Sometimes what happens anonymously in a dingy, pay by the hour motel room shows up a month later to reveal himself as your new coach…

I have rules. Very important rules. No real names, no strings, no seeing each other again. It’s always worked out well for me, and it’s the only thing that keeps me focused as I try to climb my way into professional hockey after nearly torching my career.

I should have been king of the ice in the paraprofessional league, but instead, I let my anger and bitterness get to me. Now I’m forced to claw my way...

Sometimes what happens anonymously in a dingy, pay by the hour motel room shows up a month later to reveal himself as your new coach…

I have rules. Very important rules. No real names, no strings, no seeing each other again. It’s always worked out well for me, and it’s the only thing that keeps me focused as I try to climb my way into professional hockey after nearly torching my career.

I should have been king of the ice in the paraprofessional league, but instead, I let my anger and bitterness get to me. Now I’m forced to claw my way back into relevance, starting with a community team.

That would be fine if the one amazing, anonymous night I had with a total stranger didn’t end up being the Wolves’ new coach. And even that might have been tolerable if Hugo wasn’t on my father’s payroll.

But he is.

And to make matters worse, I still want him. My bad attitude and attempt to drive him away doesn’t faze him at all, and the more I push, the more he pulls me back into the last place I want to be: his orbit.

All I want is to join the PPHL and prove to myself that I’m a worthy player on my own merit.

Lust wasn’t on the table. And neither was love.

But the closer I get to Hugo, the more I realize that I’m not sure I want to do this without him…and the more I realize I’m not sure if I can.