Page 56 of My Pucked Up Enemy

"Mouthy’s underrated. Keeps things interesting."

"Too much talking and not enough listening gets you benched."

"You thinking of benching me, Doc?" I ask, voice dropping half an octave.

"I think you need to cool it."

"I think you need to admit I’m your favorite case study."

"You’re definitely the most distracting."

"And the most charming."

"That’s debatable."

"Not for long. I grow on people."

She shakes her head with a soft laugh, brushing her hair behind her ear. "You’re exhausting."

"Yet here you are. Still talking to me."

"I’m trying to do my job."

"So am I."

"Your job is to stop pucks. Not flirt with your sports psychologist."

"You’re not just my sports psychologist."

She freezes for half a second.

"You’re part of the team," I continue, smooth. "Which means you’re stuck with me."

She presses her lips together like she wants to argue. But doesn’t.

I let the silence settle before hitting her with a real question. "What do you do when none of it works? When the words, the prep, the game plan all fall apart?"

She straightens, eyes searching mine. "Then you trust the process. You trust that what you’ve built will hold long enough to find your way back. Kind of like muscle memory."

I let that hang in the air for a second, then smirk. "You ever think maybe you need to trust the process too?"

She stiffens. "What do you mean?"

I step closer, just enough for the space to hum between us. "All those rules you keep quoting… boundaries and lines? They’re not gonna hold."

Her jaw tightens. "Alex..."

"You want me, Doc," I say, voice low and rough. "You just don’t want to want me. But it’s already happening."

She crosses her arms, the clipboard now clutched like a shield. "This can’t happen."

"Doesn’t mean it’s not going to."

"It’s not professional."

"Neither is kissing me in an elevator. But that happened too."

Her eyes flash. "We agreed to move on."

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