Chased by The Hockey Stars

Chapter Nine

It was as if the conversation with Leon had never happened. In the following week, Leon had returned to practice as usual, sending glaring looks at me anytime I stepped anywhere near his little bubble of personal space.

I had thought that after our little chat about him switching teams, that Leon and I might have finally broken down some of the ice between us. I couldn’t have been more wrong though. Who knew where Leon had ended up with his decision about leaving this team for another? I had no idea if he’d taken anything we talked about that night to heart. Had he still gone to that meeting? In a few days would he be announcing that he’d be leaving us? There were so many questions spinning through my mind every time I saw him, but I didn’t have any hope of getting any answers until it was too late. Not even I was brave enough to approach Leon for another deep conversation.

Besides, at the end of the day, it wasn’t really any of my business anyways. It was Leon’s decision, and if he did choose to leave, then maybe life with the team for me might actually get a little easier.

It was less than one week to the official start of the season now and everyone was feeling the pressure. The coach wasn’t taking any chances this year that his team wouldn’t be ready to start the season off with a bang, which meant all of us were grinding through practices basically every day.

It was a Friday night and all of us had already been here 30 minutes past the scheduled practice time, but no one seemed to notice. We wanted our first game to be a guaranteed win, which meant these late nights weren’t such a big deal.

Besides, at least for me, I had nowhere else to be. I might be in college now, but that didn’t suddenly turn me into a girl that got invited to parties. Typically I spent my Friday nights visiting with my mom, who I did find myself missing more and more these days. I had no idea how much time I had left with her, so I tried to spend as much time with her now as I could.

Taking on this job had made that more challenging, but right now I had to think about the pay check so I could stay in school.

Tonight, the coach was taking practice a little more casually. The team had split into two equal groups, balancing the teams strengths and weaknesses amongst them, and were facing off in a trial game to test how the players could work together when it came to game night.

The boys seemed to be having a lot of fun with it, swiping the puck from each other and taking shots any moment they could. It was actually fun to watch from the sidelines, and the coach seemed to be getting a few chuckles out of it too, anytime his players got frustrated and began bodychecking each other into the boards.

The next set of players for each group was set to board the ice lining up against the baseboards while the players currently on the ice now made their way off. This was one thing that our team really needed to work on, a smoother transition period between lines.

As usual, the coach grumbled about players being too slow, or worrying that the wrong players were coming on right now. His biggest fear was that on game night, we’d get a penalty for too many players being on the ice solely because someone wasn’t paying attention.

I watched as Benno hopped off the ice and glanced around, looking panicked. His eyes met mine across the ice, a worried look on his face before he turned to look at the coach.

I turned my attention to the rink, scanning the players and noticing that there were 3 red jerseys playing but only 2 black. I was quick to put together the pieces and so was the coach, someone had forgotten to get on the ice and now the black team was a man down. Another nightmare, should it happen during our first game.

It didn’t take me long to figure out who was missing. I’d spent last night memorizing these little groupings for practice today, so I scanned the bench for the man I was looking for. Only, Leon was nowhere to be found.

“Where the hell is Leon?” The coach's voice booked against the ice as he realized who was missing as well. He didn’t hesitate, stepping onto the ice and marching across to the benches of players.

Everyone on the ice quickly stopped the game, Cameron balancing the puck under his stick and holding it steady.

It didn’t take much searching, Leon was standing only a few feet off the ice with his phone pressed to his ear. Only, when he noticed everyone was staring at him, he seemed to rush to end the call.

“Sorry Coach, it was urgent!” Leon called back, and without waiting for a response from anyone he hopped back onto the ice and headed straight for the puck. Just like that, the game was back on. But after that mysterious phone call I’d overheard last weekend, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in my stomach.

Was Leon still talking to the other team?

I tried to cast my doubts aside, refocusing on the practice, and for the most part it had worked. Or at least, it was working until Coach called the team over to the edge of the ice and Leon began to unlace his skates.

“What are you doing?” The coach snapped at him.

Leon raised his head casually. “I told you I have an appointment to get to, remember?”

I turned to look at the coach, noticing how his face seemed to brighten a bit in frustration but then he nodded his head anyways.

