On my woman.
My fucking woman.
And I couldn’t do a goddamn thing about it.
Eloise cleared her throat and turned her attention to me, her gaze softening when I looked at him. “Thank you for stopping by, Clark. I wanted to get an update on that knee of yours after this morning’s workout.”
“I’m a man of my word,” I said, as Sebastian walked toward the door.
“Yes. We’ve got to make sure our star player doesn’t get hurt,” Sebastian said. “I’ll stop by to finish our conversation later, Eloise.”
She nodded just before he walked out of the office.
I dropped to sit in the chair across from her, even though it took everything I had in me not to lock the door and kiss her senseless.
I didn’t like this. The sneaking around. The lying. The not being able to claim her and let everyone know that she was mine.
“Hey,” she said, as she opened her top desk drawer and pulled out our notebook. “How was practice?”
She wrote something down and passed it to me.
I read the short note.
I’m sorry about that. The flowers arrived, and he showed up shortly after. I promise you, it’s harmless.
I nodded and played along with the conversation just in case he was lingering out in the hallway. “Practice was good. Everything feels fine, and I’m looking forward to getting out on the ice this afternoon.”
I jotted down a quick note back to her.
You have nothing to apologize for. I don’t like that fucker.
She chuckled when I passed it back, and she read what I’d written before tucking the notebook back into her desk. “I’ll be there. Looking forward to seeing everyone out on the ice today.”
“Glad you’ll be out there. You’ll get to see us in action.”
“Well, you’re definitely ready, but I appreciate you giving me updates. Let’s touch base after the scrimmage, all right?”
“Absolutely,” I said. Her tongue swiped out along her bottom lip, and I groaned internally, giving her a warning look. She laughed, shaking her head as if she hadn’t realized what she was doing to me.
“I’ll see you later, Clark.”
I pushed to my feet and mouthed the words,count on it,before holding up my hand and leaving her office.
I made my way to the team room, where everyone was sitting around on the couches and chairs, chowing down on sub sandwiches. I grabbed a plate and joined my boys, where Weston motioned to the empty seat beside him.
“You good?” he asked, obviously wondering where I’d gone.
“Yeah. All good. I just stopped by to see Eloise to give her an update on my knee. She just wants me to check in these first few weeks to make sure everything is still feeling good with us pushing hard during training camp.”
He nodded, his gaze narrowing the slightest bit. “She not only healed you, she got you in good shape this summer. You weren’t kidding when you said she’s a badass trainer, as well.”
“Yep. She followed Randall’s workouts, as she respects the fact that he’s the team trainer, but she tailored them for me, getting me into shape while allowing my knee to recover properly.” I reached for my water. “So what do you think of the new rookies?”
“They’ve got potential. With Bear and Stitch retiring, we need to bring in some strong defensive players.”
“For sure,” Wizz said. “I was at Bear’s house this weekend. I took Layla to his son’s birthday party. The dude was already sporting a beer belly.” Wizz had a little girl who was the same age as Bear’s son.
We all shared a laugh. Robby Baroni, also known as Bear, was one of the best defensive players I’d ever had the honor of playing with. He and Wizz had come up in the league together, and they were tight. I was bummed that I’d only gotten one season with him, but grateful that we shared that Stanley Cup win together. He considered retiring the year before, and to sayhe was happy he pushed one more year to go on to win the cup was an understatement.
