GRANT
NINETY
“Are you ready?” Coach asks in the conference room at the arena, and I groan.
“No. Do we have to have this conversation?” I ask.
“It’s with the commissioner, and he’s unfortunately not on the list of people I’m allowed to tell to fuck off.” His lips twitch. “One day I will, and it’ll be worth it.”
“Thanks for being here with me. I know it probably goes outside the scope of your duties, but I’m glad I don’t have to face this alone.”
“It’s going to be fine.” Coach pauses. “They suspended Green eight games.”
“Eight games?” I drop the water bottle I’m holding. “That’s more than they’ve suspended guys who were arrested. How does that make any sense?”
“I’m not the one who makes those calls, so I can’t say what their spectrum of morality and ethics looks like. But let’s hear what the commissioner wants to talk about.”
Coach opens his laptop and taps a link that projects on the screen in front of us. I’m vibrating in my chair, literally shaking with nerves, and I can’t believe I have to try to explain to someone why I fell in love with Amelia.
Watching her walk out of the house was the lowest I’ve ever felt.
I stayed in the same spot for a good hour and a half after she shut the front door, stupidly thinking she’d turn around. I waited and waited and fucking waited, but she never came back.
It’s not because she doesn’t love me. It’s because she can’t, and that’s the shittiest part of this whole situation.
She didn’t fall out of love with me. She didn’t find someone else. She wasn’t unhappy. Everything was good until it wasn’t, and the only reason she wasn’t in my bed when I woke up this morning is because someone in charge of the league thinks they’re allowed to dictate what I do in my free time.
The commissioner has no idea the asshole he unlocked when he ripped her away from me. I’ve been fighting from the minute I was drafted, and that’s not changing anytime soon.
The call connects. An older guy with salt and pepper hair and a three-piece suit waves to from a big leather office chair. Behind him is the New York skyline, and I scowl when he grins.
“Brody! Good to see you. Congratulations on the gold medal victory. That was remarkable coaching from a remarkable man. We knew we made the right pick when we selected you to lead the team.” Brad Hollis chuckles. “Hope we can do it again in four years.”
“I had a great team that made coaching easy.” Coach doesn’t offer him the same pleasantry, and I’m not sure he’s blinked since the camera started rolling. “You wanted to speak to Grant Everett?”
“Right. Hello, Mr. Everett. Congratulations to you as well on the gold medal. That overtime goal has cemented you as hockey royalty. Welcome to an elite club.”
“Not sure that’s a club I want to be a part of.” My hand flexes at my side. “What is this conversation in regards to?”
We all know exactly what this conversation is about, but if he’s going to make me sweat while I wait to hear what’s going to happen to me, the least he can do is speak the words instead of being aloof about it.
“Your relationship with Ms. Green,” Brad says, and I swear my eye twitches.
“Coach Green would probably be her more appropriate title, no?” I toss back. “Given she also won a gold medal in Italy.”
“Coach Green,” Brad amends. “We want to know the extent of your personal relationship with her.”
“I’m in love with her. We were together for two years, and she’s the most important person in my life.
This has been said many times already, but I want to reiterate that at no point did our personal relationship every cross into our professional roles.
There’s no overlap, no misuse of power. She was adamant about not engaging in a physical relationship for many years,” I say.
“And yet she’s the one who initiated it, based on what she told the conduct review board at her own meeting.
Perhaps she was waiting for the right moment to persuade you into a relationship that she would use to her advantage.
Based on your timeline, not long after you two became intimate, she became the head coach of the Sea Crabs.
” Brad stares at me through the screen. “Is it possible she used knowing you as leverage for the position?”
“That’s impossible. Darcy, the owner of the Sea Crabs, sought her out before Li—Amelia—and I were even together.
Darcy wanted her, and she was hired entirely on her own merit.
I’m flattered you think a guy like me has enough power and influence to encourage a professional sports team to hire a head coach. ”
“What happened here was an inappropriate display of power and behavior on her part, and an unfortunate lack of understanding from you. She—”
“Are you going to reference the specific article in the CBA that says the two of us are not allowed to be together?” I ask, and Brad blinks.
“There doesn’t need to be an article in the CBA for it to be considered wrong.”
“So, technically, we didn’t break the rules because there were no rules to break, correct?”
“There were no rules to break, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t morally—”
“It was sex, Brad, not hard performance enhancing drugs,” I deadpan, and Coach chokes on his water.
“We all know why this is happening: The league is in the center of conversations, and you all want to make yourselves look as good as you can by saving your own asses. Punishing and making an example out of us are the only ways to do that, and because you didn’t have enough foresight to include situations involving personal relationships in the CBA to begin with, you’re playing catch up.
” I lean back in my chair and laugh. “It’s cute that you honestly believe Amelia and I were the only ones sneaking around.
