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The silence went on, then Bennett stared directly at Pence and Sewell. “Are we clear?”
“Yeah, Cap,” Pence said at the same time that Sewell replied, “Definitely, Cap. Won’t happen again.”
“Verreault!”
At the whip-crack sound of his name, Bennett’s head swiveled toward the doorway. Coach Carter’s eyes were narrowed in Bennett’s direction. “Yeah, Coach?”
“A word. Now.”
Shoving his feet into slides, Bennett followed their coach out the door and into the hallway. Carter didn’t stop there, he kept going into a tiny meeting room. He left the door ajar, not even waiting for Bennett to walk in before Carter snarled, “What is this I hear about the team going clubbing at captain’s orders?”
“Team bonding,” Bennett lied.
“Team bonding?” Carter folded his arms. “That’s bullshit if I’ve ever heard it. Almost eighty thousand dollars of booze, paid for by you, is not team bonding. Fuck, Benny. Near the end of the season, too? That’s what I call team sabotage.”
Bennett happened to agree, which was why he blamed Nico for tonight’s game. Not that he could admit it to his coach. For now, he had to stick with the lie. “The boys needed to blow off steam. I thought it would be a good idea to do it before playoffs started.”
“Right.” Carter stared at the carpet and shook his head. “Last year, the boys wanted to play golf in Florida before the playoffs and you refused. You said someone might strain their back. So, explain how letting the team get wasted right before an important conference game was a good idea.”
“In hindsight, it probably wasn’t.”
“You think? Don’t ever make a fucking decision like that again without talking to me.”
“I won’t.”
“Good.” Carter exhaled and jerked his thumb toward the door. “Now, go. Someone is waiting in the family room for you.”
Bennett’s chest squeezed like a vise was clamped around it. Shit. Nico was here again? Was this mobster following him everywhere? He was haunting Bennett at every turn, like some sexy, dangerous Italian ghost.
Carter was waiting for a reaction, but Bennett was incapable of speech. He just nodded and let his feet take him toward the room where families waited after games. He couldn’t picture it, Nico Marzano, chatting up the WAGs. The idea was too ludicrous and horrifying to contemplate. What was he telling them?
He pushed into the room, ready to pretend Nico was some long-lost relative—
He stopped short. Lauren.
Oh, Christ. Lauren was here at the arena, waiting for him after the game. He almost sagged with relief. Of course it had been Lauren. How could he have assumed it was anyone else?
Her eyes were on him, a divot forming between her brows as she excused herself from the small circle of women and approached him. “Hey, babe,” she said and pushed up onto her toes to kiss his cheek. “Good job tonight.”
He gave his brain a mental shove to get back in the game. “I was awful, but thanks.” By force of habit, he put his hands on her waist. She looked beautiful, with her blonde hair curled and hanging loose on her shoulders, and she smelled a hell of a lot better than the locker room. He squeezed her sides. “This is a nice surprise.”
“Is it?” she asked softly.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I felt bad that I cancelled on you, so I decided to come over today.”
“Good. I’ve missed you.”
“Hmm.” She patted his chest. “Go get showered. Then we’ll order some dinner.”
CHAPTER 11
“Okay. What’s going on with you?”
Ignoring Lauren’s question, Bennett kept unpacking her Thai food, which had just been delivered to his penthouse. At the same time, he was heating up one of his pre-packaged meals that his personal chef sent him each week. Lauren sat at the kitchen bar, sipping wine, her gaze far too knowing for Bennett’s liking. She’d been quiet ever since they left the arena.
He could play it off as team-related stuff. After all, Lauren came from a hockey family. Her father had played in the minors for a few years, and her youngest brother was currently playing at the University of Denver. She knew the pressure he was under, as well as the grind, the uncertainty of the season. It was one of the reasons the two of them worked so well together.
