Page 26 of Drawn to You

He gives me a small smile. “You couldn’t have done anything about it, Josie. It’s going to be like this until one of them retires.”

“What does this mean? He got ejected from the game, is that it?”

“We’ll know more soon.”

I gather up my things. “I’m going to talk to him.”

Without waiting for Arnold to tell me not to, I leave the VIP box, my heart still racing. I have to flash my all-access badge at least a dozen times before I get into the locker room, and when I do, I inhale sharply as I lay eyes on Dane.

The team doctor is examining him in the training room. Both of his eyes are swollen, one nearly closed, and he has a fat lip. There’s a distant look in his eyes.

“I need to sew up the eyebrow,” the doctor says.

I let the doctor work, a training assistant passing him things as he needs them. When he takes a break to wash the blood from his hands, I approach Dane.

“Not now,” he says, not even looking at me.

I nod, unable to feel angry at him. His wife cheated on him with a teammate. It explains so much.

It also leaves me with a thousand questions. None of which will be answered anytime soon.

CHAPTER TEN

Dane

“You’re suspended for two games,”Tim says from the other side of the conference table. “I called in a lot of favors to keep it from being three.”

“Thanks, Coach.”

I can’t make myself look remorseful because I’m not. If I had to do it over again, I’d stop my fist from connecting with a ref’s shoulder, but I wouldn’t change anything else. The ref shouldn’t have inserted himself between me and Styles when I was midpunch.

“This isn’t a great look, but it’s a step up from the park bench incident,” says Tamara Curtis, the head of the Mammoths PR department.

Her tone has its usual edge. Only the guys who spend their off days inoculating orphans and rescuing cats from trees get her friendly voice. I’ll consider myself a failure at life if Tamara ever likes me.

“Josie, maybe you need to be out on the ice with him from now on,” Tamara says, sighing.

Tamara was the one who called this meeting, and so far, the only agenda item is berating me. My fucking head hurts and I slept like shit on the flight home. So I’m extra not in the mood to be sitting in this conference room with my coach, Josie and Tamara. It’s Tamara’s job to recommend how I spend my time while suspended. And if she thinks I’m volunteering at a food pantry on no sleep with this raging headache, she’s dead wrong.

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Josie says. “I’ve been keeping up with hockey headlines and everyone seems to understand that Dane wasn’t aiming for the ref. The ref just got in the way, but the rules are the rules and he had to be suspended. Fans love that Dane is a fighter. It’s part of the game and he doesn’t back down.”

I look at her, momentarily stunned. She just stood up for me, even though I was a complete dick to her on the flight home. I bitched about her cat, her taste in music and the light from her phone, but none of it was really about her. She knew that because she took it all in stride instead of fighting back like usual.

Tamara turns her sharp gaze on Josie.

“We don’t glamorize fighting and suspensions. Have you seen the pictures of Sam Styles’s face?”

Josie shrugs. “It’s hockey, not badminton.”

I sneak a glance at Tim. My coach’s lips are quirking with a smile. Josie is a quick study. She didn’t just show up and follow me around; she immersed herself in listening and learning about the game, the players and the fans. She gets it in a way Tamara never will, and Tamara has worked for the Mammoths for years.

“Listen, Tamara,” Tim says. “We just got in from a long night of travel. I’d like to wrap this up as quickly as possible.”

Tamara nods and looks down at her notepad. “Will you consider an apology?”

I scoff. “Absolutely not.”

Josie speaks up. “I think Dane should attend the games he’s suspended from to support his team. He can stop by the VIP boxes to meet fans. I also want to get him to the children’s hospital to meet the boy with cancer who started a Twitter campaign wanting to meet him.”

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