Centered (Gold Hockey Book 9) by Elise Faber

Author:Elise Faber [Faber, Elise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elise Faber
Published: 2020-09-13T18:30:00+00:00

Eleven

Liam

The woman was brilliant, even cradling a sleeping baby on her shoulder.

Calle drew a line on the whiteboard he was holding because as brilliant and capable as the Gold’s assistant coach—her focus on offense—was, she still only had two hands.

“So,” she said, pairing the drawing with words, “if you slide this way on the face-off against the Ducks, you’ll draw the D enough to let Blue win the puck forward and have a lane to the net.”

Liam nodded. “Yeah. I can do that for sure.”

But his mind was spinning, because he wasn’t on a line with Blue and Coop. He wasn’t on the top line.

He hadn’t been on the first line since his inaugural season . . . and that had quickly changed.

“If you come to the optional skate in the morning,” she said, capping the pen in a move that was surprisingly natural given that she’d only used one hand. But then again, she was a mom, and moms had superpowers. “Coop and Blue will be there for us to run it through.”

“I’ll be there,” he said, having been planning on it anyway. “Am I—” He stopped himself. A player didn’t ask where he was going to play. He shut up and played where he was told. “Thanks for the suggestion,” he said. “I’ll get it down.”

“I know you will.”

He turned and started heading for the showers. Practice was done, and he’d been planning on some off-ice training, a massage, a shower, and then . . . counting down the minutes until he could see Mia that night for the movie. What he hadn’t been planning on was being stopped by a coach in the hall, and thus, hadn’t been able to prevent his stomach from twisting itself into knots with nervous energy.

“Liam.” Calle’s voice halted him a couple of steps away.

He turned back. “Yeah, Coach?”

She opened her mouth, closed it, and seemed to debate something for a long moment. Then she stepped closer and said, “You’ll be on that top line because that’s where you belong. You, Coop, and Blue have chemistry. We saw that in the power play last night, at practice this morning.” Her baby, Emma, fussed quietly, and Calle shifted her, rocking back and forth slightly as she spoke. “You’re not there because of a name or because of any history. You’re there because you’re the right fit at this time. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Liam swallowed hard, nodded. “Okay, Coach.”

Blue eyes on his for a long moment before a small smile curved her lips, but before she could say anything further, Emma let out a squawk that was loud enough to make Liam jump. “This one is hungry, apparently,” she told him. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

He waved as she disappeared down the hall, Calle’s transition from hockey coach to mom somehow instant but not jarring. It was seamless. It was her. It was effortless, and Liam found himself soaking in some of that smooth shifting, that calm confidence. It seeped through his skin,

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