The Inside Edge: Chapter Thirteen

“You what?”
            “I need to re-organize my days off… for the foreseeable future.” Pining a determined smile on her face, Brianne waited for the explosion. It wasn’t an easy task to put on Shana, especially after they’d already agreed to their scheduled work shifts. Months ago.  

            Then again, as the General Manager, Brianne had both right and ability to alter the schedule whenever she so chose. Still, guilt had a way of overriding policy.  

            Then again, much as she was learning, Shana never did anything according to other people’s expectations. Instead, leaning back in her chair, she leveled Brianne with a telling smile. “Hockey again?”

            “Yeah,” Brianne admitted out a outdrawn breath. She figured it would be easier to just come clean. Subterfuge was a lost art on Shana. Throwing her assistant a sheepish smile, she shrugged. “I sort of got roped into being on the team.”

            Shana’s eyebrows rose so high on her forehead it looked painful. “Come again?”

            “Kind of like a coach. But not exactly.”

            The hooting chuckle that erupted out of Shana’s mouth was as booming as it was insulting. “You?” She asked pointing a finger at Brianne for effect.

            “Well, I mean, obviously I won’t be the one coming up with drills and strategy…” Brianne muttered.

            “Obviously.”
            “I’ll just be sort of…well, doing what I usually do on Sundays. Skating alongside the boys. Letting them teach me how to play properly.”

            “Back up,” Shana insisted, wiping away at the amused moisture leaking out of her eyes. “How did this all come about?”

            Taking a deep breath, Brianne obliged her. She figured it was the least she could do, especially considering the bind she was about to put Shana and her other three supervisors through. And again, there was that whole evasion problem…

            By the time she was finished with the whole tale even Brianne was grinning and throwing off a few quiet laughs. “I mean…Danette certainly had it pegged.” At the mention of the woman, Brianne frowned just slightly. “Then again, she thinks I’m just going to eventually up and desert her. Join with the ‘popular’ parents instead.”

            “And that’s why this couldn’t have worked out any better,” Shana replied. Rubbing her palms together, she looked a bit too mischievous for Brianne’s peace of mind.

            “Shana…”

            “It’s all going according to plan.”

            Brianne cocked her head to the side. “Plan? Whose plan?”

            “Your plan!”

            Brianne narrowed her eyes. “To learn how to skate?”
            “Oh, don’t be deliberately dense. No, the plan to unite this team. Players and parents alike.”

            “I think that was your plan,” Brianne muttered under her breath.

            “Well, whatever. This is perfect. You’ll be on the front lines.”

            Brianne made a sound low in her throat. “Listen, I’m going to focus on one thing at a time. Right now, I’ve been asked to help the boys. And that’s what I’m going to do.”

            “And after that…” Shana hedged.

            “It was a mistake,” Brianne grumbled, “letting you in on this whole part of my life.”

            Shana shook her head, not the least put out by Brianne’s words. “Really? Because usually I can’t get you to shut up about it once you start in.”

***

Standing beside Mitch as the boys huddled off the ice, Brianne tried to subtly sneak in a couple of deep breaths.

            “So, how do you think it went?” she asked him. Keeping her eyes pined on the ice, she wasn’t quite brave enough to look Mitch in the face. This had been her first official practice with the boy’s team and she was nervous for his response. Nervous because his reaction meant a lot. More than she probably wanted it to. That and, well, she’d been forced to run just about as hard and long as the boys during practice and she felt a bit winded. And sweaty.

            Shifting to look over at her, and perforce making her return his steady gaze, Mitch nodded. “I think it went well. Tired?”
            Flexing her shoulders a bit, Brianne smiled. “Oh, just a bit. Do I really have to run through all the drills with the boys?”
            Throwing back his head, Mitch laughed, the sound reverberating nicely off the high ceiling of the ice rink. “All the drills? Jeez, you took part in less than half of them.”

            Glowering over at him, Brianne pursed her lips. “Still…”

            “But that’s the whole idea. I want them to work together and you’re central to that component.”

            “Right. Still, I think we could work out a better strategy. For my aching body. I am not on the team, remember?”

