Page 10 of Goalie interference

“I feel fine,” he said quickly, his eyes shooting past me to the crowd–anything that wasn’t me. “Better than fine.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding once. “Go on.”

Ash let out a relieved breath, skating off to his net where he was noticeably more comfortable. He relaxed his body and seemed at home there, refocusing on the game.

◆◆◆

Ash avoided me for days after that, doing anything in his power to at least not be alone with me. I didn’t blame him–I wasn’t working all that hard to see him alone either.

Things just needed to settle down naturally–he was an adult, not some little kid. He didn’t need me to talk him through his feelings or anything–that wasn’t my job.

My job was to make him better on the ice.

Four months ago, I was so familiar with SAP Center that I could navigate it in my sleep, but now I was getting lost in the maze of hallways and offices. I kept finding myself wanting to head towards the locker room when I’d walk in, but I was sentenced to a lonely beige office.

Every retired player's dream…

“Thayer!” Reed called out, echoing down the empty hallway that I was pretty sure led to my office…maybe. “You got a minute?”

“Of course,” I hummed, turning around and meeting him halfway. “I was just heading to my office.”

“Then you were going the long way,” he muttered softly, smiling at me a little before nudging his head for me to follow him. “I wanted to catch up with you on Kinny. How’s that been going?”

“Well, he hates the name Kinny, so,” I huffed, shaking my head softly. “But it’s been fine. He’s definitely touchy, like you said–no major blow-ups yet.”

“And his injury?”

My mouth shut before the easy answer flew out.

It would have been so easy, and the right thing to do, to just tell Reed that his injury was aggravated but healing. He was his main coach–he needed to know that.

But that would also go against our deal.

I promised Ash I would let him lead here, but telling Reed would most definitely get him pulled. Reed would hear that he was still in pain and pull him until I said he was better, but that wouldn’t help Ash.

And that wouldn’t help our already fracturing relationship.

“Good.” I nodded, finding interest in the twists and turns of the hallways in favor of looking at Reed. “He doesn’t show any signs of pain from it–I think he just favors the left leg because he doesn’t trust his right yet, but he will.”

“Good,” Reed sighed, stopping in front of my office. “I was really hoping this would work out. Ash is a good kid, and he has the passion and drive to do this–he just needed a coach that…spoke his language.”

Yeah, I wasn't sure the language he wanted us to speak was the one we were.

Chapter 5

Ash

Even at its most boring or painful, I could normally keep my attention on Callie. I could normally at least act into whatever we were doing, but not today.

And not with how bad my leg was hurting.

Avoiding Thayer was easier than I thought–skipping out first and not lingering in the locker room or on the ice. It may have helped that he didn’t seem all that eager to see me alone either, but it was becoming unavoidable now.

The pain started up again a few days ago, but it was minor at first. It was just a dull ache–more annoying than anything. It didn’t start getting bad again and requiring my routine of painkillers every three hours until yesterday, but it was still manageable.

Today, it was killing me.

“Can we try something?” I asked in a pained wince, carefully moving Callie to the bed next to me and no longer putting all her weight on me.