Page 59 of Offensive Plays

He thinks a moment. “Yeah. What happens if we meet someone we like? It’s not a relationship after all. It’s just sex.”

He’s got a good point. What if either of us meets someone we want to pursue further?

“Then…we just need to be honest and tell the other person. I’m not a cheater and I refuse to be the other woman. Even if it’s just sex.”

“I would never let you be the other woman, Libby. You deserve to be someone’s only.”

He says it so sternly that I freeze up and cough to clear my throat. “You too.”

“Then it’s settled,” he says reaching for the water in front of him and lifts it up. “To sneaky dirty sex.”

I smile and reach for my glass, “To sneaky dirty sex.”

We clink our glasses and sip while watching each other.

This is going to be fun.

Chapter 15

Michael

Our first game in the conference finals is just two days away.

Which means we need to do everything we can to make sure we stay on top of our game.

Coach Murray is pointing out the different players on our division rival team and the techniques they’re prone to use.

“Vegas has the top defense in the entire NHL. So we’re taking every scoring chance we see. No hesitations.” He looks to me when he says that.

“Got it, Coach.”

He nods his acknowledgment. “Now, in this game when we played them on home ice during the regular season, you’ll see the way they crowded the net…”

In the video, you see can see me, Hicks and Hutchy (Landry’s replacement in the first line during the season) making a play toward the net. The Vegas players create a blockade that makes it nearly impossible to get a puck through. Coach pauses it right before Hicks is about to make a one-timer into the net.

“Notice these two players. They read each other like a book. We’ll need to separate them. Vegas always puts them on the ice together.”

He presses play, Hicks shoots the puck, the duo knocks it away and steals the puck away to their side. It’s fast-paced and caught us all off-guard when it happened.

Coach pauses the video again. “Lights on, please,” he says to one of the assistants leaning against the back wall.

The room is packed. Each of the twenty-one of us on the Heatwave roster are present.

“This isn’t the regular season, boys. We’re playing the top of the top. So play like it.”

Rina pops in at the entrance of the press room where we’re all gathered.

“Coach, the kids have arrived.”

Coach Murray shoots her a salute and she gives us all a terse nod before heading back down the way she came.

“You heard her. Let’s go show these kids how the pros do it,” Coach says.

“When can I go faster?” The little girl I’m skating with cries out.

She can’t be more than five with her hair in pig tails. Her dad is at our side, struggling in his ice skates as well. He’s already lost his balance three times and we haven’t even made a full turn on the rink.

“You know, it might take some time. But as soon as you get a hang of the basics, we can graduate to faster speeds,” I assure her.