Chapter 23 Bates
Code of Silence Group Chat:
Cas: We should do a haunted house this year
Like go to one? I’m down
Cas: No, like we should make one
Kol: Where the fuck would we host it? At your penthouse, pretty boy?
Cas: I’ll kill you. Turn you into one of the displays.
Cas: Ooh, Bates, we use Kol’s house since he’ll be dead
Kol: [middle finger emoji]
And where did this idea come from? Stay off Pinterest
Cas: First of all, you’re the one who made us download it to come up with new card concepts so fuck you
Cas: And secondly, no I won’t.
Cas: I got the idea when we were masked up, helping you fuck your girlfriend at the arena
You didn’t help me fuck her. Careful now
Cas: No, obviously not, but we might as well have laid the rose petals to the damn bed and helped you two into it
Shut up. You guys weren’t even in the rink for the main act.
Kol: I wish I were
I bet you do, you freak
Kol: Can we hurry up and humor Cas’s dumb idea for two seconds so he’ll shut the fuck up about it?
Cas, continue
Cas: …
Cas: You guys don’t even deserve to hear my amazing ideas.
Kol: You have got to be kidding me …
Kol: You’re right; don’t tell us.
Cas: Well, now I want to
Of course you do
Tell us at dinner tomorrow. You guys are coming over
Kol: Or don’t mention it. Either way is good for me
Kol: Dinner?
Yeah, to officially meet my wife
Cas: She’s not your wife
Might as well be
Cas: Want me to start a board in Pinterest for your wedding? What’s the theme?
Kol and I send a text at the same time, joking around and giving him shit. He knows I appreciate his enthusiasm, even without me telling him. Chirping each other is just our love language.
Fuck no
Kol: SHUT UP ALREADY
Cas: I’m going to kick your asses
Kol: You can try
I’m talking to Coach today. Heading to his office right now.
Kol: About you railing his daughter?
Watch it
Cas: Want backup?
No, I gotta do this alone
Cas: Ugh, but it’d be so entertaining to see
Kol: I agree
And? Doesn’t matter. You’re not going
Wish me luck
Kol: I hope he punches you in the dick
Cas: Good luck, man
Thanks
Lifting my knuckles, I knock on Coach Rafferty’s door.
“Come in,” he calls out.
Twisting the doorknob and pushing it open, I find him typing into his computer with an annoyed expression.
Oh, perfect. I caught him at a bad time. That should make this even easier.
“How’s it going, Bates?” His tone is professional but welcoming.
“Good. I wanted to talk to you about something,” I mutter, shutting the door behind me and walking to one of the two black leather chairs in front of his desk.
“Give me thirty seconds, and I’m all yours.”
He keeps typing, and I stay silent, running the speech through my mind again, the same one I’ve been planning since the beginning.
But the moment he shuts his laptop, crosses his fingers, and leans forward to hear me out, it all escapes me.
“What did you want to discuss?” he asks, holding my stare.
I’m not nervous for me; I’m nervous on behalf of Serena. She wanted us to talk to him together, but I knew I’d be able to get his acceptance—by any means necessary. And if it came to that, I didn’t want her to be here for it.
“Spit it out. I don’t have all day.” He waves his hand in annoyance.
Rocking back in the chair, I crack my knuckles. “I’m dating your daughter.”
He blinks slowly, watching me, like he’s not entirely sure he heard me correctly. “I’m sorry?”
“I’m not,” I state, and this time, his blinking quickens, his brows pinching together.
“Finnegan.” He grinds my name between his teeth. “If this is some weird joke you’re pulling, you’d better own up to it now and knock it off.”
“Afraid I can’t do that, sir.” I sit forward. “I’m in love with your daughter, and I’m pretty sure she feels the same way about me.”
The tension in the room is palpable, thick, and boiling angry, stemming from her dad in front of me.
“No, I don’t think so. Serena would never date one of my players.” He says it so confidently.
“No?” I scoff in surprise at his sureness.
His head shakes, lips curling. “Bates, you’re a good kid, but I have a hard time believing you right now. And frankly, an even harder time imagining you being her type. She hates hockey players. Just quit it before I actually get mad.”
I don’t know what weird denial he’s going through, but I’ll help speed it along. Digging my phone out of my pocket, I swipe through my photos, careful to skip over the screenshots of camera footage I’ve taken over the last few days of watching her.
Apparently, I don’t have a single photo that I can show him that wouldn’t end with him calling the police. But I do find a picture of Freddie.
Perfect.
“I’m sure you know Freddie.”
I flip my phone around, and his eyes fall to the screen.
Kicking his chair back, he stands up, a myriad of emotions passing over his face, yet he seems eerily calm. “Bates, I’m going to say this as nicely as possible … you’d better—”
“Let me interrupt you.” I stand up, towering over his five-ten frame, even on the other side of his desk. “I’m never going to stop seeing her. And I can assure you that pushing me away is only going to hurt you.
“You can threaten me, trade me, blackmail me, bench me, cut my time—I don’t fucking care what you do.
Nothing—and I truly mean nothing—will come between her and me, including you.
I know you want to win a Cup more than anything.
You couldn’t do it in your day, and now you want to do it as a coach.
