Penalty Box by Deirdre Martin

Author:Deirdre Martin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 0425208907
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2006-03-10T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

“Oh, man! Did you see my shot from the blue line? Did you!”

Katie shot her nephew an amused glance as they made their way to the local ice cream shop to celebrate the Panthers’ victory against the Polecats.

“Of course I did,” she assured him. Though Paul had spent the first two periods of the game trying to play everyone, by the third it was clear he was trying to win at any cost, putting his best players on the ice as much as possible. That included Tuck. Katie was in a quandary. If she brought it up to Paul, he’d probably bite her head off. But if she kept quiet, wasn’t that being complicit?

“Did you see my deke in the second period?” Tuck continued animatedly.

Katie nodded. She had never seen Tuck this happy in her life. The kid was practically jumping out of his seat with excitement and pride.

“The coach used me a lot,” Tuck boasted.

“Yes, he did,” Katie agreed, wondering if the ice cream parlor had fat-free yogurt. She hadn’t had time to run that morning, though she planned on doing so when she and Tuck got back to the house.

“I know why,” Tuck replied, his voice laden with significance.

Katie smiled at him proudly. “So do I; you’re a great player.”

“Duh! But it’s something else, too.” He turned to look out the window, suppressing a little smile.

“Oh, and what’s that?” Katie asked. “And P.S., don’t ever ‘duh’ me again.”

“I think,” Tuck said as he turned back to her, “that he might be my father.”

Oh, shit. Katie contemplated stopping the car right there. She could barely look at Tuck, whose radiant face shone with the certain knowledge he was right. He really believes it. How was she going to let him down gently? “Tuck,” she said carefully, “Coach van Dorn is not your father.”

“You don’t know,” Tuck insisted.

“Yes, I do. Coach van Dorn had been out of Didsbury for many years when you were born.”

“So? He could have come back for a visit and slept with Mom.”

Katie was momentarily dumbstruck. Sometimes she wanted to kill Mina.

“That’s very doubtful, hon.” Katie reached over to give Tuck’s knee a squeeze. “I know it’s fun to think someone cool like Coach van Dorn might be your dad, and that might be the reason he’s giving you so much ice time, but if he was your dad, your mom would have told you that a long time ago. Okay?”

Tuck pushed her hand away and returned to staring out the window. “You’re just upset because Coach is your boyfriend now and you can’t handle the fact he might have fucked Mom.”

Trembling, Katie eased the car to the curb. “Two things,” she said tersely.

Tuck wouldn’t look at her.

“Number one: If you ever talk to me like that again, you can find someone else to take you to hockey practice and games. Number two: If you ever talk about your mother like that again, your days playing hockey are done. Got it?”

Tuck remained silent.

“Got it?” Katie repeated loudly.

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