“Fine, I expect you here early tomorrow though,” he grumbled in response, turning back to the rest of the team. With today’s long practice though, no one else was going to let this go so easily.

“Why does Leon get to leave?” Someone in the crowd asked almost immediately. We’d been here for hours and it was clear everyone was reaching their breaking point of exhaustion.

“Because I said so, and anyone who has a problem with that can start doing laps,” the coach snapped back quickly and the team turned eerily silent again.

“Carolyn, you can go to. You’ve been here since early, may as well go home and get some rest. The boys can clean up after themselves for the night,” the coach nodded to me.

A part of me wanted to show him that I was determined to be here as long as he needed me, but with Leon walking out the arena doors I had an itching feeling that there was somewhere else I needed to be more urgently right now. So I smiled at the coach and nodded my head in return.

“Thank you,” I said, before turning to leave, hoping that I wasn’t too late to catch up with Leon.

I practically ran across the parking lot to my car. Starting the engine on the third attempt and racing out of the parking lot to catch up with Leon. Thankfully his bright blue sports car was easy to spot, and the traffic light at the end of the road had turned red just in time to leave him stopped and waiting for me to catch up.

I followed Leon through town, careful to leave just enough space between us so that he wouldn’t notice me. Until finally, he pulled into the parking lot of a cafe in the downtown core.

I drove past, keeping my head down and hoping he would be too distracted to notice me. Then I pulled into an empty spot in the next row over, and crept out of the car.

Leon had already made his way to the entrance, a man in a suit greeting him there with a broad smile. Leon returned it, meeting the man with a firm handshake while a third person came to join them. The third man gave it all away though. He was wearing a Firebirds hat, the logo of our biggest rival hockey team.

I was fighting the urge to throw up, watching Leon walk into the cafe with those men. Through the glass window I could see them leading over to a booth in the back, and I could only imagine the terrible conversation that was about to go down.

Would they hand him the contract to sign right here? Had he already made his decision? Did our conversation next week not mean anything to him?

I sighed at the thought. Of course it hadn’t. I was just the team hockey girl, no one there even called me by my name. They didn’t have any respect for me or my opinion, but that didn’t mean I was going to give up that easily on changing Leon’s mind.

Without another thought as to what I was doing, I began to march forwards. I don’t think I’d ever been so determined in all of my life, as I strolled my way into the cafe. I pretended to scan the crowd casually, giving Leon a moment to acknowledge my presence before I dropped in on him, but he was far too focused on his conversation with the other coaches.

I rolled my eyes, c*****g my hip to the side and folding my arms over my chest. Of course he wasn’t going to make this any easier for either of us.

“Hi there, table for one?” A waitress asked, approaching me now. I turned to lock eyes with her.

“Actually, I’m just meeting up with a friend, I see him right over there,” I said, pointing gently over in the direction of Leon’s table.

That motion was all it took to catch Leon’s attention. His gaze lifted, that stupid smile quickly dropping from his face as he met my eyes across the crowded room.

I pushed past the waitress, knowing now was my one and only chance to talk to Leon and remind him of what a big mistake he was about to make. Maybe I was the one making the mistake here, knowing this man already hates me and now would probably only hate me more. I mean, what was I even going to say to him right now?

I ran it over quickly in my mind but was coming up blank. I should have let someone else do this. I should have gone to the coach as soon as I overheard that phone call and let him deal with Leon. But then I thought back to practice today, and how the coach had let only Leon leave early. They’d called it an appointment, but was it possible that the coach already knew what this was for? Would he let Leon leave the team so easily?

I didn’t have time to think about the answer, becaused Leon was suddenly standing from his table. He turned back to the men and excused himself, plastering that fake obnoxious smile right back onto his face. I wanted to smack it off for what he was doing right now.

I’d nearly reached the table in my angry stomp when Leon turned away and began heading towards the back of the restaurant. It was clear Leon was trying to take charge of the situation here as he led me away from the coaches and hopefully out of their earshot.

Finally, he round a corner and stopped just in front of the entrance to the washrooms. His arm reached out to grab mine, pulling me into the tight nook with an urgency in his eyes that I hadn’t seen since the night I’d caught him on that phone call.