Shaking myself out of my past thoughts, I whisper back to him. “Yeah, I’m good. Finally feeling fatigued from practice. Must be getting old, like someone I know.”
Connor rolls his eyes at me. “Keep it up, and we’ll see who’s really the old man.” We all love to tease him for being the oldest player on the team, and luckily, he plays along with us, never getting offended by our antics.
Coach clears his throat and brings our attention back to him.
“Go ahead and introduce yourself, Kailyn.”
She looks down at the floor, and a blush paints her cheeks. She then looks up and smiles, but it never reaches her eyes. Even though she hasn’t looked my way again, I can still tell there’s no sparkle behind them like I got used to seeing.
“Hi, everyone. My name is Kailyn Taylor. And before you ask, yes, Brandon and Brayden are my brothers, unfortunately.”
Her voice is just as I remember it, that soft honey-like tone to it, but there’s a shyness to her that didn’t used to be there. Somebody would only be able to catch onto it if they truly knew her.
“Like Coach said, I graduated from UCLA with my degree in kinesiology and sports medicine. I’ve worked witha couple youth hockey teams, as well as interned with the L.A. Warriors.”
I knew her career was going well, but I hadn’t realized that she had had so much experience with other teams. I wonder if she's kept track of me as much as I have her.
She had to have known I’d be on this team when she accepted the job right?
“Even with all of that experience, when I got the call from Coach Davenport about the position, I knew I wanted to come home. So I’m very excited to be working with you guys this season and seeing everything that you all accomplish.”
All of my walls go up higher than they’ve ever been. She’s acting as if being in the same room as me, after everything we shared, isn’t affecting her as much as it’s affecting me. If she’s going to be here and act like nothing happened, that she didn’t leave me and this ‘home,’ then our relationship didn’t mean as much to her as it did to me.
And part of me hates how much that affects me.
Brayden stands up and goes over to hug her, wrapping his arms tightly around her, lifting her up and spinning her around.
She laughs and then swats at his arm. “Put me down.” There’s no heat behind her words.
He sets her down and smiles brightly at her. Brandon follows behind, giving her a much more normal hug, but with no less love behind it.
“I’m glad to finally have you home, little sis,” Brandon smiles at her. She smiles up at him, adjusting his glasses on his nose and hugging him again.
“I’m really happy to see you both.”
A loud cough comes from the room, and they pull awayto turn and see Beckett standing, staring at them with a smirk on his face.
“So not only do we have the coach’s daughter joining the team, but now our new doc is related to our forward and our defenseman? This just keeps getting better and better.”
“Glad to see the immaturity isn’t exclusive to just one team,” she teases, and the guys all hoot and holler as she claps back at Beckett.
“A girl that can sass me back? You must be after my heart.” He places his hand on his forehead like he’s gonna pass out.
“Sorry, pretty boy, you’re not my type.”
I don’t hear what Beckett says back as my ears start to ring again. She walked right in here and started bantering with all of the guys. Meanwhile, I can’t breathe because she’s taking the air from my lungs. I’m drowning with no way out. How can she still ignore me after everything we shared?
“All right, all right. Beckett, if you wanna flirt with anyone, feel free to do so with your left hand. As for the rest of you, you’re free to go. Remember, you have the weekend off, and the season officially starts Monday. I know you all are in it to win it this year, so be smart and I’ll see you all here bright and early Monday morning." Coach dismisses us as he walks out of the locker room.
“Monday? Our first game isn’t until Wednesday,” Blake, another one of the guys, asks.
“That’s because you all have mandatory physical evaluations with me starting Monday,” Kailyn states to the room. “You have all been assigned a time slot, and with that, comes some ground rules. Coach Davenport has already given permission that if you miss your time, I’m allowed to bench you until you make it up. If you lie to me aboutanything or try to weasel your way out of your physical, you’ll also be benched. So, buckle up, boys, cause I’m hitting the ground running.”
The guys all groan as they leave the locker room to head home.
I’m still in my seat, trying to wrap my head around her being here, standing right in front of me. The twins walk over to me as Kailyn approaches Emilia.
I finally get the courage to open my mouth when the twins stride towards me. “How come neither of you told me Kailyn was coming back home?”