Page 23 of Brace and Chase

“I would love to. Thank you for the invite.” He nods seriously at me then chews his lower lip as he straightens. I shake my head. “Everything is okay, Picard,” I reassure him. He nods, looking just slightly less unsure, then walks to his own cubby.

The night feels like a return to normal.

I laugh as Sterling and Jamie bicker like siblings, and shake my head, bewildered, when I see Jake, the GM of the Pirates who fell in love with Jamie at first sight, be all lovey-dovey with her.

He’s a hardass at work and doesn’t let anyone think he’s not on top of things. I’ve known him a damn long time. He was climbing the ladder at the Pirates when I was drafted, and I’ve witnessed the progress of how he became the force to be reckoned with that he is today.

It’s weird to think I’m proud of him, since he’s older than me, but I am.

I’m delighted to see him brought down a peg or two by Jamie, though.

The kids love me—an awesome upside of my nickname—and I hear everything Ava has to say about Christmas being just around the corner.

At the end of the night, when he walks me out to my car, I know Jules is struggling with what to tell me, but I clap his shoulder and speak before he can.

“Never apologize, and never think you are wrong for doing the best for the team, Picard. You are the captain for a reason.”

I squeeze his shoulder once until he looks up at my eyes. I nod, and try to communicate everything I can’t seem to say with my eyes.

He stares for a long moment, then nods. Only then do I step back. I try to smile like I always used to. I try to walk like I used to, but I’m not sure I pull it off.

I arrive earlyat the practice rink, because I want to go see the PT for a routine massage on my left shoulder and get him to check out my ribs from yesterday’s punch, but I’m stopped from going in when I see Laney and Heart just outside the locker room.

Fucking Christ, I can’t escape him.

I keep walking, determined not to change my plans, but Laney kills that dream pretty quickly.

“Oh, you’re here,” he says like he was expecting me. I frown at him because he wasn’t. I didn’t tell anyone I was coming in early. “Suit up, I want you on the ice in two minutes.”

That’s all he says before walking away. I want to ask Heart what the fuck is going on, so badly, but I bite my tongue and just go do as Laney says.

It’s a bitch of a thing that Heart comes in just after me, and he gets suited up as well. And then dread starts to fill the pit of my stomach.

“Did you come in to get your ribs looked at?” Heart asks, and stops all my movements. It’s the incredulity that froze me.

Does he honestly think I’m going to talk to him now?

Just because I defended him as my teammate doesn’t mean I want to talk to him all of a sudden.

I unfreeze and just hurry up and get to the ice before Heart does, ignoring him once more. I move like my ass is on fire, and tell myself it’s mostly so I can hopefully get off Laney’s shit list, but I find the ice empty, Laney nowhere to be found. There’s a puck on center ice, so I figure, why not? I skate lazily to it and start handling it without any care, just by feel, working on doing it all without looking down the way my coach taught me twenty years ago.

“Yeah, go on,” I hear Laney’s voice and decide to stop fucking around. I really don’t want Laney angrier at me.

Heart steps onto the ice with trepidation all over his face, which tells me he knows more about what’s happening,but if I had to guess based on how well I know Laney, he doesn’t know all of it, just like me.

“What are we doing?” I ask, trying to hide my impatience.

“One-on-one drills. You start by the net,” he says with no mercy. I look to see Heart’s shocked face right as the whistle blows and nearly leaves me deaf.

TEN

CHARLIE

Nikolay winces at the whistle,and I can’t blame him.

I’m pretty sure Laney actually leaned in a little so he’d be closer to his ear. It fucking sucks when your coach is mad at you, I can attest, but it’s hard to find it in me to feel bad for him in any way, shape, or form.

The dude is as infuriating and confusing as a man can get.

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