Delay of Game

by Tracey Richardson

  Dan Smolenski and a woman he introduced as Megan Reed, a lawyer for Team Canada, greeted Niki and Lynn in the conference room, their postures erect, their faces funereal.

  Niki took the offensive and explained, in a matter-of-fact tone, what happened in Whistler. She was not going to act like a victim, like she’d been set up. The blame was entirely hers, but she wasn’t going down without a fight. She looked at Megan. “I suppose it’s pointless to file a libel suit against the newspaper.”

  “Yes, it’s pointless, because they’re not saying anything that isn’t true.”

  “But I haven’t rekindled my relationship with Eva Caruso nor am I having an affair with her, so that part is untrue. We’re friends. We had a moment in the hot tub. But that’s all it was, a moment and a regrettable one at that. I would never do anything that would hurt my team or risk my credibility as head coach of that team.” Thank God, she thought, that things hadn’t gone any further with Eva, that she’d come to her senses in time.

  “Still,” Megan said, “that’s splitting hairs, and I think the last thing you want to do is go into great detail about what did and didn’t happen between you and Eva. It’ll only give the story legs.”

  “Right,” Dan added. “Don’t breathe any more life into it than what’s already there.”

  “Well, I’m not going to lie about it,” Niki said. “I’m not going to write a tell-all book about Eva and me, but I can’t deny that something happened.”

  “No, you’re right about that,” Dan said, steepling his fingers on the table in front of him. “We’ll just say it was a one-off, that you two were talking about old times or something, that you both got carried away for a few seconds.”

  “That’s basically what it was,” Niki said. “Except I don’t want people thinking I regularly go around kissing women in hot tubs.”

  Dan waved his hand impatiently. “Nobody cares about that. They only—”

  “I care,” Niki cut in, her voice rising. “I don’t want my players thinking I’m—”

  “Whoa, wait,” Dan cautioned. “That’s a conversation between you and your players. A private conversation. I’m talking about the media. We keep it short, sweet, to the point, and as truthful as possible.” He glanced at Megan, who nodded her agreement. “Then we hope like hell the reporters have somebody else to talk about tomorrow.”

  That wasn’t good enough for Niki. “What about finding out who’s behind this? Aren’t we going to address that?” She glanced at Lynn, willing her to lend some verbal support to the idea, but Lynn was a stone.

  “Absolutely not,” Dan said. “Whoever it was, we don’t want to give them any more power over this than they already have. We own it, we take responsibility for it, we move on. End of story.”

  Niki could feel the room spinning, and for a moment she had to shut her eyes against it. Maybe it didn’t matter to the rest of them, but it mattered to her who was trying to undermine her. It was obviously someone who had a great deal to gain. And who was to say they’d stop at a photo?

  “I’ve called a press conference in the lobby thirty minutes from now,” Dan continued. “We’re going to draw up a statement, which I’ll read, although I want you both there.” He looked from Niki to Lynn. “And I’ll be the only one taking questions. Understood?”

  Both women nodded.

  “One other thing,” he said, the ropey muscles of his jaw working. “Niki, it’s too close to the Games to remove you from the coaching staff. It would cause pandemonium at this point, both within the team and in the public sphere.” His gaze swung to Lynn. “Lynn, from now until the Games are over, you’ll take over head coaching duties with Niki as your assistant. Basically, you’ll be swapping roles.”

  A gate crashed down in Niki’s mind. “What?” she managed to croak.

  Dan shrugged, snapped shut his briefcase. It was a fait accompli. She looked next at Lynn, who hadn’t moved, hadn’t said a thing, but there was a sense of satisfaction in her eyes that irked Niki. If Niki wasn’t mistaken, Lynn looked happy about the turn of events.

  “I’m sorry, Niki,” Dan said, “but we have to do something in response. This will send a message that your behavior in Whistler is not acceptable, that we take very seriously any insinuation that the team’s interests have been compromised. This assures the team, our sponsors and our fans that the team is bigger than any one person. But keeping you on the bench means we still have faith in your abilities, that the team will have some continuity. In other words, your actions were careless but not criminal.”

  “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.” Niki rose from her seat in a daze, tears prickling the backs of her eyes. “I need some air.”

  * * *

  Listening to Hockey Canada’s press conference live on the radio, Eva paced her hotel room like an automaton, needing to keep her body in motion. A sports station was carrying the presser, which was just as well, because Eva was this close to crashing the event.

