I give Lance a try, but I get his voice mail. I don’t leave a message. I try one last person. I hit the call button and regret it immediately. Waters and I aren’t all that tight yet, but he seems to like me well enough. As the team captain, he might be willing to give me the information Miller isn’t.
I’ll be lucky if I’m not waking him up. I second-guess myself and am about to end the call when someone picks up. “Horny Nut Sac, why are you calling my fiancé’s phone at this hour?” It’s Violet. I’m not sure whether I should be relieved.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’ve been inside a Canadian haven’t you?” she asks.
“What?”
“You’re apologizing, and you don’t even know for what. You’ve definitely been inside a Canadian.”
“I don’t—”
“If you tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m going to kick your ass.”
I decide there isn’t any reason to lie about this situation. Also, there’s no way Violet can kick my ass. “Miller left me a message and said some shit had gone down. He’s not answering his phone right now, and I don’t want to go into tomorrow’s meeting blind.”
“You boned Lily.”
I have no clue why this matters to Violet. She’s not close with Lily, at least not that I know of.
“I don’t see how that—”
“Matters?” She doesn’t wait for me to answer. “You don’t see the importance of you banging your bestie’s girlfriend’s bestie? Seriously, Balls, I thought you were smarter than that.”
“Smarter than what? How do you even have this information?”
“Honestly? I live with Alex. Sunny’s his sister, and we’re girls. We talk. In detail. Sometimes too much.”
“It’s not a big deal. I’m a rebound. Me and Lily are having some fun.”
“If you say so, Balls. Anyway, if you want to know what the real issue is here, you should probably talk to Romero or Tash, but I doubt either of them is answering the phone right now.”
“What happened with Lance and Tash?”
“Nothing good. You’ll get the full report in the morning. I’m tired, and my fiancé is already passed out, so I’m gonna go snuggle up to him and get some sleep. Good luck tomorrow.”
***
I’m ten minutes early for the morning meeting. I’m tired and on edge because I don’t know what’s going on. Most of the team is already there, and I find Miller sitting beside Waters. They’re deep in conversation, both of their knees bouncing hard. I drop down on the bench beside Miller.
“Nice of you to show up, Balls.”
I ignore the shot. “What’s going on? Where’s Lance?”
“He better get here soon,” Waters says. He’s in a foul mood. Most of the time he’s not bad to deal with. But when he’s pissed it’s advisable to stay out of his way.
“I think he’s fucked either way already,” Miller mumbles.
“I told him to watch himself, but he didn’t. Now he’s screwed the entire team,” Alex replies.
“What happ—”
A whistle blows, and everyone stops talking. Coach stands in the middle of the room with Lance and some new guy. Coach tells Lance to take a seat, and he drops down on the end of a bench. He rests his elbows on his knees and clasps his hands together, keeping his eyes down.
A few whispers break out, and Coach clears his throat, silencing the room. “This is Evan Smart, the new team trainer. He’s been training professional athletes for the past seven years. He’s got a great track record, and we’re happy to have him on board. Whatever he says goes. You will work with him as a team. If there’s a workout scheduled, you will be there. Unless you have some kind of injury, or a life-and-death situation you have made me and Evan aware of in advance, you’ll be at training. Everyone understand?”
There’s a murmur of acknowledgement.
“Anyone who misses a training session without notifying me and Evan will be benched for a game.” Coach gives me a hard stare. “Ballistic, you missed yesterday, so you’ll be warming the bench tonight.”
“Yes, Coach. Sorry, Coach.” Arguing would be a seriously bad idea, based on the somber mood in the room. Also, the fact that Tash has been replaced is a shock.
Coach sighs, lifts his hat, and runs a hand through his thinning hair before replacing it. “All of you will take home the team rules and regulations book and read it over, so I can be sure you understand what they mean. There will be a test. If you guys are gonna act like you’re in high school, I will treat you like you’re in high school. I’d like you to pay particular attention to the fraternization policy with support staff. He looks to Lance. “Romero, you’re on a three-game suspension.”
Lance glances up and gives him a curt nod. The muscle in his jaw tics. “Yes, Coach.”
Coach claps his hands together. “Get yourselves suited up and on the ice.” When Lance doesn’t move, Coach snaps his fingers. “You too, Romero. You might not get to play, but you sure need to learn how to be part of this team if you want to stay on it.”
“Yes, Coach. Sorry, Coach.”
“Anything else you want to say, Romero?”
He shakes his head. “No, Coach.”
“Then get moving.”