9
Beau
“Who’s on Trey duty tonight?” Edwards asked me in a low voice as he shoved his foot into a skate.
I peered around the locker room. It didn’t seem like anyone else had heard him. “When I’m on with him, it’s me. Otherwise, it’s Isaac.”
He nodded at me, not saying a word.
Trey’s nemesis, Ivan Rozovsky was a member of the team we were playing tonight.
They’d been rivals for years. No one was exactly sure what had gone down to make them hate each other so much—but whatever it was, it must’ve been bad.
Because left to their own devices, those two would likely dismember each other on the ice if given the chance.
And none of us particularly wanted to leave this situation to chance.
So, we’d talked about it as a team—sans Trey—and decided he needed a babysitter whenever he and Ivan were on at the same time. Someone to head off and intervene if need be.
Tonight, most of that responsibility was going to be on me.
I was already carrying around the world on my shoulders, so why not add one more thing?
The only thing going right in my life now were the boys. They took to me and accepted me with zero hesitation. Neither of them were scared or standoffish.
And whenever they called me ‘Dad’ or ‘Daddy’, my heart nearly burst.
Other than that?
My life was complete and utter shit.
Geneviève still hated my guts.
My knee had been hurting worse than ever.
And I couldn’t sleep, no matter what I did. It was so bad one night, I even considered using the key I still had to G’s apartment and sneaking in to lie beside her.
I was exhausted. My heart was broken. Each day that went by, it looked less and less likely we’d get back together.
I even missed those goofy dogs.
A few times, I stayed at my house even when I didn’t have the boys. Our deal was that I’d only be there when the boys were in my care.
But sometimes just the thought of being so near Geneviève was too much to handle. My feelings had only grown during our time apart. Yet she still avoided and ignored me. Which added to my list of physical and emotional pain.
Tonight, I needed to make sure my friend and teammate didn’t do something he’d regret. Plus, this wasn’t all about him. If Trey got suspended or hurt, that would affect the team’s ability to progress.
If we didn’t progress, then we might as well all sign our own retirement packages.
We’d been on a winning streak and our fanbase was growing by the day. What we’d accomplished so far this season was nothing short of a miracle. As an expansion team, the only thing that was expected of us was failure.
The odds were definitely always against any new, pieced together team.
Somehow, for whatever reason, we’d gelled and melded in a joint effort to prove all the critics wrong.
So far.
In sport, winning streaks were always looked upon favorably. But even the more mature players would start to feel the pressure and begin to get superstitious.