Face Offs & Cheap Shots (CU Hockey 2)

It didn’t have anything to do with thinking he wouldn’t support it and everything to do with how much I have riding on this.

This is my chance to be free of the expectations my parents have instilled in me from the moment I was born. I need my pitch to be faultless so Dad doesn’t have any other choice than to back me.

Starting my own hockey camp will need a whole financial plan, a leasable site that has easy access for students to get to over summer and possibly early mornings during the semester so I can have it operating year-round.

I could recruit coaches from colleges for the bigger capacities over summer, and I was even thinking Jacobs could bat his eyelashes at his bestie and get Foster Grant involved too. If we had NHL stars dropping in for special days, enrollments would be at capacity. It has the potential to make a lot of money.

Then I need to think of insurance, housing, following NCAA rules to make sure all students would be eligible for college entry … There’s a lot to do in a short amount of time.

Even though this is my long-term plan, I have to present the whole plan to Dad before graduation.

I’m in the middle of reading infrastructure legislation, because that’s always fun, when the door to my dorm room flies open, and my boyfriend walks in with two cups of coffee from the campus coffee cart.

“Oh my God, I love you.” I reach for the precious, precious liquid.

“Aww, I love you—wait, you’re talking to the coffee, aren’t you?”

“I love both of you equally. Don’t make me choose!”

“Oh, I think it will be an easy choice once I tell you the little nugget of information I learned from Zach’s angry friend Ray at breakfast.”

“I’m listening.”

“You’re looking at this as an opportunity to make money, right? She thinks you’ve got that all wrong.”

“Oh, great. Yeah, that really makes me love you. You’re right.”

“Let me finish, Mr. Impatient. What if it’s set up as a nonprofit? Ray pointed out that a huge company like Beckett Enterprises would always be looking for tax write-offs. Having a nonprofit under the Beckett Enterprises umbrella will mean funding, and you will technically still work for your dad. You both can win.”

Holy shit.

“That’s the angle,” I say. “That’s what could get this approved. And it could help less-fortunate kids who can’t afford hockey coaching.”

“Like me.” Jacobs hangs his head. “I would’ve killed for an opportunity like this. I was lucky enough to get in because of my natural talent, but we could barely afford my hockey gear let alone extra coaching. I could have been the next Foster Grant with it, who knows.”

Excitement over this project replaces the anxiety over the workload to get it done.

“I could kiss Ray!”

Jacobs’s face screws up. “I wouldn’t if I were you. She probably bites.”

I laugh. “I’ll kiss you instead and thank her later.”

“That sounds like a better plan.” He leans in and touches his lips to mine, but then my phone beeps with a reminder. “Shit. I have to go meet with my advisor.”

“Again? Have you come up with a plan on how you’re going to fit in a billion classes in two semesters?”

“Yup. And it technically doesn’t break Dad’s rules, though I know he’s not going to be happy about it.”

“Sounds like a very Beck thing to do.”

“Right? His rules say I have to have a plan before graduation, right? But he didn’t say when I have to graduate by. I’m hoping to defer all my senior subjects until next year and do my minor courses over the next two semesters.”

Jacobs grins. “It’s evil, and I love it. Even if it means I look for a job in Burlington after graduation.”

“You’ll stay for me?”

There’s no hesitation as my boyfriend nods. “I can still help out at home on weekends.”

“I can come too. Your family loves me.”

He pats my cheek. “Sure they do.”

“Hey, they do!”

“Mmhmm.” Jacobs pulls me close. “I know you need to go, but first I want to say, I like planning a future with you.”

I groan. “You can’t say shit like that right before I leave. It makes me want to blow off my meeting and blow something else instead.”

His lips land on my cheek. “Go see your advisor, then come right back and blow me. I’ll be waiting.”

This is going to be the fastest meeting in history.

Jacobs grips my shoulders. “You’ve got this. No need to be nervous.”

“Nervous? I’m not nervous.” I’d believe that too if my voice didn’t sound like a six-year-old girl’s.

While most families over their Thanksgiving break are spending time together and eating their weight in food, Jacobs and I are at Beckett Enterprises to meet with my father and give him my life plan.

Will it make me rich? No. But it will give me enough money to live happily with Jacobs at my side. We’ll have to live in an apartment instead of a house. We’ll have to eat ramen instead of restaurant meals.