Page 99 of Well Played

“No, although her dad was my coach before I was traded here.”

“And you think she’ll harm you instead of helping you? Did you injure Alan Pullman in some way and she’s seeking revenge?”

“No, nothing like that.”

Alan gestures for silence. “Then what is it like?” His voice rolls out like honey.

“Don’t want to answer to a woman,” I mutter.

“Excuse me?” Bea’s face is puce.

I raise my voice. “Don’t want to answer to a woman.”

“Tough shit,” Bea says. “Suck it up, asshole, or we’ll trade you somewhere else.”

I turn a pleading look on Phil, but he shrugs. “You know you have no say in this. You’ll just have to find a way to work with her. Personally, I think she’ll do wonders for the team.”His pointed look sears me. “I believe she’ll do wonders for you. Certainly an upgrade from the dirtbag she’s replacing.”

I open my mouth to defend Hank, then snap it shut as the realization that he might be involved in criminal activity and that might bite me.

Bea makes pushing away waves. “We’re done, Sauer. Get back to your meeting before Coach realizes you’re gone.”

A hulking shadow fills the doorway. “I realized it when he ran out. Meeting’s over now. Let’s go to my office, Frank, and have a chat. It’s time you realize that you don’t call the shots on this team.”

4

Some of us love hockey not just for its ferocity and skill but for its underlying code of civility off the ice.”

– George Vecsey

Maya

Once we getpast all the garbage about my father and my qualifications for the job, I drink some water to cool down. Then I answer questions about the direction that the training and rehab program will go. I ask for their suggestions on what they’d like to see implemented and take notes. At the end, as I stand next to Ax, they all come up and shake hands. All except Sauer, who disappeared.

“See you in the gym,” Corey Madison says as he strides out with his wingmen.

The head team physician, Wilhelm Gnauss, sidles up as the last few players decamp. “I thought I’d take Maya through the therapy area and show her our newest X-ray and diagnosticequipment.” From his beaming face, you’d think he was a proud grandfather showing off the newest addition to the family.

Ax mimes wiping his forehead in relief. “Thanks, Wills. I have to go see the GM for a minute. I’ll find the two of you in a few.”

Reminding me of Columbo with his rumpled unbuttoned white lab coat over a powder-blue shirt with frayed collar points and slightly too long gray wool slacks, Gnauss brushes invisible debris off his collar. “Heard you already had a run-in with Sourpuss this morning.”

I think about that, then finally say, “Bug up his ass for some reason?”

“He doesn’t need a reason. That’s how it is with some of these guys. Excess testosterone. Always ready for a fight.”

I bite my lip. I’ve known a lot of enforcers hanging around with the teams Dad has coached. Most of them are sweet guys off the ice. Sauer, though, is as obnoxious off-ice as he is on. And he holds the season record for penalty minutes this year.

“How is he as a teammate?”

“Not a backslapper, but he gets on with everyone. Does a boatload of volunteer work with kids, and always willing to lend a hand. He more or less adopted Jorgensøn last year when he came from Sweden. Didn’t hurt that Sourpuss played a couple of seasons in Sweden before he came into the NHL.”

A warm glow travels up my body as I again rethink the jerk of this morning. Maybe his reaction to me has to do with fear. He had a bond with this Hank guy and now that tie, and the trust that goes with it, is broken. Part of my job will be to restore that delicate balance.Slowly, slowly,I remind myself.

We walk past the training room with weight training and cardio equipment and the testing facility with state-of-the-art skate treadmills and other diagnostic gear. At the end is the medical center and treatment area, I can see a Sharp X-rayimaging system, a player injury video system, and dental and laceration equipment and lighting. The athletic training room boasts underground hot and cold tubs for recovery, a jacuzzi, and new therapeutic treatment/chiropractic tables.

A jaw-dropping separate storage area is filled with cabinets, rows of drawers, and shelves of kinesiology tape, bandages, sprays and creams, and all the other paraphernalia for on-the-spot treatment.

Gnauss grins, waving a hand around the space. “Pretty cool setup, eh?”

---