“I just fucking did,” Coach said.
“I’m so sorry, Coach,” Remi said.
“It just doesn’t make sense sometimes,” Coach said. “The way things go. I kept it all together. I thought I was alone in here.”
“I’m glad you weren’t,” I said. “What were you going to do? Break everything? Then what?”
“I haven’t figured it out yet, Maverick,” Coach said. “I’m thinking it all over. What my life is going to be like when she’s gone.”
“Don’t say that,” Riff said.
“You have no idea,” Coach said. He put his hands to his desk and stood up. “Are you really going to stand there and try to shove rainbows up my ass?”
I touched my jaw again.
I swallowed hard.
“Okay, Coach,” I said. “Let’s be real then. Did the doctors say she’s going to die?”
“Mav,” Remi growled.
Coach swallowed hard. “They haven’t said much yet.”
“So, you’re assuming,” I said. “Giving up?”
Coach pushed at his desk. “Watch your mouth, Maverick.”
“Come around that desk and make me,” I said.
“Oh, fuck,” Lay whispered.
Remi jumped forward as Coach started to walk around his desk.
Coach’s eyes met mine.
He wanted to hit me. Out of emotion though. Not out of hatred.
He caught himself. His jaw tightened and flexed.
I nodded to him.
“Okay,” Coach whispered. “You guys aren’t going to leave, huh?”
“Not until we know you’re okay,” Abel said.
Coach scoffed.“Then I guess you’re never going to leave.”
Coach saton his desk and grabbed the picture of his family.
“Her grandmother and a great-aunt went through it too,” Coach said. “But they were much older when it happened. They were kind of at the end of their lives. Her grandmother fought it… beat it too.” Coach smiled and looked at us. “She was a stubborn old woman. She loved hockey too. I always dreamed of her being on the bench when I was coaching. She died before that could happen. I don’t want that again. I don’t want death to cut things short.”
“It’s not going to happen then,” I said.
“Do you believe in fate, Maverick?” Coach asked.
Fate? As in needing company for one night and end up having wild sex with the perfect woman, only to find out she’s the new GM’s daughter and I could end up getting traded to some obscure minor league team in Alaska if this gets out?
“What happened, Coach?” Remi asked. “Tell us everything.”