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M ullens walked down the long cinderblock hallway, joking with Leo Pattra as they made their way to the locker room to gear up for practice.

“You should move to Sweetheart Creek,” his teammate said, immediately sending Mullens’ cheery mood plummeting.

“Why?”

“You spend enough time there.”

Not any longer. Athena had made it clear after that kiss where she’d branded his soul that she was not interested in damaged, baggage-ladened men. The club in which he was the original card-carrying member.

“Says who?” he asked.

“I’ve seen you there.”

“Yeah? Well, why don’t you move there?”

“I will if you will?” Leo said with a grin.

“I have a feeling you’re going to be getting married and settling down there,” Mullens stated meaningfully. “Long before I could even convince any of the town’s residents to give me a shot.”

“Yeah, Violet and I had some bumps. Now it’s just the good kind.” He gave another goofy grin and Mullens playfully shoved him into the wall.

Leo laughed. “We need to find you someone. Maybe there’s a geriatric dating service. Tinder for the infirm.”

“Save the old-people jokes for Maverick and Dylan.”

“Did I hear my name?” Dylan O’Neill asked, jogging up behind them.

“I’m setting you two up on Elderly Tinder.”

Dylan snorted. “I have a girlfriend.”

“Who? Jenny?” Leo nearly doubled over with laughter. “Keep dreaming, pal.”

“From Sweetheart Creek? That Jenny?” Mullens asked.

It felt as if his teammates were easily sliding into a domestic life, falling in love and making Sweetheart Creek their home without effort.

Some people were like that—at home no matter where they went.

Seeing it happen to his teammates left Mullens feeling hollow and lacking.

“Yeah. Owns Blue Tumbleweed. Friends with your arch enemy Gavras,” Leo said, stopping outside the locker room door.

Athena. How did it all go so badly again?

“But Jenny hates Dylan,” Leo continued. “They fight like cats and dogs.”

Dylan was shaking his head, looking skyward. “We’re not enemies. She thinks I’m great.”

“She thinks you’re great as roadkill, you mean?” Leo snickered, and Dylan shoved the door open, almost hitting Louis Bellmore, who was coming out.

The coach stepped back, out of the way, then lifted his chin as Mullens passed. “Meet me in my office?”

“Now?”

Coach nodded. He recrossed the locker room to his adjoining office, meaning he’d been looking for him. Not good.

Mullens followed, stopping by his locker to drop his bag.

Leo and Dylan bickered all the way to their own lockers, making him chuckle.

But as he passed Landon’s locker on his way to the office, where the coach was waiting in the doorway, the goalie lifted his eyebrows and smirked.

“You slept with the wrong woman this time, Mullens!”

Once the others realized Mullens had been summoned, hoots and laughter filled the room.

“Better eat some vegetables, Mullens, ’cause you’re about to get canned like peas!”

“Your jokes suck, Dylan!” Mullens retorted, turning to point at him before Louis closed his office door behind them, dulling the din.

“Have a seat.” He gestured to the chair across from his desk.

“What’s up?” Mullens asked, folding himself into the crappy chair. Maybe if they won some cups Louis could get chairs with better padding.

“I chose you as my number-one pick.”

Mullens head snapped up. “Say that again?”

“I chose you.”

He’d been chosen? He hadn’t been force-traded, unloaded or rejected?

“You were my long shot. My Moby Dick. I figured if I had you, I had a chance at the playoffs.” Louis sat on the edge of his desk, his hands clasped in his lap.

“Moby Dick?” he asked, forcing down the feeling of failure. It had been up to him to lead, and he hadn’t.

“The big catch. The unattainable what-if. The one that keeps you up at night and haunts your dreams.”

“I don’t think that’s the theme of Moby Dick .”

Louis leaned forward. “Except now you’re going to kill me, my career, my team. Very Moby Dick .”

Mullens shifted uncomfortably, not appreciating the heavy stack of guilt Coach had just dropped on him.

If he’d known he’d been specially selected, would he have acted any differently?

No. He was doing his best. It’s just that his best, all the way from his personal life to his career, wasn’t enough.

“What I didn’t expect was this huge chip on your shoulder.” Louis sat back, arms crossed. “Your previous coaches all said great things about your discipline, but where diet comes into play, I haven’t seen that.”

“I’m sorry I failed you, Coach.”

Louis was silent for a long moment. “Do I need to let her go?”

Mullens’ heart beat faster. “Who?”

“Don’t be coy. Athena Gavras.”

He shook his head. “She’s great.”

“Yeah? That’s strange, seeing as you sure as heck aren’t listening to her—despite her credentials and expertise.”

Mullens kept his head lowered, unsure what to say. To Athena. To Coach Bellmore.

“Do yourself a favor. Go to the bookstore down the street, grab all of her cookbooks and learn from them.”

“She only has one.”

“What?”

“Her second cookbook comes out in March. I’m on the cover.”

Louis blinked. “You?”

“And I am following the diet plan, sir.”

He scoffed. “She struck you from her roster last month for being uncooperative. And don’t think I didn’t hear about you crumpling up her pancake recipe on day one, and her throwing a drink on you at the gala.”

“What?” There had been no throwing of drinks. The most that had happened was that he’d spilled his watered-down apple juice on her when he’d gone to catch her.

This was a bigger mess to unravel than he’d realized. He stretched back in his chair, wishing he could get himself traded and start fresh somewhere else. It sure would be easier right about now.

