The Hockey Star's Forgotten Baby Mama novel · Chapter 8 of 32

Chapter 8: The Kitchen

The first frozen trays arrived on Monday at six a.m. on a white truck with a silver V on the side.

The driver wheeled in a stack of plastic crates and held out a clipboard.

"Sign here."

I didn't sign.

The head coach was standing behind me with his coffee. He was fifty-five, bald and famous for never raising his voice.

He peeled the lid off one tray.

Gray chicken. Gray rice. Six peas.

He looked at it for a long time.

"Son," he said to the driver, "my guys play Detroit tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

"Take this back to whoever sent it and tell him the coach said no."

"I can't..."

"Then leave it on the dock. It'll keep. It's already dead."

He turned to me.

"My players eat what Leighton cooks," he said, loud enough for the driver, the dock workers and the security camera over the door. "Write that down for the owner."

By November the team kitchen was the loudest room in the building.

My two cooks ran the stoves. Johnny paid them; it showed up on their checks as "bonus, anonymous", and both of them cried.

Stevie ran the line.

"Rice. Where's my rice. You, rookie, that's not rice, that's paste. Again."

The players came in after practice in shower sandals and hairnets and did what they were told.

The captain turned out to make an incredible omelet.

The backup goalie peeled potatoes.

Lulu came down from the Ice Box every afternoon in a tiny white apron Stevie had cut down from a real one.

She had my label maker.

She labeled everything.

EGS. CHIKIN. MOMS SPOON. A big burly winger walked around for a whole afternoon with GRUMPY stuck to his back and didn't take it off.

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