Page 34 of Triple Pucked
“Didn’t what?” Robyn demands.
He shakes his head. “I’ve watched you go through a lot of bullshit together. I’m your dad. Of course I want your partners to have your back. It seems that you have theirs.”
Robyn crosses her arms, tossing her fiery hair.
I’ll never tell her that she looks like a cute but fierce squirrel when she does that.
It may be why Eden has fallen for her.
Unexpectedly, coach adds, gruffly. “Have you talked to your brother this week?”
Robyn stiffens. “We agreed not to do this.”
“Do what?” Coach’s eyes flash. “Ask about my own damn son? Just because he’s too stubborn to return my calls doesn’t mean that you can’t at least tell me that the little shit is okay. Heobviously doesn’t care about his own dad. When is he going to get over his tantrum and stop wrecking our family like he always has?”
When Robyn sways, Shay instantly rushes to step toward her, wrapping his arms around her.
I pale.
Once, I thought that the way coach treated Cody, me, and the rest of the team was normal. But then, I’d been sent by my own family to an institution that beat me for breaking rules like looking out of a window, meeting a teacher’s eye, or even fucking smiling.
I’d had my hair shaved off and my dignity stripped from me.
Now, I won’t allow anyone, from Cody to the newbie players and youngest staff members, be broken down in the same way by coach.
“Code was never the reason that our family was wrecked,” Robyn replies. She’s shaking. “He set the boundary that you may only see him inside work and not outside. He doesn’t want to be alone with you. You haven’t been respecting that by trying to contact him, which is why I’m not talking about him to you. I will never go behind my brother’s back.”
When coach slams his hands down on the desk, I leap out of my seat, and with deliberate precision, place my own hands down next to coach’s.
Our faces are close.
It startles him.
I coolly meet coach’s shocked gaze. “Bust my ass as much as you want. But lay off your son and daughter, or we are going to have a problem.”
“I’m their dad,” coach snarls. “Stay out of my family business. It’s nothing to do with you.”
“Robyn is my family now, which means that her brother is as well. And I don’t allow family to be threatened or hurt.”
“They’re my family too.” Shay’s expression is harder than I’ve seen it before. He scowls at coach. “And I’d do anything to protect them.”
Robyn appears overwhelmed, swiveling her gaze between Shay and me.
Slowly, coach settles back in his seat, as if it’s a victory and not a defeat.
Coach’s smile worries me like he knows something that we don’t. “If anyone else had spoken to me like that, then I would have handed them their asses and made sure that they never played anywhere but the minor leagues again. But I understand what love can do to you. I’ve experienced how much it can twist your mind. I just hope that you all know what you’re risking and throwing away for this relationship. I hope that your brother understands too.”
Robyn’s brow furrows. “Throwing away…?”
“Luckily,” coach taps on the laptop, “a new coach is starting next week who I hope will remind you who is in charge around here. And it’s not you. One of your many issues, Jude, is that you need to be in control at all times. You’ve never learned when someone else has the power. Even I am not the boss of this club.”
My blood runs cold. Chilled, my skin goosebumps.
Coach turns the laptop around, revealing the man who has been sitting silently listening throughout the meeting on Zoom.
Charles Heine, the Bay Rebels’ billionaire owner.
I scramble to remember what I’ve said…given away.