“Do you wanna see my binder of recipes with the stains on them?” he offered. “I follow her diet.”

“So it’s a personality conflict?”

Mullens shook his head.

“You slept with her?”

He frowned, showing his disapproval at the question.

“What?” Louis shrugged. “She’s cute.”

Mullens growled at the thought of the other man checking her out. Athena wasn’t just cute. She was gorgeous, smart and strong-minded. She was exactly the kind of woman he’d be proud to take home to meet his family, if there was anything left of it.

“So it’s pride then? You can’t take instructions from a woman?”

“I take instructions from Karlene,” he pointed out, referring to the team’s physical therapist.

“So it’s Athena?” Louis seemed conflicted.

“No, sir. She’s great.”

“You’re not happy here?”

“No, I am,” he said, realizing with surprise that it was true.

“So, what do you need from me?”

“Nothing. I’m good.” He jiggled his legs, ready to suit up and get on the ice for practice.

“Then do me a favor and show up at your meetings with her, be respectful, follow the diet plan and call her by her real name.”

“I am. I will.”

He’d obviously let his own problems dominate his life for much too long. He should have manned up, apologized to Athena immediately after their first meeting and set things right. He hadn’t done that.

Even worse was that he wanted her to date him. After all that? What was wrong with him?

“I don’t call her Tina to be mean,” he explained. He needed that distance, because calling her by her real name felt too intimate. It felt like stepping off a cliff and realizing there was nothing below to catch him. Just free-falling.

“Fine. But it obviously annoys her. So stop. And get the other guys on board. Clean up their diet, clean up their attitudes and be the role model I hired you to be. Lead this team into some wins.” Louis stood up, indicating the meeting was over.

Mullens sighed, resting his elbows on his knees. Louis made it all sound so simple.

“Come on, man,” Coach said, stepping toward the door. “It’s either figure it out or I have to start shuffling people.”

Mullens couldn’t move, his thoughts stuck in neutral.

“I don’t know what to do to help,” Louis said, “and I don’t want to lose either of you. But the dynamic is clearly not working. I’m going to need to provide feedback in her exit interview.”

“No. Don’t fire her.” He shook his head. “It’s me. When I’m around her, I…” His throat closed up.

“What? Feel anger? Resentment? Oppositionally defiant?” Louis seemed amused.

Mullens looked up, meeting his coach’s gaze, hoping the man could read him, fix him, make it all better—without him having to say a word.

“Well?” Coach prompted, suddenly somber.

“I feel like she might have the power to break me.”

“The channel went live!” Athena couldn’t look away from her online cooking show.

She already had three subscribers, herself, Meddy and their mom. Their dad was afraid of the internet or she’d have four.

She needed to post a sign in the Huckleberry Bookshop once it opened to ask people to subscribe—and maybe spam all the guys on the team and tell them to as well.

“Chad! It’s live!” she called through her open office doorway, causing the man to stop.

He peeked around the corner. “Say what?”

“We’re famous!” She swiveled her computer monitor to face him. He came in, hunching slightly to get a better angle on the screen.

“Look at that,” he said. “Let me subscribe.”

She waited while he played with his phone, then hit Refresh on her browser. She squealed. “Four!”

“You playing golf, cutie?” He perched on the edge of her desk, his mind clearly elsewhere. Or maybe this was small beans and boring to someone with his level of fame.

“Sorry. Just a little excited.” She put her computer to sleep and turned to face him more fully, but he was back on his phone.

With a jolt Athena came crashing down to earth, realizing that the last time they’d spoken she’d shut him down. She’d called him out on the walls he erected to keep her out, and told him he wasn’t real enough to be her boyfriend. And now she was acting like they were buddies.

And maybe they sort of were, even though they didn’t have what it took to start a solid relationship.

Chad pocketed his phone and looked at her as if he couldn’t quite figure her out.

“Still friends?” she asked quietly, her heart racing in her chest.

He stood. “No.”

“Oh.”

At the door, he turned. “I’ll never settle for that. You know I want more.”

She shivered, knowing he was a man who was used to getting what he wanted.

“Chad, I told you I need—”

“Something real. That you need to know me.”

“Yes!”

“Maybe some guys don’t talk with words, Tina.”

“Seriously! My name is Athena!”

“Maybe you already know me. Ever consider that?” He vanished out the door, and she sighed, his words running circles in her tired mind.

She went back to work, her thoughts everywhere but on her dietary plans and tracking sugar levels for her diabetic player. Unable to focus, she finally closed the document and checked her watch. Time to go home to the store.

Athena gently rubbed her eyes, unable to wait to take out her contact lenses and give her eyes a break.

She was crazy. She was working too hard and was going to wake up in her fifties and realize it was too late to have the dreams she’d assumed were hers.

Dreams like finding love and having a family.

She hit the lights and locked her office, bumping into Chad at a hallway junction. He waved his phone. “Two hundred and thirty-five.”

“What?”

“Subscribers.”

“What? No! Already?” She grabbed her own phone, checking for herself. There’d only been the four of them when they’d been chatting twenty minutes ago. She looked at the screen, blinked, read it again. “Two hundred and forty-four!”

That was a dizzying number of subscribers in such a short period of time. Far too many to all be family and friends.

“I posted about it on social.” Chad winked and turned, leaving her there to obsess over how fast the numbers were crawling upward—and all thanks to him.