  The news that someone had deliberately set out to hurt her and Niki was a stunner and a painful reminder of how far people would go in the world of sports to hurt an opponent. It was clear that Niki was the target, which only roused Eva’s protective instinct. She imagined holding Niki, saying soothing things, promising things that would make it all better. In truth there was little she could do to make any of it better except to see how Niki was doing, and even that was ill-advised. Besides, Niki was probably pissed as hell at her. And understandably so.

  “Dammit,” she said to Kathleen, who sat on the opposite bed watching her. “I was such an idiot, kissing her like that. A stupid, egotistic jerk. She warned me there could be trouble if we let things get out of hand, that it wasn’t the right time. But did I listen?”

  “You couldn’t have known you guys were going to get found out like that.”

  She balled her hands into fists. “If—no, when—I find out who did this, I’m going to kick their ass all the way to the other coast.”

  What they’d done in Whistler, simply expressing their attraction to one another, an attraction that had never really stopped simmering below the boiling point, wasn’t wrong on its own. But in the greater context, she could see how the kiss could be interpreted as disloyalty, a betrayal to their teams and to the fans of their teams. Niki was the one with the most to lose, and Eva was so fucking sorry, it hurt.

  “Stop beating yourself up about this,” Kathleen said, reading her mind. “Niki’s a big girl. She can take care of herself.”

  “I know, I know. It’s so unfair. I swear we didn’t cross any ethical lines. It’s not like we swapped playbooks from our teams or something. Niki bleeds red and white for Christ’s sake. As if a kiss could make her break ranks, for God’s sake.”

  She could hear Hockey Canada’s president on the radio apologizing for what had happened and giving assurances that the integrity of the team had not been compromised in any way, that it was simply a friendship between two people that had suffered a brief lapse in judgment, nothing more.

  Asshole, Eva thought. What does he know about it? About us?

  “Nevertheless,” Dan Smolenski was saying, “I felt it was appropriate and necessary to make a not-insignificant change with respect to Coach Hartling’s duties.”

  Oh shit, now what?

  “Coach Hartling will remain behind the bench for the duration of the Games, but as the assistant coach. Lynn O’Reilly will take on the head coaching duties from now until the conclusion of the Games.”

  Reporters began lobbing questions all at once, loudly, and Eva switched off the radio. “Good God,” she said to Kathleen. “It’s worse than I thought.” She sat heavily on the bed. “She must be going through hell right now.”

  Kathleen caught her glancing at her cell phone on the nightstand. “It’s not the worse thing that could have happened.”

  “Like hell it isn’t.”

  “No, the worse thing would have been if she’d been fired outright.”

  “I don’t know
about that,” Eva grumbled, knowing the demotion was a kick in the balls that would break Niki’s heart.

  “And don’t even think about it,” Kathleen warned in a low voice, nodding at the phone.

  “Look, I just want to leave her a message, that’s all, saying I’m sorry and that I hope she’s okay.”

  “You can’t, Eva. If anyone were to discover you two are still in contact, the conspiracy theorists would go nuts and you’d both be thrown off your teams. If you want me to pass a note under her hotel room door or something, fine. But if you want to help her, you need to be reasonable and figure out how to handle this, not go acting impulsive.”

  Eva didn’t know if she could be reasonable about Niki, not when her heart was about to explode. Being unreasonable and impulsive looked pretty damned appealing right now. “After practice tomorrow, I’m going to corner Alison. Her fingerprints are all over this thing.”

  “Are you crazy? You can’t go after Alison or anyone else until you have some kind of evidence or at least something more than a hunch. Do you want Alison to go after you next?”

  Eva resumed her pacing. “Yeah, well, I dare Alison to throw me off the team. Cuz if I go down, she’s going down with me. I’ll air every single piece of dirty laundry on her I have. And then some. She’s dirty, Kath. Dirty as the underside of my boot. And so is Dani, as far as I can tell. They can think again about fucking with me.”

  Kathleen flashed her a warning smile. “That Italian temper of yours is taking over the steering wheel.”

  “Fine, then tell me what to do, since you’re so reasonable.”

  “Hey. I’m trying to help.”

  In frustration, Eva ran her hand through her thick mane. “I know. Sorry.”

  “Okay, how about this? At practice tomorrow, while you guys are all on the ice, I’ll grab Dani’s phone and check it out. See if there’s anything incriminating on it about that hot tub photo.”

  Whenever the players practiced or had a game, they put their cell phones in a bin inside the locker room, on a shelf beside the door. There was a no-phone policy, a blackout essentially, that took effect one hour before every game and practice and continued for an hour afterward.