And we want to do it with you.” I take a breath, calming myself.
“But if you try to interfere in my relationship, Kol, Cas, and I are gone. Good luck winning the Cup without us.”
He clears his throat. “Are you done?”
Huffing out a shallow breath, I push my shoulders back. “For now.”
“Good.” A smile creeps into the corners of his mouth.
“Before you went off like a bomb, I was going to say … that you’d better treat her with the utmost respect, or I’m going to do, well, all the things you listed off.
” He allows his smile to break free, and it’s almost creepy, seeing him so happy when he’s usually stone-cold.
“She’s been happier lately, smiling more than I’ve seen in years, and I have to assume that you have had some hand in that. ”
“I’d like to think so,” I murmur genuinely, my heart warming. The panic in my chest slowly dissipates, my body coming out of fight-or-flight mode. “She was nervous you’d be angry with her for breaking your rule.”
“I made that for her in high school, when I was coaching a college team.” He chuckles. “She’s always latched on to the extremes of life, following the rules to a T, avoiding dangers, walking the line between conformity and contentment. Part of that is probably my fault.”
His eyebrows tremble, his vulnerability taking me by surprise.
“I was a bit too protective of her, scared something would happen if I didn’t hold her tightly enough.
But that made her too cautious, too careful.
Only in the last year or so, I’ve seen her start to emerge from her shell, testing the boundaries of life for herself. ”
He shakes his head, and his cheeks warm, like he’s embarrassed he shared so much. He’s the kind of man who keeps everything close to his chest. If talking to me about it helps him, then I’m happy to listen.
“Enough of that.” He stretches his hand out between us. “I just want her to be happy.”
I take his hand, shaking firmly. “Then we’re on the same page.”
“Good.”
I’m waiting for the shoe to drop, for him to say psych and punch me straight in the face. “So, you’re good with it? Just like that?”
He laughs, sitting back in his chair with a shit-eating grin. “Serena’s independent, and when she goes after something she wants, nothing can stop her. I don’t intend on being a casualty in her pursuit.”
I nod, my smile matching his. I sit back down, settling comfortably into the chair.
We chat for another half hour, sharing old hockey stories, his time in the pros, the injury that took him out of commission, and by the time a knock sounds on his door, I feel almost giddy with parental acceptance.
“I’d better let you get back to it.” I smile, pushing up from the chair.
He nods, his shoulders more relaxed than I’ve ever seen. “It was good talking to you, Finnegan.”
“You too, sir.” I nod, dismissing myself and heading to the door.
“One more thing.”
“Yeah?”
Coach Rafferty’s voice sounds a lot less like Serena’s dad and more like the stern coach I know as he warns me, “I don’t want to overhear anything about my daughter in the locker room, on the ice, nothing. You hear me?”
“Got it,” I agree, knowing I’m going to have to get Cas and Kol on the same page.
I throw the door open, and my jaw follows suit when I find Serena on the other side.
Her face lights up. “Oh, this is perfect actually.” She walks around me. “Dad, I need to talk to you.”
“Serena,” I murmur, sliding my hands on top of her shoulders.
“Shh. I need to do this,” she whisper-shouts at me.
Looking up at Coach Rafferty, I find him grinning from ear to ear with … pride and adoration.
“I never thought I’d see the day Bates was put in his place.”
Silence falls on the room, aside from the deep belly laughter emanating from her dad.
“Actually, Serena—”
“What did you do? Did you already tell him?” She whips around, staring up at me in widened disbelief. Her gaze drops to my chest, and her face pales as she turns back to her father. “You already know.”
He nods, clearly entertained by the show playing out in front of him. “Yeah. You were about”—he checks the clock—“thirty minutes late.”
His phone rings, and he quickly answers, leaving us a moment to ourselves.
She whispers, only loud enough for me to hear, “I’m going to kill you.”
Bending down, I wrap her in my arms, my lips near her ear. Softly, I murmur, almost inaudibly, “You’d have to stop coming on my cock first.”
“I can multitask,” she argues, dropping her elbow into my ribs. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.” I squeeze her tighter. “You love me. Not as much as I love you, but pretty damn close.”
Her body tightens, and then ever so slightly, she nods before nestling deeper in my embrace. “You have no idea how much I love you.” She doesn’t say it like a loving declaration, but like a challenge to my statement. Of course her competitiveness would come out in everything, even this.
“I’ll prove it to you later. Make you scream it out loud.”
“You can try,” she counters.
“Oh, baby, I only do.”
Her dad sets the phone back in the base. “Sorry about that. Where were we?”
He checks his phone, and I take the second to roll my hips against her ass. She jumps free from my arms.
“I am going to head home for the day. As for Bates, he’s got errands to run or something. Flowers maybe?” Her eyes twinkle, her lips gradually lifting.
I turn to see her dad beaming.
“You guys have a good night.” He pauses once Serena walks out the door. “Bates?”
“Yeah?” I ask, wrapping my hand around the door as Serena takes my other one, hidden in the hallway.
“I’ll end you if you hurt her,” he promises.
“I’d beat you to it,” I promise back before letting his daughter drag me down the hallway, wherever the hell she pleases.