Page 116 of Brace and Chase

No one should be able to tell her to behave, least of allthe guy who I saw picking his nose in the locker room not thirty minutes ago.

She might still be the assistant coach here in Chicago—the first woman to get that title in the NHL—but everyone knows she’s going to be the head honcho around here in a few years. Sooner maybe.

She took the job right after Laney left to be the head coach of the Pirates actually, and it was this huge deal for the league. A good thing in my opinion, since I’m pretty sure she’s better than most of the players on this team.

She’sthatgood.

Maybe I had a crush on her... maaaaybe.

Not that I’m gonna say a word about it to anyone, especially not the jealous mountain of a man next to me.

“You promised,” she tells Eagle sharply, and he sighs the way I’ve seen my brothers do a million times when I ask them—tell them, whatever—to do something.

“Fine,” he grumbles.

Then they’re skating towards me, and she’slooking at me, andsmiling, and?—

“Charlie, this is Charlotte,” Eagle says in a robotic voice.

“Uh, hi,” I squeak, then completely shatter any illusions she may have had of me by waving like an idiot.

“Hello, it’s great to meet you.” She offers her hand and I shake it automatically, then curse at myself for not having taken my glove off like a gentleman. My mother would definitely scowl at me.

“You too,” I say, because I don’t know what else to say.

“Charlotte,” Nik says from next to me. She turns to him and this time her smile has a meanness to it.

“Nikolay,” she says cooly. They nod at each other like they’re about to start a duel or something, and I have no fucking clue what’s going on.

Not gonna lie, I start to sweat when her green eyes swing back to me, and the tightness around them fades.

“I’m a huge fan, and Ivan promised me he’d introduce me to you.”

“I, ah—uh,” I stutter. She’s a fan? What the fuck? “Wow,” I settle on. “Thank you. I’m a fan as well.” Nik scoffs next to me, and I can tell he’s annoyed just by the way he shifts from foot to foot.

“You’re from Chicago, right?” She keeps smiling up at me, and acting like Nik isn’t here. What is it with them?

“Yes. Well, no.” I hesitate and have to tell myself to fucking relax. “I’m from Crushville.” I finally manage to make words.

“And are you thinking of moving back home? Finally play for your home team?” There’s a new gleam in her eyes then, one I can’t decipher, but I can’t focus on that too much. Because her question is one I can’t answer.

“I’m very happy with the Pirates,” I tell her politely, maybe more stiffly than before, but the turn the conversation has just taken makes me uncomfortable.

Suddenly, no matter who she is, I want it to be over.

“You have to be to come out of retirement, huh?”

There are no traces left of her friendly demeanor and that’s when it hits me, what she’s doing. Sneaky, sneaky.

“Lottie, that’s enough,” Eagle tells her, more sharply than I’ve ever heard him talk to anyone. “Get outta here, this is our ice time.” There’s no trace of humor on his face, but she just rolls her eyes at him and leaves without another word.

“Gotta respect that,” I say, meaning it. “Trying to play mind games.”

“She’s mean,” Nik says from next to me, and I have to laugh at his pout.

“What did she do to you?” I wonder.

Eagle shakes his head. “You don’t want to know,” he says ominously and then we all get back to our practice.

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