Page 123 of Role Model

“I love you too. I miss you.”

“Me too. I’ll see you and Harris soon, okay?”

Troy loved his mom so much. He should have come out to her years ago. “Okay.”

He ended the call, and was so excited to get to the arena he almost forgot his coat. He couldn’t wait to tell Harris.

Before Troy got a chance to find Harris at the arena, he got called into Coach Wiebe’s office.

“Just need to talk to you for a sec, Barrett,” Wiebe said. He looked anxious, but not angry. Troy had no idea what this would be about.

“What’s up?” he asked, as calmly as he could manage.

Wiebe nodded at one of the leather chairs in front of his desk. “Have a seat.”

Shit. This couldn’t be good.

“I just had a meeting with management. Apparently you’ve upset Commissioner Crowell.”

Troy’s stomach dropped. God, he was about to be suspended. Or tossed down to the AHL. Or worse. “I wasn’t trying to,” he said.

Coach smiled wearily. “It doesn’t take much, I don’t think.”

Troy relaxed a bit. It seemed his coach was on his side.

“I’m supposed to discipline you. To be honest this whole thing makes all of us very uncomfortable: the GM, the owners. Everyone.”

Troy swallowed. He had no idea what to say. Was he supposed to apologize? Defend himself? He’d known, when he’d decided to start posting about sexual assault again, that he was going against the commissioner’s instructions. He’d expected some sort of backlash, so he should be able to face it now that it had come.

“I’m sorry if I made your job harder,” Troy said carefully, “but I don’t regret using my voice to address something important.”

Coach raised his eyebrows. “It’s not you who’s making us uncomfortable, Troy. We agree with you. Even the owners have said they’re impressed with what you’re doing. We want our players to be good role models, and to contribute to the community. It’s Crowell who’s causing us problems.”

Wow. Troy had not been expecting any of that. His throat felt tight. After coming out to Mom less than an hour ago, and now receiving this unwavering support from his employers, he was a little overwhelmed. “Oh,” he said.

“To be honest, Crowell kind of has it out for this team. He hates that we don’t draw big crowds, and it’s no secret that he wants to move us to a larger American market.”

“We’ve been getting bigger crowds lately,” Troy said, as if that would be reason enough to change Crowell’s mind.

Coach smiled. “That’s what happens when you’re on fire.” His smile faded. “Crowell’s on a warpath, though. He really doesn’t like you.”

Troy shifted in his chair. “I got that impression.”

“He’s not a fan of Rozanov either. Or me.”

“Really? Why? Rozanov is one of the biggest stars in the league. He’s one of the most entertaining players to watch ever.”

“Yep. And then he voluntarily went to the smallest market team in the NHL.”

Ah. Right. “Okay. Why doesn’t he like you?”

“When I used to play, I filed a few complaints against one of my coaches for using slurs and generally being an abusive prick. He was bullying some of the rookies in particular. I didn’t like it.”

Troy’s mouth fell open. “I had no idea.”

“Because the complaints never saw the light of day. The league remembers, though, and I heard Crowell was pissed when I got this coaching job. I think I was hired just to spite him.”

Troy shook his head. “No way. You’re a great coach.”

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