“Right. Yeah. I get it. I guess I’ll see you when I see you.” He bends to pick his clothes up off the floor and heads down the hall without another word. Several seconds later the door clicks, and I crumple in a heap on my bed that smells like last night’s decisions.

I think I just broke my own heart.

CHAPTER 25

THAT WENT WAY WRONG

Bishop

How I’d planned to start my morning: inside Stevie.

How my morning actually went: not at all like I’d planned.

I do the walk of shame across the hall naked, holding all my clothes. Thankfully, no one is there to witness it. My brother isn’t home, so I don’t have to deal with him, which is a good thing because I’m pretty much in the mood for nothing and no one. Talk about a shitty end to the best sex I’ve had in . . . well . . . ever.

I don’t want to wash the smell of Stevie off me, but I realize going to practice smelling like sex after a viral make-out video goes live isn’t a great plan, so I jump in the shower and head to the arena. I get stopped by Alex before I can step foot in the locker room. “We need to have a chat.”

Obviously he’s seen the video. “I can explain.”

“I don’t want an explanation. I want you to shut your damn mouth and listen.” I follow him down the hall, away from the sound of my teammates, to his office. Alex motions me inside and forcefully shuts the door. “Sit down.”

I follow the order and keep my mouth shut, unsure how this is going to play out. A flash of inconvenient memory pops up—one of me with my head between Stevie’s legs.

“Wipe that smirk off your damn face.” He slaps a palm on the desk, startling me.

I sit up straighter. “Sorry.”

He drops into the chair behind his desk instead of the club chair beside me, which tells me a lot about his frame of mind. One of the reasons Alex is such a successful coach is that he treats us all as equals. Right now, I’m not his equal at all. I’m the problem, and he’s the coach.

“I asked one thing from you, and you couldn’t follow through. Do you understand how that video looks?”

“It wasn’t a—”

He cuts me off, his voice rising with anger. “You were supposed to keep it professional while you were being rehabbed. That was it. Instead you’re all over social media making out with the person who was rehabbing you. It’s like a blatant ‘Fuck you’ to me. To this organization. Is that what you meant to do?”

Until this very moment I hadn’t looked at it that way, but I can see how he and everyone else would. Which is a bit of an eye-opener. I try to come up with some kind of defense for my behavior. “I’m back on the ice, though, so technically I did keep it professional while I was being rehabbed.”

“That’s not the damn point!” He slams his fist on his desk, making the water glass rattle. He takes a few deep breaths and flips his laptop open. Spinning it around, he cues up the video that’s gone viral. The one of me making out with Stevie. It seems a lot more graphic and intense on a larger screen. “Do you have any idea how this looks from the other side?”

Like soft-core porn is the first thought that comes to my mind, but I don’t think it’s what he wants to hear. When I don’t answer right away, he barrels on.

“This whole thing makes it look like you’re not serious about your rehab at all, or your teammates, for that matter, or my goddamn orders.”

“I’ve been working my ass off.”

“Based on this, it looks like you’ve been doing a hell of a lot more than that.” Alex pinches the bridge of his nose. “Rehab with Stevie is done.”

“But—”

“There are no buts, Bishop. We laid out the rules, and you shat all over them.”

“I did follow your orders until last night.”

He gives me a look that tells me he thinks I’m full of shit. “If there was something going on, you should’ve been forthcoming, but you weren’t.”

“I would’ve told you if I’d had the chance, but that wasn’t really possible, now, was it?” Although, to be fair, I planned to change things last night, regardless. I should’ve told Alex about the event either way, but I hadn’t considered how it would look, which is really damn bad.

“Are you seriously lipping off to me, Winslow?”

“I’m trying to explain. I worked my ass off with Stevie. We spent a ton of time together over the past two months, and until last night I kept my end of the bargain. I was hands off and focused. She’s the reason I’m back on the ice.”

“Which means you don’t need her for PT anymore. If she actually worked for the team, she’d be out of a damn job for this. I need you to see the team physiotherapist, and then you can head home.”

“What about practice?”

“I think you need to do me a favor and give your team captain some time to settle down.”

“Let me get this straight. I’m being sent home because Rook is in a mood?”

“You’re being sent home because I need to set an example. You went against a direct order, and you didn’t come to me when you should have. This could’ve been avoided. PT and then home. Understood?”