Parker (Face-Off 1)

“I need her back. My life is not the same without her, and from what I’ve heard from Jamie, she’s just as miserable without me. I can’t sleep, I barely eat anymore, and my game is fucking shit right now.”

“You’re playing worse than shit, kid. If your father were here right now, do you know what he’d tell you?”

“That women and hockey don’t mix,” I deadpan.

He nods and tilts his glass to his lips.

“But he’d also quote some pro player and tell me how you shouldn’t give up on your dreams.”

Mickey smirks and then he raises the glass to his mouth, finishing it off before he sets it down on the bar with a loud clang. “And Charlotte is your dream? Alex, you are only twenty-seven years old. You have very few years left before this sport will take its toll on your body. Five years from now, you can settle down and worry about all that, but right now, we need to get you back on track.”

Kane gets up from his stool, beer in hand, and steps in front of Mickey. “It doesn’t bother me that Coach and Alex are together, and I doubt her other clients would care, so why does it matter to you?”

“Because…” He cocks his head to the side and rubs the stubble along his jaw. “Would you want your daughter dating a guy like you or Alex?”

“Hell no,” Kane says without hesitation. “I’d never let my daughter out of the house if she wanted to date someone like me.”

“Thanks,” I growl.

Kane shrugs his shoulders, an apologetic look on his face.

“You just made my point for me.” Mickey folds his hands across his chest. “I never had a family. I never wanted to do the whole wife-and-kids lifestyle. Alex is my godson, and Charlie is like a daughter to me. She’s a good girl with a head on her shoulders, and I don’t want Alex to ruin her like he has done to every woman he’s slept with.”

“Are you kidding me, Mick?” I yell, furious with him, my voice a rumble in the quiet room. “You’ve kept us apart for almost two months because you think I will ruin her?” The words are like acid on my tongue.

“Look at what you did to your previous owner’s granddaughter. Not only did you almost ruin your entire career over that stupid sex tape, but that poor girl was so upset about all the media attention that her parents had to send her to a university in Paris just so she could escape the spotlight. You are family, Alex, but that doesn’t mean I want you to date Charlie. She has had a rough life. You’ve had everything handed to you on a silver platter since the day you popped out of the womb. If you ruin your career, that will be on you, but you also have an inheritance from your father and your earnings from hockey to live on for the rest of your life. Charlie does not have that luxury. She has to work for her money the old-fashioned way.”

“So, this has nothing to do with your rules about dating clients?”

“No, that rule is in place for a reason, but I mostly added it to the company handbook after a few secretaries had sex with clients.”

“You can change the rules, Mick.” I place my hand on his shoulder and give it a squeeze. “Please, for me. My dad wouldn’t let my game suffer if he knew there was something he could do to fix it.”

While that might be a lame excuse for why I have been playing shitty, I can only hope it will melt the ice around Mickey’s cold heart. He has two soft spots—Charlotte and me.

He frow

ns. “I’ll tell you what. If you can get the rest of Charlie’s clients to say they are okay with the two of you together, then I will change the rules.”

“All of them?” Kane asks, slipping his hands into his jean pockets, perplexed. “That’s crazy. How do you expect Alex to get all of them to go along with this?”

“Are you jerk-offs ready to eat or what?” Mickey slides off the stool, a fresh whiskey in hand. “I’m fucking starving.”

I throw my hands on my hips, irritated. “We’re not done talking.”

“Yes, we are, Alex. I don’t think you’re serious about Charlie, and until you prove to me that you can act like a man and do right by her, my rules will remain in place. You wouldn’t want me to have to fire her over your little crush, would you?”

“You’ll see,” I snap back.

He throws back the glass and empties it in one shot. “Prove it.”

I hold out my hand, and he shakes it. “Challenge accepted.”

Maintaining eye contact, he flashes a rare smile. “Good. Now, let’s eat.”

Between practice, home games, and traveling across the country for away games, it takes me close to two months to track down each person since they are also professional athletes with the same hectic schedules. Most of the contact I made early on, some players brushed off, thinking I was prank-calling them. I would have thought the same thing if the situation were reversed.

After waiting for our schedules to match, I’ve finally nailed down the last person on Charlotte’s client list. He just so happens to play for a rival team in the NHL. And we are playing him tonight. We have never gotten along, and the last time we played against each other, I head-butted him and was ejected from the game and suspended. Kane and Donovan wanted to come along for backup, but I can handle myself.