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Tuning him out, I close my eyes and will my ears to listen harder than they ever have before.
Laura is talking, but I can’t make out exactly what she’s saying. I only pick up the words paid and it’s okay.
This doesn’t help me figure anything out.
Charlotte starts talking. “I’m sorry I’m leaving.”
What?
A guy’s voice perks my ears up. “We understand completely. You have to do what’s best for you. But we will definitely miss you here every day.”
She’s leaving? She’s fucking leaving?!
“Thank you,” she mumbles.
I have a feeling whatever the fuck is happening in there is about to come to a close, and we cannot be here when they open that door.
“Let’s go.” I tug on Jensen’s sleeve.
We jump past the door and speed-walk down the hallway, turning to the locker room right as I hear the office door open behind us, followed by the voices of Laura, Charlotte, and the guy who I think is their boss. But we don’t slow down; if anything, we speed up.
By the time we are actually inside of the locker room, it is me who is huffing and puffing.
What in the fuck just happened? I can’t believe she’s leaving. She wouldn’t quit; that’s not who she is. I know she loves that job and would do anything to keep it.
“Hey, guys. What’s up?” Brett asks, obviously confused at our dramatic entrance.
“We were—” JD starts, but I slap his chest with the back of my hand and interrupt him.
“Nothing,” I say and hustle over to my cubby to change.
I need to get on the ice and clear my damn head. I must have heard wrong, right? Is she actually abandoning this team? Abandoning me?
The second I’m ready, I practically race to the ice with my stick. Skating out, I join Alec and Cam, who are already doing one on ones as a warm-up with Macky in the goal. Scooping a biscuit in my stick, I skate toward the empty net across the ice from them. Dribbling the puck, I skate hard yet aimlessly in the zone, unable to shut my fucking brain off.
Why in the hell is she leaving? I don’t get it. It doesn’t make any sense. Is being near me so miserable to her that she would rather leave her dream job than to get over it?
Snapping the puck into the net, I mentally scream, Fuck, but then I quickly realize that it wasn’t as internal as I intended.
A few seconds later, Kos is skating over to me, and I wish he would go away because I don’t think my mind can handle a check-in from my captain right now.
“What’s up?” he asks.
“Not much,” I bite out and try to rein myself in.
I’m never an ass or a douchebag unless someone really provokes me, but even then, I am still controlled.
God, Charlotte drives me crazier than anything in this world, partially because she is the only person capable of doing it. Not being with her is bad for my health and my game. But I don’t think that I’m the person who can change that because I wasn’t the one who ended it. I can’t be the only person putting out love in this relationship; it’s a fifty-fifty effort. I wish I could love us enough for the both of us.
“Reed, just talk to me. What’s up? I know you’ve been struggling lately,” he says as if it’s the clearest thing in the world.
But it probably is. I’m not really good at hiding it, although I don’t care to try to. I’m not scared of wearing my heart on my sleeve like most guys.
“I don’t have anything I want to talk about,” I admit, grabbing another puck near us.
He sighs like he has more to say.
“Do you have anything you need to get off your chest?” I ask, shooting the puck into the net, then resting my stick parallel to the ground against my hips.
