Page 2 of The Break Out

“You’re the best. Did you happen to see the rumors about Colton Wheeler possibly getting traded?” She asks.

“Nope, I only have eyes for you and your news,” I joke, batting my eyelashes at her.

“Aw, how sweet. And hilarious. Now tell me what that guy’s deal is.”

I groan, shaking my head. “He just likes annoying me because I turned him down before.”

“Wait, I don’t think I know about that.”

I shrug. “It wasn’t a big deal. You know how I feel about dating a hockey player. One of the times we went to Kenneth’s game he came up to me, flirted with me, and asked me out. I said no and to never try again. He’s taken that as a challenge and made it his personal mission to bug me every time he sees me.”

“Where was I when that happened?” She looks confused.

“I don’t know, talking to someone, I’m sure. Seriously, Spence, it’s not a big deal. I can handle it.”

Spencer’s phone goes off again and I see she wants to grab it, but then looks back at me. I chuckle, grabbing my own from my purse. “Talk to your boyfriend, we have the whole flight to talk to each other.”

She picks up the call from Jared while I go through my emails and flag the important ones I’m going to need to get back to once we land.

The flight takes off and Spencer passes out almost immediately. I try to do the same but am widely unsuccessful and end up looking out the window in the distance as we pass through the clouds. Flying never ceases to amaze me, how we can be so high up in this flying tube of metal.

It also makes me think about the way my life has turned out. No one back home would have believed that Brynn Collee would end up on a private jet regularly.

Honestly, no one would believe any of the Collee kids turned out to be anything. I love proving them wrong. Brent shielded me from a lot of the horrors in our house, but once he moved out there was only so much he could do. Brandon was rarely around after that. Bryson did what he could for Bailey and me, but eventually he left too.

Once again, I shake off the negative thoughts in regard to my childhood and focus on the here and now. And the here and now has me doing a lot of work with no need for distractions.

2

Istart my morning on social media, seeing what the latest news is on trades in the league since the trade deadline is approaching. There are some rumors of me getting traded to Denver but I’m hoping that’s all they are. I like L.A. I don’t want to leave. There are models, actresses, hot chicks of any kind I could ever want. Whenever I need a woman in my bed. I have one. Sure, I can get that anywhere, there’s justmorehere. Plus, Denver hates us, and I know it would cause issues being there. And it’s fucking cold. I’ll stick with California.

There aren’t any missed calls from my agent or anyone on the team, so I feel like I’m safe for another day. There are plenty of accounts online talking about the possibility and benefits to trading me along with a handful of other players from various teams.

Tossing my phone aside, I get up to brush my teeth and grab my gym bag before heading to morning skate at the practice arena.

We run some drills on the ice and of course KennethRichardson starts bitching about something to one of the assistant coaches. We all have our reputations, and mine is far from great, but he’s the worst.

“Entitled prick,” I mumble, skating past him to continue what I was doing.

“You got something you want to say to me, Wheeler?” he calls out, turning his rage from our assistant coach onto me.

“Get back to practice,” I call back right before shooting the puck past our goalie right into the net.

“Wheeler!” Coach calls from the bench.

I skate over. “What’s up?”

“We just got the news, pack up your stuff you’ve been traded.”

I drop my stick. “Fuck. Where?”

I can see he tries to stop the cringe from taking over his face but fails miserably. “Denver.”

Fucking trades.It all happens behind closed doors like we are some sort of pawn to do with what they will. Here I am, having to uproot my entire life, get on a plane to an entirely new place and get ready to play with a whole new team in the morning.

This is the second time I’ve been traded since entering the NHL. The first time, I was happy to get to L.A. and planned to spend the rest of my career with this team.

Which clearly isn’t in the cards for me now.

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