  “All right, that’s better than anything I can suggest. What about Alison’s phone?”

  “No, she keeps it under lock and key.”

  Eva paused to look out the window. The mountains, hazy from low-hanging fog, hovered in the distance, their presence felt more than seen. The cold from the shadows they cast stretched all the way to her heart.

  “What’ll we do,” she said, “if we find something incriminating?”

  “I don’t know yet. Let’s take it a step at a time, okay?”

  “All right.” The more frightening thought was what they’d do if they didn’t find anything incriminating. Because the photo, and the fallout from it, was only the beginning, Eva feared.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Double Minor

  “Is it true, Mom? You’re not the coach anymore?”

  Niki clutched her phone until her fingers cramped. The pain and confusion in her daughter’s voice was a lance to her heart. I caused this, she thought. Someone once told her that parents disappoint their kids as often as kids disappoint their parents. Maybe more. Now she knew it was true. “That’s right, honey. I’m sorry you had to hear about it before I could tell you myself.”

  A small part of her, but only a small part, wanted to lie or sugarcoat things because her instinct was to protect Rory from the kind of politics and backstabbing and gossip that too often pervaded elite sports. It was a bitter lesson for a ten-year-old, that merit alone wasn’t always enough to succeed and that others sometimes wanted something so badly that they would use any means to get it, even if other people got hurt.

  “But people are saying things about you, Mom. Mean things that can’t be true. I got into a fight about it with another girl at school today.”

  Niki pinched her eyes shut so she wouldn’t cry. “I’m sorry about that, honey. And thank you for coming to my defense, but I promise, your old mom can take care of herself, okay?” It took effort not to give into her emotions, because doing so wouldn’t help Rory. “People sometimes say mean things when somebody’s having a tough time,” she said. “I don’t know why and it’s not right. I guess it makes them feel like they’re a better person or something, or it makes them feel not so bad about their own mistakes. But it’s important to remember that not all people are like that.”

  “But it’s not fair!”

  “No, it’s not, but it’s human nature sometimes. What’s important is that you know the truth.”

  “Is it true you’re with Eva now, Mom? And that’s why you can’t be the coach anymore, because Eva’s on the wrong team?”

  “No, I’m not with Eva, but some people think I am, and so that’s why my bosses don’t want me to be the coach anymore. At least not right now.”

  “But if it’s not true, then you have to tell them!”

  A tiny laugh escaped from Niki. If only things were as simple as an almost-eleven-year-old’s view, the world would be a much better place. “I did tell them, sweetie, but for now they want me to be the assistant coach instead of the head coach, at least until things cool down. I’ll still be behind the bench. And I’m still going to do my best to make sure Team Canada wins the gold medal. Nothing’s going to stop me from trying my best, okay?”

  It was a long while before Rory finally mumbled a reply.

  “Rory, are you okay?”

  A dramatic sigh. “Yes.”

  “Are you disappointed in me?”

  “No. Well, maybe about one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That Eva’s not your girlfriend.”

  Niki smiled through the tears forming in her eyes. “You think Eva should be my girlfriend?”

  “I think she already is, in your heart, anyway.”

  Niki held the phone to her chest, tried to gulp air through her tightening throat. “No, honey,” she finally said. “Eva and I are friends, that’s all.”

  “But the newspaper said you kissed her.”

  “It’s true, I did kiss her.” And more than once, but the second time, up against the brick wall in the alley, was something she was trying hard to forget. It seemed the jerk who secretly snapped the hot tub photo hadn’t followed them the rest of the week, thank goodness. Because there had been nothing innocent, no simple explanation of why Eva had pressed against her, her thigh between Niki’s legs, her hands under Niki’s coat, her mouth mashing against Niki’s. Nor about Niki wanting all of it. “But that doesn’t mean—”

  “I kiss Margot sometimes, and she’s my girlfriend.”

  Niki laughed, glad for the subject change. “Do we need to have a talk about the birds and the bees?”

  “I already know about all that stuff. Besides, Margot and I are too young to do anything but kiss. And not even with our mouths open.”

  “Well, then. See that it stays that way for at least eight more years.”

  Rory shrieked. “You mean I have to wait until I’m eighteen to do tongue kissing with her?”

  “Yes!” Niki laughed again, and so did Rory.

  “Mom,” Rory said, her voice stern. Niki could picture her waving her finger in the air for emphasis, the way she did when she was lecturing their cat, