Page 6 of As You Ice It

Coach Davis is staring down at his lap, elbows on the desk and both hands clutching his bald head. “Camden Cole,” he says. “Come in and close the door.”

I take a seat across from his desk and wait. My hair is a little longer than I usually like it, and right now, it’s dripping onto my collar since I came straight from the showers after our optional morning practice. It’s the first time I’ve ever been in this spot, and I don’t like it. It reminds me of a few principal’s office visits from so many years ago. Especially when he’s calling me by my full name and not just by Cole like usual.

I might be in trouble—if only for playing like half of me is somewhere else this season. Which is … accurate. Nothing so far has helped me fix it, though, and I doubt a heart-to-heart with Coach will change that.

Finally, he sighs and sits back in his chair, assessing me with tired eyes. He looks almost worse than he did at the end of last season when he realized his daughter had married Van, the one guy on the team who loves to push Coach’s buttons.

“I need help and thought you might be a good guy to ask.” When I don’t say anything, he continues. “You might have heard we’ve started a new set of classes for youth and?—”

“No.”

He rears back. Probably because I didn’t let him finish. Or maybe it was the hardness in my voice, surprising even me.

“No,thank you,” I amend, but it doesn’t soften my delivery.

“You didn’t even hear what I was going to ask,” he says, a furrow appearing between his brows.

I shake my head. “If it has to do with working with kids, ask someone else.”

Coach’s face is an understandable mark of confusion. “Do you not like kids?”

A muscle in my jaw tics. “I’m just not … good with them.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Coach narrows his eyes.

I hold his gaze, though what I want is to get up and walk out the door. “It’s true.”

It’ssort oftrue. I don’t have a ton of experience with kids, but I failed hard enough recently to make me want to stay away altogether. Disappointing one boy was enough. And I’m not sure I could work with kids without the very painful reminder being thrown in my face.

“You don’t have enough guys to help?” Now that he’s bringing it up, I remember hearing some of the guys talking about this earlier. Like most of the locker-room talk lately, it floats around me, never quite landing.

“We did. And we’re rotating Saturdays when we don’t have games. But we had a record number of kids sign up.” He scrubs a hand down the side of his face. “And then, a few minutes ago, Tucker and Dumbo had a little … issue.”

My lips twitch. Those two guys are the Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb(o) of our team. “What kind of issue?”

“They taught a group of five-year-olds the lyrics to ‘Baby’s Got Back’ while they were gearing up.”

I choke back a laugh. “Why? How?”

“It’s Tucker and Dumbo.” Coach throws up his hands. “I don’t question anything when it comes to those two. It didnotgo over well with the parents, as I’m sure you can imagine. The point is, I could use one more person. Dominik is helping?—”

“You asked Dominik?”

“He offered.” Coach smiles at this. “The Kid’s come a long way.”

Even though Dominik is no longer the youngest on the team now that we’ve acquired the eighteen-year-old twins from Texas, people still call Dom “the Kid.” It’s even started catching on with our fans. And hehascome a long way. Dominik arrived in the middle of last season with an attitude larger than his homeland of Russia. I’m not sure if there was one specific turning point or just the continuous influence of a team with no room for attitude or ego, but he’s definitely matured.

Still. I’m surprised he volunteered to help with the youth classes. And more than a little bit chagrined now that I’m refusing to do the same. If Dominik is willing, then I should?—

No. This has to be a no.

In addition to the fact that I am not someone who should be working with kids given my current headspace, I need to get home. I don’twantto get home. But Ineedto.

I’m still getting acclimated to this twitchy feeling of worry when I’m not home. And since I haven’t told Coach or anyone else about my new houseguest and my new reality, no one understands my sudden need to hurry out of the building and back home. Probably because I’ve been like a ghost all season. They might not notice a difference.

“What about Theo and Carter?” I suggest. “The twins are high energy.”

“They’re helping next week.” Coach pauses. “I’m not sure you know this, but the guys look to you as a leader. Especially with Alec gone.”

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