Page 40 of Playmaker

He chuckled. “It was your first time on the course, and only your third time hitting the ball. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

I sighed. “Is this worth it? Or am I just going to be a nicely dressed disaster at the tournament? It’s almost July, and the tournament is the third weekend in September.”

“You can only do one day a week?”

I considered. “It’s not just the hours I put in at the office on Saturday. I need time to do laundry and clean the condo. I can’t ask Darcy to do all the shopping.”

“What about an evening?”

Our server came with our meals then. The aroma had my stomach gurgling. Cooper heard—he held back a grin as he thanked the woman.

I picked up my spoon and stirred the contents of the bowl. I leaned over and took a deep breath in. This was going to be good.

“It’s a long drive to Briarwood to try to make it in an evening.”

Cooper added some chili sauce to his bowl. “There are places in the city to practice. We could work on your swing and your distance if you aren’t at the office late every day.”

Damn, I sounded so boring. My life revolved around my job. An unfamiliar voice said I deserved a break. But that could come once I’d secured my position in the firm. I needed that.

Unfortunately, as I was becoming aware, I needed more than an established work ethic and familiarity with the tax act. I needed to show I fit in. And this tournament was my chance to prove that.

“Summers the workload usually gets a little lighter.” I used that time to do more reading since tax was a constantly evolving beast. Governments added and changed what was in the tax act, and rulings by the courts affected the interpretation of that. “I can take an evening or two.”

“What nights work best for you?”

“Aren’t you busy?” Darcy had a social life when he wasn’t working. Most people did, right?

He swallowed some noodles. “This is the offseason. No games in the evenings.”

But what about dates? Not your business.

I pulled out my phone, checking my schedule. “I’m preparing a file this week which is going to take some extra hours, but as long as it’s ready for Monday, I can be flexible about the time I spend on it.”

He squinted, looking out the window. “You need a day or two for those muscles to recover. Wednesday and Friday?”

Wasn’t Friday—No, not my business. If Cooper was willing to help me, I’d use it. But I should be helpful in return. If only I could think of a way to do that. “I’d appreciate it if you could spare that time.”

He gave a lazy smile. “Maybe golf coaching can be my follow-up career when I’m done with hockey.”

I held back a snort. Like this guy needed a fallback. Did he?

I’d done some research on him—if I was going to trust a big step to my future with him, I wanted to know about him. He had an insanely large contract to play hockey. There would be agent fees and taxes, but still. And his endorsements. He would have to work hard to spend all that money. But he’d grown up with money, and I felt confident he knew what to do with it.

He could have a secret gambling habit or something, but my bet was that he was taking care of his future just fine.

“I’ll book us some time on those evenings.”

Chapter13

Captain Cooper

Cooper

Scout was workingus a little harder now. By the end of our workout Monday, we were all sweating and feeling some burn.

“Fuck. Why is this so hard every year?”

Ducky grinned at Royston. “Cause you’re old, dude.”

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