Page 7 of Puck Like A Girl

“You picked her, Reynolds. You see what she can do. Her skills complement the team, and you know it.”

“But Coach…”

“No buts Reynolds. She’s a part of the team now, and you will treat her like any other member of this team.”

Royal stares unflinchingly at our head coach, neither one of them breaking eye contact.

“That goes for the rest of you guys.” Coach breaks eye contact first, his eyes sliding from player to player daring them to argue with him.

I’ll be forever grateful for Coach Johnson's help with tryouts today. But I hate that my being on the team causes him problems. I open my mouth to defend myself instead of letting Coach Johnson fight my battle for me, but Fin beats me to it.

“Come on, Royal. You saw her out there. She outskated the rest of those guys. Hell, she beat all of them and was the last man standing for the suicide drill, and she barely looks like she broke a sweat.” Both Royal and Fin swing their gaze at me. One pair of eyes filled with anger, and the other filled with mischief. “Besides, she’s better to look at than the rest of you assholes.” Fin smiles and winks at me, his playful behavior making me return his smile.

It feels like forever before Royal speaks again. “Fine. Are we done here?” The side of his jaw pulses.

“Not yet. I’ve arranged for Teagan to use the women’s locker room for home games and practice. I’ll reach out to our opponents to make the same arrangements for away games. Other than that, Teagan is to be treated like any other of your teammates. Got it?” Coach Johnson scans the faces of my new teammates before finally landing his gaze on Royal.

“Is that it?” Royal seethes, his anger coming off of him in waves.

What the fuck is this dickhole’s problem?

First, Royal yelled at me for spilling my drink on him when it wasn’t my fault, and now this.

“Yes, everyone is dismissed.” Coach Johnson blows his whistle, officially ending the tryouts.

Royal brushes past me in his hurry to leave the arena. I bite my tongue, holding back the insults I want to throw his way.

“So you’re Teagan Hayes, Teddy Hayes’s daughter.” Fin slides next to me, drawing my attention away from Royal’s retreating back. “And the girl in the white dress from last night.”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“You don’t have brown eyes. You have violet eyes,” Coulter says, his voice sounding accusatory as his gaze stays glued on my eyes.

Thankfully, Britt and the girls interrupt our conversation, so I don’t have time to question his tone. “This is so exciting. We have to go to the Dean’s List tonight to celebrate.” Ashley gushes, grabbing the sleeve of my practice jersey.

“We don’t have to go to a bar to celebrate. Why don’t we go back to our apartment, order pizza, and celebrate there?” Britt suggests, her eyes darting back and forth between me and Ashley.

“Come on, Britt. Why are you always a stick in the mud? You never do anything fun.” Britt opens her mouth to object, but Ashley holds up her hand to stop her. “And before you say anything, the romance books you read are not considered fun.”

“I don’t know about that, Ash. Have you seen some of the tropes she reads? I bet our little virginal Britt is a freak in the sheets.” Kelsey giggles, sidestepping Britt’s hand as she attempts to swat her arm.

“I’m not a freak in the sheets, and I’m not a virgin,” Britt protests a little too strongly.

I know for a fact that Britt’s not a virgin. She dated her ex-boyfriend Troy for over a year. They met during their freshman year of college, and he seemed like a sweet guy. When they broke up, all Britt said was they weren’t compatible. She never elaborated, and I never pushed for more.

“Suure you’re not.” Kelsey stretches out the word sure to emphasize her disbelief in Britt’s sex life.

Fin and Coulter watch their exchange with a mixture of amusement and anger, which seems like a weird reaction to our conversation.

“Are you really going to the Dean’s List tonight?” Coulter finally asks.

I glance between a smiling Ashley and Kelsey to a more subdued Britt with her arms crossed over her chest. She shrugs her shoulders, letting me know she’s not happy about going to the bar, but she’ll go if I want to go.

“Actually, I think staying home and ordering pizza sounds like a great idea. Especially since this will be our last night together before I move into the Hockey House.” I say, noticing Britt’s shoulders relax, putting her out of her misery at the thought of going out to a bar.

A look I can’t describe passes between Coulter and Fin. But I don’t have the energy to dissect what they are thinking about. All I want to do is take a hot shower, eat pizza, drink wine, and not worry about moving in with my male teammates tomorrow.

“I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow at practice.” I don’t add that I’ll be moving in after practice tomorrow once I get the moving company lined up to haul my things to the Hockey House and my new bedroom.

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