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“Bite me.” She giggles to her father.
“Enough of that,” Erin reprimands with a loud sigh. “Come on, girls. Time for a nap.”
“Yep, ‘cause a nap in this house is code for your mommy and daddy wanting to make you another sister,” Caleb coos, tapping Cara’s nose with his.
“Sister. Brother. Doesn’t matter as long as they are as beautiful as their mother.”
“Barf! Barf! Barf!” Cara shouts out gleefully, no doubt thanks to Uncle Caleb’s instruction.
“Great. Now it’s going to take me forever to put her down,” Erin grumbles.
“I’ll help you with the girls in a minute. Just want to have a quick chat with the guys first,” Jack explains, throwing a conspiring look at his wife.
Erin nods in agreement and takes her daughters to their room while Caleb and Jack stay behind with me, with serious expressions on both their faces.
“What’s up?” I ask, already fearing the worst.
“There’s another reason why I asked you to come over today,” Jack explains in a no-nonsense tone before directing his attention to his brother. “Caleb?”
“Okay,” Caleb starts to say, “so I’ve been bumping uglies with Nichols’ assistant, Kelly—”
“Can’t you just skip that part and spare us the visual?” Jack groans, pulling up his own stool to sit down.
“What would be the fun in that?” Caleb grins after taking back his seat. “Anyway, as I was saying, Kelly and I have been getting busy in all sorts of crazy places. One of them being Trent’s office, or more importantly, on top of his desk.” He winks as if banging some girl on his boss’s desk were something to brag about. “Anyhoo, yesterday Kelly and I were having some fun inside Trent’s office bathroom when we were rudely interrupted by Trent himself. Don’t worry. We didn’t get caught, but I did pay close attention to the telephone call he was having. Looks like our club owner is looking to sell off the Guardians to thehighest bidder so he can retire and live his golden years on some island. Fucker,” Caleb explains with a huff.
“Shit. I thought it was just a rumor,” I say anxiously.
“Nope. Not anymore. By the sound of it, there’s some bigwig who is interested in buying the club but wants to restructure the whole team.”
“Restructure?” I mimic, not liking the sound of that.
“Yeah, man. And I hate to tell you this, but it looks like they are going to cut some of the more problematic players out to bring in new blood,” Caleb explains,
“But that’s stupid. Our team is the best in the league right now,” I defend passionately, even though Caleb and Jack can’t do anything about whatever restructuring is on the horizon.
“Not what the new boss thinks. From what I was able to overhear, this guy is going to watch how this season plays out. But something tells me that a lot of heads are about to roll if we don’t win the championship and qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Starting with Nichols himself.”
“You have got to be kidding?”
Fuck.
If even our GM is in the hot seat, then what chance do I have?
“Wish Caleb was kidding, Nate, but that’s not even the worst part,” Jack interjects, sharing a concerned look with his brother.
“Let me guess, I’m out too?”
“Yeah, man. This new boss isn’t exactly happy with you right now. Whatever you’re doing with that matchmaker, I seriously suggest you start taking it seriously. Otherwise, it was nice knowing you,” Caleb says, slapping his hand on my shoulder.
“Geez, thanks,” I reply sarcastically.
“Maybe this deal will fall through. I’m sure Trent is doing everything in his power for it not to happen if it’s his own ass on the line,” Jack tries to reassure me.
“And what if he can’t?” I ask, already seeing the writing on the wall.
“Let’s not go there just yet. You have until the end of the season, and you have been playing better than any other guy on the team,” Jack tries to comfort.
“Excuse me? Not every guy,” Caleb chimes in, as if the idea of anyone being a better player than him were offensive. “But I’m sure Jack is right. I bet the new owner won’t care a bit that the fans boo you every time you touch a puck. I’m sure it’s just peachy with him.”
