audrey, then him. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” I pinched my nose and met his gaze. “I’ll do it. It won’t be easy. I also feel like I should admit that I’m also paired with his sister for clinicals. That’s a lot of Hawthornes.”
Reiner winced. “Shit. I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, this could go terribly,” JD said, hitting the side of the desk. “Might fail entirely.”
“Would you shut up?” Reiner glared at his assistant before meeting my eyes again. “I’m having regrets hiring my brother-in-law.”
“That’s on you,” I said without thinking.
He tossed his head back and laughed. “This is gonna work out great. I’m going to announce the pairs next week, and I’ll continue to check in with you. I’m also naming you captain. This team needs a shift, and you’re going to lead it.”
Captain.
Clinicals.
Mentoring the guy I injured.
Audrey.
My siblings.
I wasn’t sure I could hold it all together, but I nodded. “You got it.”
“Be here fifteen minutes early to do gassers before next practice. If you’re leading the team, you gotta lead by example.”
I nodded and shook his hand. I also shook JD’s before leaving. That was a trip, and I needed to process what the hell just happened. That was… not what I expected.
I didn’t realize others knew Quentin played dirty and crossed the line. He was a punk ass freshman who thought too highly of himself, and I just happened to be the force to knock him out. Reiner saw it though, which changed things.
One thing remained the same. Audrey didn’t realize what kind of player her brother was, and it wasn’t my place to tell her. If they were as close as Reiner made it seem, then I would never do that to her.
The meeting only lasted fifteen minutes, thank god, so I jogged back toward the entrance, but they weren’t there. Fuck.
Laughter caught my attention, and I jogged down the hall to find Daniel and Penny with Audrey playing a game with Cheez-Its.
“Okay, slide it through the goal and you get a point.” Audrey made a temporary goal with her fingers as Penny slid a Cheez-It on the table. “Goal!”
“Yay!” Penny danced, and as she spun, she saw me. “Theo! Audrey taught us a new game with snacks!”
“Yeah?” I ruffled her hair and studied my new buddy, the sister of the guy who I injured had to mentor. Our lives couldn’t be more complicated. It made my stomach twist. An incorrect move could blow everything up. My whole goal this year was to graduate, make sure my siblings were okay, and get better on the ice to go to the pros next year. That was all.
“It’s simple. Nothing, really.” Audrey stood and scooped up the crumbs and tossed them in the trash. “Your brother and sister are wonderful. Daniel told me about the zoo trip he just took. He wants to be a zookeeper.”
Yeah, I didn’t even know that. He’d always loved animals, and I was glad he opened up to someone, even if it was Audrey. “You’d be great at it, especially dealing with this monkey.” I picked Penny up, and she cackled.
Daniel smiled. “You hear that, Penny? You’re a monkey!”
Penny howled and made an oo oo sound that echoed around the small room. For one second, barely even a whole one, Audrey and I shared a smile. Her face softened, and she didn’t seem like the uptight, judgmental woman who glared at me. She was pretty and fun. When her full lips curved up on the sides, her entire face transformed, and it hit me how beautiful she actually was. Weird.
I shook that compliment out of my mind because it served no purpose.
“We can head back home now. I’ll drop you off.” I pointed toward the mess on the table. “Let’s clean this up before we go.”
“I don’t mind.” Audrey stood, all traces of our shared moment gone. “Go on. I’ll clean this up. This is easy.”
“I can help you!” Daniel jumped from his chair so fast, it knocked over even more crackers. “Oh no.”
“It’s alright.” Audrey smiled and immediately got on the floor to pick up the mess. “Easy fix.”
“Yeah.” Daniel sighed, but the tips of his ears were pink. It was fascinating to see him blush, first off. Secondly, Audrey was being ridiculously chill about this. I didn’t trust it. They picked up the mess within a few minutes, and my siblings and I were at the doorframe, Audrey remaining at the chair with a thoughtful look on her face.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, my throat feeling thicker than normal. “That was nice of you.”
“Of course.” Her gaze moved from my siblings, the smile falling as she focused on me again. “See you around, Sanders.”
Yeah. She would be. And I didn’t like the fact I owed her one.