This more than anything was why I’d continue to say no to Axel. I didn’t want to date. I had a career to concentrate on and nieces and nephews to get through the next several months.

Jock needed me. Axel did not.

Chapter 16—Persistence

~~Axel~~

We won our last game and flew home, landing in Seattle in the early morning of Sunday. Our road trip was a split at two wins and two losses. We were hanging on by the skin of our teeth to make the playoffs with two weeks left in the regular season.

Our play was inconsistent, and I was beginning to have doubts we’d pull this off. The defending champs might not be in the playoffs, unheard of. I banished such negative thoughts from my head and concentrating on improving my game the best I could.

Besides, tonight was about phase one in Operation Woo Geneva. Yeah, that sounded stupid, even to me.

The rumor around the locker room was that Jock was serving the divorce papers this week. I didn’t know the details, and I was the last person on the team to ask him, but I’d overheard him discussing the terms with Brick and Hot Rod. He wanted full custody, while she’d get supervised visitation once she met certain requirements. Even knowing her as little as I did, I knew that’d piss her off, even though she didn’t care about those kids. She did care about control. I was relieved to be off her radar as she dealt with more pressing issues in her life.

These next two weeks would be all about the team. I rededicated my play to reaching a new level. We had to make the playoffs. We just had to. Mostly for the team, but also for my own career. I might not be around next year if we didn’t. I’d been playing better, but my performance didn’t meet my expectations or Coach Gorst’s. Every time I caught the man watching me in practice, he had this frustrated expression on his face. I wasn’t working out with Jock after practice anymore. Some of the veterans had been staying to sharpen their skills and his. I’d been kicked to the curb in that sense. It hurt because, the way I saw it, their taking over displayed a lack of confidence in my abilities.

After messing briefly with the lines, Coach restored them back to what they’d been. The second line was all Puck Brothers—Easton, me, Ziggy, Kaden, and Steele. We were the young guys, the future of the team, but we were seriously underperforming. Our passes were off; our shots were even worse. We were losing confidence in ourselves. A good line was so in tune with each other they knew a pass was coming their way before it happened. We weren’t gelling like that.

Yet he put us back together because his first line gelled like nobody’s business. Maybe he figured we needed to work it out no matter how painful the process might be. I really didn’t know.