End Game_Bellevue Bullies Series Read online

  A real, adult job.

  With the Assassins.

  My favorite hockey team.

  Holy shit.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  I blink to see Shea looking at me like I’ve lost it. Maybe I have. I can’t even answer him, I’m dumbstruck. “You okay?” he asks, coming to me and gripping my shoulders. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  “DJ offered me a job,” I somehow get out, and Shea’s face shifts from concern to excitement.

  “No shit!”

  “Yes shit,” I answer, and he slaps my back before pulling me into a tight hug. I tremble in his arms. I can’t believe this. This is amazing. Holy shit. Oh, wait, I already said that.

  Pulling back, he grips my shoulders once more, shaking me a bit. “Ryan, this is a fantastic opportunity.”

  “What is?”

  We both turn to see Elli standing there, looking every bit the fucking owner of a professional hockey team. Her dress is formfitting, but I doubt anyone notices with how high her heels are. She’s almost as tall as Shea and me, when really, she’s the size of Amelia.

  Shea hooks a thumb to me. “DJ offered him a job as a trainer on the team.”

  Elli’s eyes light up as she grabs me for a hug, and I go limp like a noodle. She squeezes me tightly, squealing as she pulls back. “Ryan, that is amazing! That’s insane, and to think, you haven’t even graduated!”

  I swallow, and then I laugh. This is craziness. “I wouldn’t start until rookie camp, but he wants to lock me in now so that he doesn’t have to start interviewing people. Before I graduate. He wants me. I’m awesome.”

  They’re both shaking with excitement, as am I. This is a huge deal. I just got offered a job with a professional hockey team. I won’t have to start at the bottom like most people. I would be working like a real adult, and goddamn, I’d be an adult.

  This got real really fast.

  “So, what did you say? Did you take it?” Elli gushes, holding out her hands. “Or do you want to tell your mom first?”

  I shake my head. “I told him I had to think about it.”

  Elli cocks her head, and Shea nods. “To see what’s going to happen with the draft.”

  I swallow hard as I nod, my stomach twisting. “Problem is, he needs an answer by Monday. I have a solid week, and damn it, I don’t know.”

  Elli looks to Shea and then back to me. “I say take it.” Shea and I both look at her, wide-eyed, and she holds her hands up at us. “I believe in you a billion percent, Ryan Justice, and I love you. You know this. But this is an amazing opportunity most people don’t get—”

  “But the NHL isn’t something to shake a stick at, baby. That’s what he wants.”

  Yeah, it’s what I want.

  Right?

  Because this job looks pretty damn great.

  She locks eyes with Shea. “And I understand that. But unlike other draftees, he hasn’t heard anything. It’s the beginning of February, and the season for the Bullies is over at the end of the month. He should have heard something by now.”

  She looks back to me, but I’m watching Shea’s face. He doesn’t want to accept that she’s right. Hell, I don’t want to either. “She could be right, but the jury is still out. I say you ask him if he can give you till graduation.”

  But Elli is already shaking her head. “No, he can’t. DJ has to interview people, and that’s a lengthy process when you don’t know them personally. You have to be able to mesh with your assistant trainer. He can’t just pick someone out of a pile. DJ isn’t stupid.”

  “I get that, but he can’t expect the kid to abandon his plans for the NHL for a trainer job. That’s like smacking him in the face that he gave up his dreams,” Shea throws back, and I feel like I’m watching a tennis match.

  But instead of a little yellow ball, they’re playing with my heart.

  “I agree, but we have to be realistic about this. Not everyone gets into the NHL. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. But this is a guaranteed job. He will be one of the only students to graduate with a high-paying job waiting on him. Shea, he can’t give that up.”

  Okay, if this were a game, Elli would be winning.

  Shea holds his hands up, a smirk on his face as Elli glares up at him. “I hear you, baby, I do. But he wants to be in the NHL, he’s got the talent—”

  “And I don’t doubt that even in the slightest. But if he were a strong contender for the NHL, he’d already have a spot, Shea, and you know it. Do not tell this boy to give up an excellent job for a ‘what-if’ situation.” She looks back at me. “You know I love you.”

  “I do,” I say, and her eyes are full of such passion, they’re scaring the shit out of me.

  “Take the job, Ryan James. You will not get an opportunity like this ever again, I can promise you that. Also, just think, honey. You won’t leave, and you and Sofia can be together—”

  “Whoa! Now I gotta shut you down. Don’t use Sofia for this,” Shea roars, and I back up slowly. I haven’t known my aunt and uncle to come to blows, but when they’re heated, sometimes things start flying. “I love the girl, but I refuse to let him give up his dreams and just settle for his current girl. How do we know she’s in this for the long haul? She’s eighteen fucking years old!”

  “Um, I wouldn’t be settling,” I try to say, but neither of them hears me.

  “Well, she’s a hell of a lot more mature than you were at thirty, Shea Adler, so I’d say she’s pretty much in this for the long haul, in my opinion!”

  “I was in it for the long haul!” he yells back, and I’m starting to think I should leave. “I loved you from the moment I met you.”

  “And it’s the same for them. Age is just a number. You can’t deny the heart what it wants. Her momma was telling me Sofia still wants to be with him when he’s gone. They’d never see each other, but Sofia wants to try. That says something about her character!”

  “Yes, that she’s an eighteen-year-old girl in love. You’d do the same thing.”

  “You’re right. I wasn’t just eighteen, and I did for many years, waiting for you to come home and loving you when it was hard, Shea. You were gone more than you were home, and people loved writing about how Captain Shea Adler was sleeping with anything with tits. But I still loved you—”

  “That’s beside the point, Elli. It’s about Ryan, not our marriage—which is fucking great, by the way.”

  “Oh, it is. I love you more than I love myself, Shea. But my point is, do not doubt her love or the fact that this boy can be a damn fine trainer. Yes, he won’t be on the ice as a player. But he will be with the girl he loves and making kick-ass money while doing something he’s not only great at but that he also loves. I see it as a win-win.”

  Another point for Elli.

  “Well, I think he should turn it down. I would.”

  She covers her face before yelling, “Because you had nineteen fucking teams wanting you, Shea. The situations are so damn different. And damn it, Ryan, I’m not saying you aren’t talented. You know that, right?”

  They both look to me, and I’m just gawking at them, my mouth hanging open, unsure what the hell to say. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “But you don’t have what he did. And I’m sorry, I’m not trying to hurt your feelings. But, baby, this is an amazing opportunity.” She glares at Shea when he scoffs. “It’s not our decision, though. It’s his.”

  “You’re right. It’s his.”

  They both look at me once more, and I just stand there. “Yeah, I got nothing.”

  Elli’s face fills with compassion as she comes to me, cupping my face in her hands. “And that’s fine, sweetheart. You have a week to make a decision. At the end of the day, it’s what you want.”

  “She’s right, Ryan. It’s your life, and you have to be happy with it.”

  “Yeah,” I say slowly. “Sorry, information overload over here.”

  Shea chuckles as he pulls Elli into his side, looking down at her. “Yeah,