Bruiser (Seattle Sharks 7)

“Come on, ref! Are you blind? That was tripping!” Lukas yelled.

The ref looked straight at him and rolled his eyes.

“That’s nine-year-old hockey!” a dad from the other team shouted over from about twenty feet away. “Sometimes they fall!”

Lukas looked at the dad like he’d grown two heads. “Maybe sometimes you fall.”

Shea snorted in laughter.

“I should have known better than to invite you goons.” I wrapped my arm around Shea, tugging her against my side. “Faith offered to watch Elliott tonight so we can go to the team dinner,” I told her.

Her forehead puckered, worry settling back on her shoulders.

“Hey, we don’t have to. I mean, I have to, but you two can stay at the Penthouse, all nice and snug with Thing 1 and Thing 2,” I motioned back to where our security stood at either end of the bleachers.

She sighed as the game went on in front of us.

“Really, it’s okay.” And it was. Elliott’s safety came first.

We gasped, then roared with cheers when our goalie saved a great shot. We were still down one, but there were four minutes left, and anything could happen in four minutes.

“There you go!” Gentry shouted. “Way to use your glove!”

“Why the team dinner?” Shea asked. “I mean, not that I don’t want to go—because I do, but I just didn’t know they were a thing during the season.”

“We’re playing Ontario on Friday,” I answered, my gut clenching.

“That’s your old team, right?”

“Yeah. I guess they do it every year before the game since it’s a rivalry.”

She chewed on her lower lip.

“There’s the opening!” Lukas shouted. “Take it! Take it! Skate!”

The Vance kid broke away, heading for the opposition’s zone.

“Go with him, Elliott!” Noble yelled. “Think Gretzky! F2! F2!”

The other team’s parents looked at us again, and it wasn’t flattering.

“It’s an offensive strategy,” I told them with a little wave.

One of the dads blinked and shook his head.

“Settle down. It’s not like the NHL is here scouting them,” one of the opposition’s moms chided.

Every single Shark turned their head slowly, giving the woman an are-you-fucking-kidding-me-look.

“Not scouting your kid, that’s for sure,” Lukas muttered.

The defense knocked it back, and we were once again fighting the puck off in our own zone as the clock counted down and another shift came on.

“It’s about time you got some fresh legs out there!” Noble snapped.

One of our own coaches looked up at me and tilted his head. Yeah, I was going to hear about that later.

“Clear it out of the zone!” Lukas yelled, his voice booming across the ice.

“Do not pass in front of the net!” Gentry added. “Like that! Good! Use the boards!”

Now even our own parents were gawking at our little crowd.

“Sorry,” I apologized with a little grimace. “They get a little into it.”

One minute left.

Line change.

Elliott was out with the Vance kid. He stole the puck and headed up the ice as the clock counted down.

“Go, baby, go,” I said quietly.

“Bet you’re wishing she had her tracker in there now, huh?” Shea grinned. “Just reverse it, and she’d hear what you were saying.”

“Huh. That idea has merit.” I winked. “Totally kidding”

“Pass it!” Noble yelled.

The Vance kid got hung up on their last defender, lost his balance and fell, but managed to hit the puck on his way down, sending it straight to Elliott.

My heart fucking stopped for her.

“Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god.” Shea whispered, her hand clutching mine as the defenders headed straight for her.

She was taking too long, too hung up on the perfect shot. If she waited much longer, she wasn’t going to have a shot to take.

“Shoot it!” I shouted, louder than any of the other Sharks.

As if she’d heard me, she shot.

The goalie dove.

The puck sailed over his right shoulder, hitting the back of the net.

“Go ELLLLLLLLIOTT!!!!!” Shea screamed.

The buzzer sounded. She’d managed to tie the game before the end.

Her hands were in the air as her teammates embraced her.

“She’s pretty phenomenal,” Shea said quietly.

“She’s amazing,” I countered.

With the game over, we all headed to the lobby, where we sat at the tables, waiting for Elliott.

“Are all the wives going?” Shea asked out of the blue.

“Wives what?” I asked.

“To the dinner,” she clarified. “Are all the wives, girlfriends, etc., going?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “But it’s okay, really.”

She sighed. “The penthouse has great security. As long as we leave Thing 1 and Thing 2 with her, Faith should be fine to babysit. I really appreciate her offer.”

“Faith’s babysitting?” Lukas asked, coming to stand next to Shea.

“No, dude. Just no,” Noble said, smacking him on the back.

“What did I miss?” Gentry asked, coming over with a bottle of water.

“Nothing,” all three of us answered simultaneously.

A few minutes later, Elliott came out of the locker room to our resounding cheers. Her coach wasn’t far behind with his own kid.

Noble had her up on his shoulders, singing We are the Champions, even though they weren’t, but I still cracked a smile.

“Seriously, all of you?” Coach Ralston asked. “It’s hard enough keeping the kids’ attention, but you five yelling the whole time?”

“Sorry,” I said. “We’ll try to keep it down next time.”

He sighed. “We agreed that I was her coach, regardless of your...experience.” He gripped his clipboard like I might take it from him.

“And you are,” I assured him. No man liked to get bossed around in his own house.

“But you really might want to talk to them about using their edges,” Lukas suggested.

Fuck.

“And your goalie really needs to work on coming out of the net a little, so he has space to make a decision,” Gentry added.

Double fuck.

Coach Ralston turned cherry red. “Oh. Is that all?”

“No, your offense needs to learn to fall back on D when a defenseman skates the puck up. You’re leaving a giant hole—”

I smacked my hand over Lukas’s mouth.

“Yep. That’s all,” I said to Ralston.

“Uh. Huh.” He looked at us with skepticism.

Gentry made a motion like he was zipping his mouth and throwing away the key.

Coach Ralston sighed, muttered something about NHL egos, and walked away.

“That’s the last time I invite you guys,” I said, removing my hand from Lukas’s mouth.

“Watch out,” Faith said as she walked by, her hand held by the college boy. “I’ve heard that one bites.”

“Only if you ask nicely,” Lukas said smoothly with a wink.

Faith’s mouth dropped open.

“Don’t tease my sister.” Gentry smacked him upside the back of the head, following his sister out.

“What?” Lukas asked with a shrug when I narrowed my eyes at him. “He said don’t tease her. I wasn’t teasing. I’d bite her if she asked me to.”

I shook my head and took my girls to the car, thankful it would be more than a couple of years before Elliott started dating.

* * *

“So then, the coach comes out and basically accuses us of coaching the kids from the bleachers,” Connor told our section of the longest table.

The glassed-in event room at the top of the Space Needle had been opened only after Jeanine had pulled some strings, and Paige had used added connection

s. This had been the location for every rivalry dinner, and a little renovation wasn’t going to thwart those women.

“You were coaching from the bleachers,” Ivy retorted.