Page 31 of Holding The Reins

“Alright, to the boards!” I call and point to the other side of the rink.

They all hustle over to the boards and wait expectantly for me to tear off a slap shot. Chris uses his phone to change the song on our system to “Thunderstruck” by ACDC and the kids go crazy.

I cock my head to the side. “Really?”

“Gotta set the tone, boss,” he chuckles.

I give them some theatrics and pretend to play the guitar on my stick as they all laugh, seeing their little toothy grins makes all of this worth it.

I skate down to the end of the rink with a dramatically determined look on my face, as if I question my ability. I turn around for one split second and then I’m flying. I get two-thirds up the ice in less than three seconds flat, and fire the shot as I come to a stop, with ice flying from my blades. It lands smack in the back of the net, top shelf.

My mini crowd goes wild. The reader on the net says 98.4.

I cheer with them, giving a little celebratory stick pump before I turn to lead them to the net to take their own shots as a flash of CeCe’s golden hair catches my eye from behind the glass of her office, then disappears from my sightline.

“Settling in?” I ask, peeking into CeCe’s office. A curtain of long, thick hair is tossed over her shoulder as CeCe meets my eyes. It’s almost lunch time and I’m through with my morning training and showered, again. I have jobs that require multiple showers a day, every day. Now, I’m dressed for the afternoon and ready for the business side of things. She flashes me an earth shattering smile that almost makes me forget my own name as I remind myself, good for business, not my cock.

“Yes, a little easier than I expected after an early delivery of the best coffee in town.”

“The only coffee in town.”

“Semantics,” CeCe says as she tucks her hair behind her ear and pulls her glasses off. “Thank you.”

“It was nothing. I just wanted you to have the best start. We need you here.”

“I’ll say,” she says. “I’ve got a good start on sorting all this paperwork. We need to start a file room, somewhere we can store these documents, and we also need to have them digitally filed.”

“How do we do that?”

“We send them out, there are companies that do it, I can look into it if you want? Then you keep the hard copies in a file room. An organized one,” she says.

“Yes, please.”

She nods.

“I don’t have your phone number anymore,” I say to her as I walk over to her and hold out my hand. “Your phone, please?”

CeCe looks at me with one eyebrow raised, but unlocks it anyway and hands it to me. I enter my number in and hand it back to her.

“No need to look skeptical, it’s just a number,” I say to her.

“I never know with you, Nash. Remember when I got my own phone line to my bedroom and you and Wade called it and pranked me for three straight days? Every time I answered, you guys would tell me I won concert tickets, or ask me if I wanted to do a survey. So annoying.”

I’m chuckling now but I wave her off. “Just a number, CeCe.”

Sonny knocks on the door frame. “Harry is here. He’s hoping we have a plan to raise him a lot of money. Do we?”

“Harry Martin?” CeCe asks. “Your old hockey coach?”

I am shocked she remembers, but I nod. “Yeah, we’re trying to raise money for all divisions of the Lightning this fall, but he has some pretty strict ways he wants to see us do it, he wants it to be a community thing.” She looks down and chews her plump bottom lip.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, but I ask now, “Do you want to sit in?”

“That’s a great idea,” Sonny says. “You’re a part of the team now, we’d love your perspective.”

“Sure,” CeCe replies. “I helped raise money for the women’s shelter in Seattle over the last two winters so I have some experience with this sort of thing.”

We move to the boardroom. Harry and his new assistant, Kevin, are already seated. They rise as we come in and I make introductions to CeCe. Harry remembers her instantly. Kevin shakes my hand. “It’s a pleasure Mr. Carter, I’m a big fan,” he says as I nod.

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