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"You haven't," I argued. "What's wrong?"
"First, the cleaning crew, now this? We have practice and I always have the kitchen staff here to feed them. Now our usual vendor backed out. They built a new stadium over in Verdant Springs and it's twice as big, new, and they're taking our staff one by fucking one."
My heart sank. That was a tough place to be. Dad had been running this place single-handedly and he was in over his head. If he didn't change something, we'd lose our customers. He ran the league, sure, but there were also kids’ hockey teams that used the rink and we rented out for parties sometimes.
"Let me help," I said. It wasn't a question, but an order. He raised his brows and shook his head.
"Macy, I appreciate it, but you didn't sign up to pick up my slack. You've got bigger aspirations."
Did I?
Maybe at one time I'd wanted to leave this small city and strike out on my own, land a job in the corporate world, now that sounded like hell.
"That's exactly what I signed up for," I said. "You need me and I want to be here. It'll give me something to focus on. If my feelings about this change, I'll let you know with plenty of time to find more help. Deal?"
He studied me. His weathered features were serious before he sagged in relief. With a deep breath he pulled out his password and slid it my way.
"Everything is on this computer or in the top drawer. Take a peek around and see what you might want to do. I'll be around after practice for questions."
"When does the team usually eat?"
He glanced at his watch. "At the beginning of the night they hand out drinks but I can do that before practice. Food is usually at seven-thirty."
"I've got it."
"Macy," he growled.
"Any allergies or hard no's for the group?"
"Bryant is a vegetarian," he offered. "No allergies."
With one last reluctant glance my way he rushed out. There was no time to argue but I was positive he'd find the time to make up for it later. For now, I had been given free rein.
I set an alarm so I had plenty of time to cook before practice ended and dove into Dad's drawer first. There was pure chaos inside, stacks of invoices, half paid, half not, and various papers.
More music was definitely in order.
With something to listen to, I started sorting the invoices into separate piles. Putting a clip around the unpaid I left them out and started sorting the others, only pausing to order a file organizer to be shipped to the rink.
At the bottom of the stack was something that had my blood running cold.
Someone offered him an insane amount of money to buy the rink, name, team, and all. The amount of zeros attached was obscene.
Was he considering it?
The thought broke my heart. It had been in our family since my grandfather opened it. Yet with the way he was contending with a new arena and struggling to keep it up, I couldn't blame him for seeing that and wanting a way out.
If he hadn't brought it up, then he wasn't convinced yet. That meant I had time to fix things for him, get our facilities up to date, and convince the town to keep coming back for games.
My alarm went off, startling me from my thoughts. I tucked the offer back into the bottom of the drawer again and rushed out.
The kitchen was the cleanest part of the entire place. The stainless steel gleamed in the harsh fluorescent lighting and it smelled faintly of bleach. Thankfully, the fridge was stocked with ingredients and so was the walk-in pantry. I spotted some pizza dough in the back of the fridge and pulled it out, getting all the ingredients I needed for pizza and a huge salad. Pretty basic but something for everyone.
I'd never cooked for a vegetarian but I hoped he wasn't picky and made a cheese then veggie pizza first before preparing the rest in an array of styles. I wasn't sure how many pizzas would feed a hockey team but I opted for ten to be safe along with several trays of garlic bread.
I was covered in flour and working up a sweat stretching dough on the pizza pans, glad that the kitchen had everything I needed since they often served big parties and games. The heat lamps were on and soon the counter was filled with bubbling-hot pizzas.
The final whistle and sound of voices leaving the ice sounded off when I finished chopping vegetables for the salad, tossing it all together. Again, I cut the vegetarian pizza first before cutting the rest to be safe.
