Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
I open my mouth to argue, but close it just as quickly.
I want to do this again too.
Sooner rather than later, as he said.
My legs loosen, and I nod. “Until next time, then.”
He holds my gaze, then rises, withdrawing his hand and pressing a hard kiss to my temple on the way up.
“By the way,” he says as he looks down at me. “You’re going to need to fix your lipstick before you see anyone.”
“Shit,” I mutter as I reach into my desk drawer for a compact. Sure enough, my red lipstick is smeared, not only from his kisses but from his hand clamped over my mouth. I’ll need to clean it off and reapply.
Drake chuckles as he walks out of my office, and when the door shuts behind him, I lower my head to my desk and bang it lightly.
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
CHAPTER 7
Drake
I’m minutes away from appearing in a professional hockey game. Something I swore I’d never do when I walked away over a year ago.
Do I have a chip on my shoulder?
More like a boulder.
I gave years to the Buffalo Wolves, years of hard work and loyalty, and the second Crystal lobbed her lies that I had bet on the outcomes of games I’d played in, they dropped me like a hot potato.
No investigation.
No one from the organization even bothered to talk to me about the allegations.
I was recovering from knee surgery when Crystal went on the warpath and told a reporter I was throwing games to win bets. She threw in hints of domestic abuse. The Wolves used my injury to let me just fade away, claiming I wasn’t stable enough to return physically, but that was a crock of shit. The surgery was a success, and my rehab was smooth.
What no one knew was that Crystal was a strung-out addict who was trying to make me suffer after I cut her off. I tried to get her help. I found and paid for rehab facilities, but she’d leave after only a few days. I laid down ultimatums, tried more rehab, and fucking begged her to get help.
None of it worked, and I couldn’t trust her around our kids. I made her leave and sought full custody, and in turn she tried to ruin me.
Call me a gentleman or just plain stupid, but I never played that card in the press. I could have easily gotten up on my soapbox and thrown Crystal under the bus. She wouldn’t have been able to withstand my allegations of drug abuse because they were truthful.
The only reason I didn’t do it was because of my boys. While I don’t have high hopes Crystal will ever bounce back, she might one day, and I don’t want this shit haunting my children. They’ve lost enough now that their mom is practically out of the picture.
I try to push those thoughts aside because I’ve got to be in game mode. It’s the first game of the preseason, and we’re playing in New York against the Phantoms.
We’ve already had the warm-up skate, and now we’re getting last-minute words from Coach West. The atmosphere in the locker room is electric. We’re all ready to get out there and show the world that the Titans are a force to be reckoned with this year.
That’s not just big talk. I’ve been more than impressed with maneuvers Callum Derringer made over the summer, keeping the guys they brought up from the minors who had excelled and making some good trades. Couple that with Coach’s own brand of inspiration and hockey intelligence, we could be in playoff contention.
West stands in the middle of the locker room, and the players gather in a semicircle around him.
Coach is affable as hell and laden with humility. He’s one of those guys who speaks softly but carries a big stick, except the stick isn’t used to beat us down. His stick is belief, and he has that in spades for his team. He conveys that to us during every drill, one-on-one talk, or film review. It had taken him no time at all to gain the devotion of every player and coach in this room.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m nervous as fuck,” he says. “Not because I’m worried about what you’ll do out there. I know every one of you will go out and kill it. I’m nervous wondering if I’ve done enough for you, if I’ve done right by you. If I’ve failed in any way, I’ll improve upon it as your coach. Today starts the season, and I will make it my mission to be a better coach at the end of every game. All I ask is that you go out there and play your hearts out, but I know I don’t even have to ask. I know you’ll do it because you love this game and you love this organization.”