“Sure?” I said with almost no confidence. “Do you mind if I do the flips a few more times while Coach warms up? I just want to make sure I get it right. I don’t want to fall again.”
“The crowd loved when you fell on your butt.” Kier winced as he said the words. “Josh and Jason spoke with the higher-ups; they mentioned more than once that it was a great skit. They had no idea the fall wasn’t planned.”
I grimaced. I’d worried that would happen. I was meant to be entertaining out there, but preferably not at the expense of my body.
“I think we can get through this skit with enough laughs without injuring our mascot,” Reid said. This time he put a hand on my shoulder. I had to grip the edge of the boards to keep from swooning. This was such a bad idea. “It will be more impressive if we keep our mascot on his feet and healthy. No amount of crowd engagement is worth risking his safety.”
“Of course,” Kier said, and he made a few marks on his clipboard, probably not really paying attention to anything we were saying.
My cheeks heated. I grabbed my helmet and put it back over my face, letting out a long breath when I was fully masked. That was better. Reid couldn’t see the blush sweeping my cheeks, and he wouldn’t realize just how much having him close affected me. Even better, I couldn’t talk at all, so I wasn’t going to say anything stupid. Like how amazing his eyes were, or how I thought about him all the time and wished like hell he hadn’t been able to resist me all those years ago.
Those were dangerous thoughts. Ones I shouldn’t be having. I was an expendable member of the team, and one wrong move could result in Reid rethinking letting me stay.
I had to keep it together, keep it professional. No matter how tempting the alpha was.
Chapter 9
Reid
“You’re doing great work.” Barron Frink, team owner, reached out and shook my hand. I returned the gesture. As far as team owners went, Barron was of the better variety. He let the experts make the team decisions and mostly kept out of our way. He trusted that we had the program’s best interest in mind.
“Thank you. It’s been fantastic. I couldn’t have asked for a better team or a better start to the season. There’s some growing happening within the team. The younger players are really starting to shine. There are some shifts we need to make, but all is going well.”
“That’s great to hear.”
Mario and I were sitting in the team owner’s office. It wasn’t a regular occurrence, so I knew that he had something he wanted to discuss with us. Perhaps he simply wanted to check in since I was new to the program.
Barron leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his round stomach. “I’ll be retiring in a few years. My son, Shaw, plans on taking over. So let’s hope that can be a smooth transition as well.”
“That sounds great. You’ve earned it.” The man had bought the team after running several other successful businesses. Retirement would be well-earned. Barron had been an owner for nearly twenty years now.
“I’m not sure how I feel about retirement. I’ve never been good at staying idle, but Shaw’s been training for years. He’ll do a great job.”
“Good to hear it.” Technically, it didn’t really matter to me. It wasn’t as if the team owner made much difference to me. As long as we won games and did well, they wouldn’t bother us, and quite frankly, they didn’t have the hockey expertise to interfere with my job. Though I knew some owners in the league tried to be more hands-on with the teams. Those were the organizations to avoid. I gave him one last nod and stood up from my chair and exited his office after exchanging pleasantries. We made casual plans to get a round of golf in sometime in the off season.
I had enough time to get down to the gym and go for a quick run before the team would arrive for the game. I wasn’t the type that had a definite routine for game days. I just did whatever felt right for the day. My footsteps slowed when I heard Rowan’s voice coming from one of the conference rooms. I didn’t make the conscious effort to stop and listen, but here I was, standing at the door like a creeper.
“I’m just asking for a little time off. Two, maybe three days.” There was desperation in Rowan’s voice. The panic had me stopping in my tracks. Thankfully Mario had taken a different route. I didn’t need the inquisition.
“Absolutely not. You’re the only mascot we have. You know, I’d love to have a team of five of you, but it’s just not in the budget. I can’t help it,” the marketing manager, Harold, said.
“My heat—”
“Josh has a whole campaign planned, and he wants these videos shot in the next week. He’s been going on about it for weeks. Take more suppressants. Double up your dose.”
I bit back a snort. That most certainly wasn’t how it worked. The organization should know that they had to make accommodations for omegas within their organization when their heat struck. Suppressants only went so far. Sometimes those failed.
“I can’t. I can feel it coming on. There’s nothing I can do. This happens sometimes—”
“You’re going to get your goddamn costume on and you’re going to go out on that ice tonight and live it up. This is a home game. Everybody expects you there. The crowd comes to see you.”
“The crowd comes to see the game! Just do the show without me. I talked to Josh, we can use other footage. Please, I can’t—”
“No,” Harold said. “Now, go get dressed. We have people arriving to their suits and they expect you to be there for photos. Get into costume.”
They really weren’t going to allow Rowan to go on that ice if he truly was coming into his heat? Exertion on the ice would bring it on faster. I didn’t know a ton about omegas being in heat, my past relationships had kept that to themselves, and I’d never shared a heat with an omega before, but I knew that they were asking for trouble by allowing Rowan to work while his heat was this close.
I hadn’t realized the conversation was over until Rowan was walking out of the office and nearly ran into me. I steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. His eyes went wide.
