Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Claimed by the Rival Hockey God novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Release
Game Two went to the first intermission tied at one.
Cillian came off the ice with his helmet in his hand and sweat in his eyebrows, and I stood at the bench door to hand him a towel.
"Fiona says my father wants to meet you," he said.
"Now?"
"He picked now. He picks everything." He leaned in, put his hand on the back of my neck, and left it there.
His palm was hot and damp, and his thumb moved once along the edge of my hairline.
"Steady," he said, as if I were the one who needed it.
I felt it all the way up the stairs.
The Cahill family box sat above the blue line, behind glass, with leather chairs and a view of the whole sheet.
Cillian's father stood up when I came in.
He was a wide, gray, square-handed man in a navy suit.
"Miss Coolidge," he said. "I've been wanting to shake your hand since March."
"Mr. Cahill."
"I own a shipping company and I've never once beaten my son at anything. Then you did, with a marker, six times."
I laughed, because I couldn't help it.
The door opened behind us.
"Annette, bella!"
Gianna stood in the doorway, in her red jersey, with a cameraman from the arena broadcast at her shoulder and the big screen above us showing her face.
An usher hovered behind her, helpless.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt," she said to the box. "A mother has to make peace."
She held out a paper and a pen with a gold clip.
"Just your signature, bella, and then all of this goes away."
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