4. Brynn #2
It sent a shiver down my spine that made me thankful that neither of them paid attention to me.
I certainly didn’t like how smiley Mom was, though.
I mean, she giggled. Giggled! Granted, it’s not like my mother was belly-laughing, but she certainly didn’t give polite giggles to people. She wasn’t that kind of woman.
Cleary, she was just as smitten with the coach as I was.
Which was the point.
Right?
“I’m glad to hear it,” Mom said as she kept clicking down the hallway. I noticed that her hips swayed a bit deeper with her steps. “I’m tired of picking up after grown men. And while you’re whipping them into shape, you can talk to them about the state of the locker room. Which is right here.”
And when she threw open the door to reveal locker doors open with gear sprawled out all over the floors, I saw Colton bundle his fists up at his sides. Mom’s eyes kept raking over the man like he was a slab of meat.
I mean, he was built like one.
But, still.
Cut it out, Brynn. The hell’s wrong with you? This is what you wanted. He’d be good for Mom, too. It would finally get her out of the house.
It’s not that my mother never left the house, per se.
It’s just that the only other place she came was this fucking rink.
Not that it was a problem, but I knew why.
I knew she came here to remember Dad. To reminisce on her bad days.
Or even her good days. Or just in general.
It was like she enjoyed being haunted by things.
Like if she forgot, she somehow betrayed him.
“Jesus Christ,” Colton’s gruff voice ripped me out of my trance.
I drew in a quick breath and realized that both Mom and Colton entered the locker room without me. I didn’t like that one bit, either. I quickly slipped into the room, ignoring the sweaty smell of disgusting jerseys and jockstraps.
I found Mom smiling softly up at Colton, and my heart whump-whumped in my chest.
This is good, I told myself, this will be good for Mom. You need to support it. You need to smile back at her.
Mom turned her smile toward me before Colton sauntered off toward the showers, and she fanned herself lightly.
I couldn’t help but smile back. I’d never seen her like this before.
She seemed almost…giddy. Like she could conquer the world if given the chance.
I hadn’t seen that twinkle in her eye in a very long time. Not since Dad was killed.
Yes, this was going to be very good for her.
So why didn’t I feel as happy as I should have felt?
“You got a janitor around here?” Colton asked gruffly as he stalked back to us.
I interjected before Mom had a chance to, which pulled me to Mom’s side. “Barry handles the facilities, but the guys run him ragged. He can’t keep up with what they tear through.”
“He’s outnumbered. Twenty-three guys who think a locker room floor is a laundry basket.”
Colton’s eyes volleyed between the two of us. “Not anymore. You got this Barry guy’s number?”
“Everything you need is in your office,” Mom said as she ushered her arm toward the exit for the locker room. “It’s just around the corner from mine. Let me show you to it, and you can get to work, if that’s what you wish.”
“Yeah, I’ll touch on a bunch of stuff before I head out.”
Mom smiled. “Working after the first meeting. A man after my own heart.”
“Yeah,” Colton said as he peered over his shoulder and tossed me a wink.
My cheeks flushed a deep shade of crimson as I walked behind the two of them like a child told to shut up and tag along. Mom’s hips swayed, Colton walked right alongside her, and every time she found an excuse to bump into that muscular, thick arm of his, I wanted to snap through the roof.
I had no idea why the hell I felt this way, which meant I needed to get the fuck out of dodge.
“And here’s your office,” Mom said as we strode into the room at the end of the hallway.
She flicked on the light, illuminating the plain office with the drop-down ceiling and a desk with a chair that looked much too small for the behemoth man we had hired to coach this team.
I leaned against the doorway and watched as Colton lumbered into the middle of the room, taking stock of everything as he turned and slowly nodded his head.
It was almost comical, the way the top of his head was only inches away from touching the ceiling.
I mean, he cast a fucking shadow on the ceiling, for crying out loud.
The man was as big as they came.
And I wanted to climb him.
“Well, that’s my cue,” I said as I slipped out of the office. “Mom? Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Colton?”
“Yep?”
“Nice to meet you. Run those men ragged, but don’t do it to Mom. She deals with enough.”
“Brynn,” Mom scolded.
“What?” I asked as I walked down the hallway. “It’s not my fault you basically live here. The only reason you actually eat is because I bring you food. You’re more married to this arena than you ever were to Dad!”
“Brynn!” she chirped frustratedly.
“Love you, Mom! I’ll bring you home a burger!”
She sighed before she called back at me. “Double crisp those fries, too!”
“Always!”
But with each step I took away from them, especially with Mom’s giggles filtering behind me, my gut twisted into a knot.
My head pounded against my skull. Hell, even my legs slowed down, as if my entire body tried to convince me to turn the fuck around.
Which only made me more determined to press onward.
I made it about three steps down the hallway before the double doors at the far end swung open and the team came through in a wave of noise and gear bags and someone’s protein shake that nearly took out the trophy case.
Jett saw me first. "Bry! You working tonight?"
"Later," I said. "And before you ask, no, I'm not giving you a tab."
"You always give me a tab."
"I always regret giving you a tab."
Moose appeared over Jett's shoulder. "Can you put a word in with the kitchen? I want the loaded fries but Marco said I'm cut off."
"You're cut off because you ate four orders last Tuesday and then couldn't skate a straight line."
"That's slander."
"That's a fact, I was there." I pointed at him. "One order. And tip properly this time or I'm telling Marco to ban you permanently."
Rhett materialized from somewhere in the middle of the group and immediately started steering me toward the door the way he always did when practice had run long and he knew I'd be late. "Go, you're gonna be late."
"I've got ten minutes."
"You've got eight. Go."
"You're not my —"
"Go, Bry."
They parted just enough to let me through, but I slowed down without meaning to when I heard the footsteps behind me.
Colton had come out of his office.
He stood in the doorway and just looked at them. Didn't say anything. Didn't need to. The noise in the hallway dropped like someone had turned a dial, which was genuinely impressive given that it was Jett who was making most of it.
Nobody said anything for a second.
Then Rhett stuck out his hand. "Rhett Calloway. Left wing."
Colton shook it once. "Mercer."
"We know who you are," Jett said, which was either brave or stupid, and with Jett it was usually both. "Saw you on ESPN. That thing with the Titans was —"
"Jett." Rhett's voice had that particular flatness it got when he was telling someone to shut up without using those words.
Jett shut up.
Moose lumbered forward next and stuck out a hand roughly the size of a dinner plate. "Moose. Goalie. Are we getting a new meal plan? Because the current one has no —"
"We'll talk about it Monday," Colton said.
Moose blinked. "So that's a yes?"
"That's a we'll talk about it Monday."
Moose turned back to the group with the expression of a man who had decided to interpret that as a yes.
Two of the defensemen introduced themselves. A couple more nodded from the back. Frank, the quiet one, just made eye contact and didn't move, which was somehow more intimidating than anything else anyone had done.
Colton looked at him for a second. "Frank."
Frank's eyebrows went up slightly. "You know my name."
"I did my research."
The hallway went quiet again, but differently this time. Less uncertain. More like something had just been established.
I realized I had completely stopped walking.
Go to work, Brynn.
"See you at the bar, boys," I said to no one in particular, and made myself move.
I had six minutes before I needed to clock in, anyway.
And I sure as hell didn't need to think about the way the entire hallway had just reorganized itself around one man standing in a doorway.