            Running his forefinger along his chin, Mitch nodded again. “A better strategy? Yeah, actually that’s not a bad idea.”

            “Grea—”

            “Free now?”

            “Ah, yeah, I guess…” Brianne sputtered. She hadn’t expected him to take her up on the offer so quickly, so readily.  

            “Grab a cold beer with me and lets come up with a solid game plan, huh?”

            “A beer?”
            Mitch’s eyes widened. “Oh, I guess, I just assumed that you drink since you, ah, work at a…?”

            “No, I do,” Brianne rushed to assure him at Mitch’s frankly uncomfortable look. “I just…I figured we’d sit in your office,” Brianne finished. Biting her lip, she silently cursed herself. What the hell was she saying? A cold beer sounded way better than hanging out in Mitch’s dingy, tiny rink-a-dink office. Shaking her head, Brianne smiled. “Actually, let me retract that statement. I’d love a cold beer.”

            Grinning, Mitch slapped her on the back before turning to exit the ice. “’Atta girl.”

***

            Still, before a cold brew, Brianne knew there was one last thing she needed to see to that evening. So when she spotted that bubblegum-esque head of hair come into view, she strode toward it purposefully. Without giving Danette the chance to escape her, Brianne stamped a determined smile on her face as she met up with the older woman.

            “Hi! Here to pick up Charlie?” Wincing at the question, because it was as stupid as it was obvious—practice was over for the day, of course Danette was there to pick up her soon—Brianne swallowed quickly. “Never mind,” she insisted when Danette only raised one telling eyebrows. “I’m glad I caught up with you.”

            Danette waited.

            “Turns out,” Brianne continued with a sheepish grin, “you were right about a couple of things.” As far as introductions went, she was relatively pleased with it. If nothing else, it immediately captured that ladies’ attention. “Some of the parents on this team are quite persistent.”

            Chuckling, but without any humor, Danette only nodded her head.

            Brianne forged ahead. “And, because of it, I won’t probably be able to sit with you at any more hockey games. But!” Holding up a firm hand when Danette pulled her now habitual snort, Brianne rushed to finish her statement. “Not because I’ve chosen them over you or whatever other silly notion you may want to believe. It’s because…well, you were right about another thing too. They recruited me as another coach. Well, a kind of coach.”

            “No surprise there.”

            “So…I mean, I guess I’ll be seating with the team now. That’s what I’m trying to say.”

            “That’s usually the way it works.”

            Brianne took a deep breath. Danette wasn’t being entirely helpful with this conversation and not for the first time, Brianne wondered at her desire to protect that woman’s feelings. It wasn’t as if Danette had gone out of her way to warm up to Brianne. Quite the opposite in fact.

            “But I also…you know, I wanted to make sure that you were also okay with me being a coaching assistant.”

            “You assume I didn’t have a say?”

            Grinding her teeth together, because she was doing her best not to offend Danette despite the other woman’s attitude toward the whole chat, Brianne tried again. “I guess I’m not sure. The way you spoke the other day, about the divide and lack of communication…”

            “I think hiring you was probably the smartest thing those boneheads have concocted in years.”

            Brianne blinked. Complimented but flustered, she gave Danette a beseeching look. “You do?”

            “I do.” Shrugging, Danette squinted. “I just hope you don’t turn out to be yet another disappointment for this team. These boys.”

            Brianne smiled tightly. “Well, since I don’t know anything about hockey, that might be asking a lot.”

            “That’s not what I meant.”

            “Afraid I’ll become like them? Just another bonehead?”

            Danette’s lips thinned, her shoulders straightening at the confrontation in Brianne’s voice. Still, she didn’t back down an inch as she gazed unflinchingly in that woman’s eye. “Pretty much.”

            “Is Coach like them––the ‘other’ parents? Is Fred?”
            “No, but they’ve had years of experience. And they don’t need to be liked. They own this barn and everyone knows it. Those two, they’re the town’s winningest coaches. They don’t have to prove nothing.”
            Brianne took a deep breath. “Like I said to you once before, I’m no sheep. I’ve my own mind and I use it.”

            “Well, I guess time will tell.”

            “Yes,” Brianne assured her. “It will.”