Page 56 of The Friend Zone

Corey hangs his head. “You’re right, Tuck. I’m sorry. It’s just… I wish Coach had some suggestions on what we’re doing wrong. If you had told me two months ago that I would want himto come and yell at us after a defeat, I would have laughed. But him not being here somehow is even worse.”

There’s another chorus of agreement on that sentiment.

“He’s punishing us.” Cole says. “He’s still furious about that stupid fight we had last week and he’s giving us the silent treatment.”

Come to think of it, I think Cole is right. “Yeah. If you guys noticed, Coach didn’t say a word to any of us all week.”

“Aww fuck,” Corey groans. “Call me crazy, but I preferred it when he made us bag skate. At least then we knew where we stood. Do we need to win again to get him to forgive us?”

I know the answer to that, and it’s kind of ironic. “Winning or losing doesn’t matter. I think Coach will forgive us when we show him that we’re still a team.”

“But how do we do that if he barely acknowledges our existence?” Tucker asks.

“When we act like a cohesive group, rather than a bunch of toddlers who are aggressive to each other at the smallest problem.” Ryker’s words have an edge. They’re clearly directed to me and Cole.

I’m a fucking coward—I know that by now—and look away from his intense gaze.

Cole chooses deflection instead. “We can start by showering and going to meet up with our old teammates. Cash just texted me that they booked a bunch of taxis to take us all to their house, just outside of Bridgeport.”

Tucker rubs his hands with glee in his eyes. “Awesome. Maybe we can ask them for some tips. I’m also curious to see how pro hockey players live. That could be some of us next year.”

I’m looking forward to catching up with Cash, Blaze and Luca, but a part of me envies them.

Their lives look perfect to me. They got the woman they love, they got their dream of playing pro hockey.

Neither of those things is in the cards for me.

I fucked things up with Bay and Topher has me under his thumb. And going pro will remain a dream. My family has made it clear that they expect me to follow in my father’s and grandfather’s footsteps and work for the family company.

CHAPTER 13

PARTY CRASHERS

BAY

“Holy shit,” I gawk as Lakyn and Luca give me and Ryker a tour of their mansion. “This is amazing. Sis, you live in a castle.”

Lakyn shakes her head. “Not to sound pretentious, but wait until you get to stay at the Royal Palace for the wedding. This is a shack compared to it. Luckily Luca didn’t leave my side when we visited last summer, or I swear he would have lost me there. If you took a wrong turn and you’d be wandering around for hours trying to find your way back to your room.”

I pull Lake into a hug. “Maybe he should have put an air tag on you,” I tease her.

Luca chuckles. “I did. Well, sort of. I asked Lake to turn on location on her phone, so I could find her whenever I had a private meeting with the king.”

“Did you ever get lost in your own castle?” I ask.

Luca’s smile widens. “Yup. I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t on purpose most of the time though. Mine and Heloise’s favoritegame as kids wasnascondino (hide and seek).Especially when our private tutors came over.”

I tilt my head, confused. “You had private tutors? I thought you went to a private boarding school and then you did your senior year in the US as an exchange student?”

“I did,” Luca confirms. “But formal education covers only a fraction of the things a royal is supposed to know. King Gilberto had tutors hired for extra classes during the school year and for every school holiday. They covered stuff that our regular school curriculum didn’t. Like the history of Montebello and a ton of extra foreign languages.”

Even Ryker, who doesn’t look as impressed by the huge house, since he comes from money, is surprised by that.

“Man, that sounds intense. My parents sent me and my siblings to boarding school, but the summers were ours. How many languages do you speak by the way?”

“Seven,” Luca bites out.

“That’s impressive,” I observe. “I guess it’ll help once you’re king.”

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