Page 38 of Crossing Lines

“Good, glad to hear it.” He lifted his chin at me, then skated a circle back to Hodge. They mumbled to each other.

“Okay, we’re starting off working on your escapes and deception with an off-the-wall neutral zone exchange drill.” I pointed at Carlson and Hodge. “We’ll start with you two. Line up over here.” My gaze caught on Jonah, skating fast across the ice on the other end of the rink, swiping the puck back and forth with his stick.

He drew his stick back, then slapped the puck at Ace. The puck took flight.

Dropping to his knees, Ace grabbed it out of the air and held it up, shaking it.

Jonah hung his head and shook it, then snapped his gaze to mine.

Was I too distracting for him? Shit, with a scout coming this weekend, he had to be on it. Maybe I should have sent him home instead of?—

“Hey, uh, Coach? What do you want us to do?” Hodge shifted his weight on his skates, watching me.

“Oh.” Shit, I was the distracted one. I explained the drill, pointing to where I wanted to see specific actions taken.

They nodded and started the drill, skating in sync with each other. I studied their movements, cupping my chin in my hand. The more I saw those two skate together, the more I was certain they were going to be my starters this weekend. And with Carlson going into camp with the Coyotes, he was going to need this experience. Hodge still had another year with us, but he was certain to get a contract after next season.

After practice,I sat at my desk and waved goodbye to Patterson as he left, then turned my attention to my laptop and the rankings for the NCAA players. Jonah was just shy of the middle. Toronto might be looking at him for a later round of the draft, but he was definitely in the running if he could keep playing as well as he had. Fuck, there were things I could work with him on. But I wasn’t his coach, and I wasn’t sure how Finley would react to me stepping on his toes.

My phone, sitting next to my laptop, dinged with a text, and I picked it up, my code name for Jonah scrawled across the top of my screen. This felt like cheating, but we had to be careful.

Janet

Can we meet up?

I tapped on the keyboard of my phone.

Ryan

Don’t you have classwork to do?

I rubbed my forehead. I had to be the adult in this relationship and keep him from neglecting the important things, even though I was dying to spend more time with him.

Janet

I do have a paper due on Wednesday. How about Wednesday night?

With a raise of my brows, I smirked. I’d been right. He’d been planning to blow off his studying to see me.

Ryan

Yes, that works. Maybe we can have dinner together?

Janet

Yes, see you then.

I chuckled, warmth blooming in my chest. “Oh brother.” He was a sweet guy for a hockey player. I focused back on my work.

Wednesday night,we’d made plans to meet up at my place and I’d picked out a restaurant not too far away in downtown Phoenix. I’d figured it was best not to be seen together in the places around campus. Was I being too cautious? Maybe, but I hadn’t figured out what the punishment would be if we were discovered. The school policy specifically talked about direct coaches and not much else. We were in a gray zone, but my instincts told me it was still a problem.

I sat on a sofa in the empty lobby area of my apartment complex, waiting to shuffle Jonah into the parkade and my car.

He strolled up to the glass doors, all dressed up in a greenbutton-down shirt with a standing collar and white jeans, holding a jacket, and swung the door open.

As I hopped from the sofa with my own jacket in hand, I ran my gaze over him, my heart pattering in my chest. “You look nice.” I strolled to him.

“Thanks, so do you.” He took me in, fixing the collar on my gray button-down.

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