Page 44 of Penalty Kill

Erik and Noah shared a smile, and I knew I’d just created a game for them. This group of reporters didn’t spend even five minutes on questions about the game or the team before setting in on a personal attack. I sat back while my friends took over.

“Are you denying you’re having another child with your ex?” a voice called out.

Noah leaned forward. “As a team, we’ve been focused on improving our game this year to make sure we make it to the playoffs. Together we took a vow of celibacy after winning the cup last year.”

Erik smirked. His wife and sister were both pregnant at the moment, so that was sure to cause some problems if the reporters took their attention off me for even half a second.

“Sydney Banks lives at your house, how can you prove that you didn’t have an affair?”

“I would think that such fine, dedicated journalists such as yourselves would be able to put it together, but the only person Brandon has ever had an affair with was me!” Erik said with as much passion as a soap opera actress. He put his hand up to his forehead and pretended to faint into the chair.

Hartman stood up from his chair and slapped me on the back of the head. “Not him too? Cullen! I thought what we shared was something special!” He threw his head back and stormed off.

Noah was chuckling but composed himself. “And I thought you said it was only me!”

He covered his face with both hands and made sobbing sounds.

We would hear about this later when the coaches and management saw this playback, but I didn’t really care. The reporters were stunned into silence, but a few had smiles and were shaking their heads. At least they realized how ridiculous they were being.

I was grateful for teammates who had my back. It was better going into a game laughing together than burdened with drama we could do nothing about.

14

Sydney

“Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do to help?” I asked Brandon for the second time.

His ex was out of her mind, claiming she was pregnant with his baby. How would that even be possible? She’d been gone for months.

“No, I just wanted to talk to you.”

I smiled, happy he thought of calling me when he needed someone.

“I know it doesn’t feel like it, but one day this will all be behind you.”

He sighed. “I can’t wait.”

“At least you guys won.” I tried to cheer him up. He sounded so upset.

“Yeah, we kind of had to after the stunts we pulled with the press. Coach threatened to bench all of us if we didn’t pull off a win.”

The women sent me clips of the guys being completely absurd the night before. I didn’t want to think about how the coaches reacted to that.

“Tell them I enjoyed their performance.”

“I will.” He chuckled. “I can’t wait to get back home.”

“Me too.” I cringed. “I mean the boys are excited.”

“It’s okay for you to be excited too.”

I covered my face even though he couldn’t see me blushing. “I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.” He countered.

I laughed and waved to the boys as they ran past me to the car. “The dynamic duo is out.”

I held out the phone and put it on speaker. “It’s your dad.”