I hope a dozen more couples come forward to how you how backward your thinking is. ”
“Who may or may not be sneaking around is not the topic of conversation.” Brad’s face starts to turn red.
I give myself a pat on the back. “Coach Green has been suspended for eight games, a number that could’ve—and should’ve—been much higher.
Due to her recent success at the Olympics, the conduct review board felt a longer suspension would warrant even more questions and negative debate from fans who don’t understand the severity of the situation. ”
“Can you tell me the severity of the situation, Brad? Why do you care that two people are sleeping together? Is it because you think every woman who works for an organization is involved with someone else in the league? That can’t be your thought process, because by that logic, every hockey player would be guilty of the things one hockey player did. And that doesn’t seem right.”
“We’d be having this same discussion if the roles were reversed and a man was the one who acted so out of line.”
“Whatever.” I roll my eyes. Arguing with this guy is pointless. Nothing I say is going to get him to change his mind, and the sooner I get my punishment, the better. “So I’m out for eight games?”
“Eight games?” Brad frowns. “What are you talking about?”
“My suspension. Amelia got eight. I’m getting eight too, right?”
“Coach Green is suspended for eight games because she is the person with the higher-ranking job who made the mistake. Because of your contributions to your community, your reputation in the league for having low penalty minutes, and your performance in multiple Stanley Cup appearances and the Olympics, the conduct review board feels a one-game suspension is sufficient enough for your actions.”
“Fuck,” Coach mumbles.
I lift my chin and stare at the man on the screen. I put my hands on the table and lean as close to the computer as I can so he can’t miss a single word I’m going to say.
“We both know the only reason her punishment is harsher than mine is because she’s a woman,” I whisper.
The words are clipped with anger. I’m close to throwing a chair at the wall, because every goddamn thing Lia has ever said to me about her place in the league, about how men feel about her belonging in this sport, about the difference in treatment because she’s not part of the boys’ club, is true.
This man is the living proof that no matter how many barriers she breaks, there’s always going to be another river she’s going to have to cross. They’re going to keep moving the goal posts for her, and she’s never going to catch up.
“Excuse me?” Brad asks.
“That woman has as many Stanley Cup wins as I do. She has as many Olympic gold medal victories as I do. The only fucking reason I’m only getting a slap on the wrist while she’s being put through hell is because she’s a woman, and I’m a man,” I say.
“This isn’t about power. This isn’t about stats or victories or win percentages.
This is about making the league look like how you want it to look, not how the fans and the world want it to look.
You only want to suspend me a game? Fine.
But you just made yourself an enemy, Brad, because I am not going to rest until I find a way for Lia and I to be together.
I’m not going to rest until that woman is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and when she is, I’m going to make goddamn sure you’re the one forced to present the honors to her.
I’m going to make you look her in the eye and tell her how much she’s changed the sport. ”
I jab the button to end the call and sit back in my seat and scrub a hand over my face. My blood is rushing in my ears. My hands are shaking, and all I can see around me is red. The room is silent, and when I heave a deep breath, I turn to look at Coach.
“If you want to suspend me another game for that outburst, I’ll understand,” I tell him. “Talking shit to the man in charge of the league wasn’t my smartest move, but I—”
I’m caught off guard when Coach leans over and puts his arms around me. He’s giving me a hug, and I can’t explain it. I don’t know why it happens when it does. I have been doing really fucking well holding it together, but when he hugs me, I start to cry all over again.
“No suspension,” he grumbles, and it makes a laugh sneak out of me. “I really want to give you a goddamn medal for telling that guy what a piece shit he is. I’ve hated him for years.”
“Really? Seems like a nice dude,” I joke, and Coach pulls away. “Thank you. I didn’t mean for this to drag into the Olympics or what’s left of our regular season games. That wasn’t my intention, and I’m sorry if it’s become a distraction.”
“I’m pissed about it, to be honest. But only because you were playing much better hockey when no one knew about your relationship. Now that you’re the center of every conversation, you’re off your game.” Coach gives me a rare smile. “But we’ll get you back there. I’m not worried.”
“I appreciate it.” I wipe my eyes. “Sorry for the tears. I’m fragile right now.”
“Now you see why I wasn’t going to let you talk me out of loving Hannah.” He snorts. “I would’ve fought like hell for her, just like you’re going to do for Amelia.”
“I wasn’t kidding. I’m going to find a way for us to be together. There has to be an answer out there,” I say.
“If there is, you’re going to be the one to track it down, Grant. If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”
“Better get out of here before the league descends on the building and tells me I’m in violation of some other made up bullshit rule.” I stand. “See you in a couple days?”
“Chin up, kid.” Coach sticks out his hand, and I shake it. “You’re going to be fine.”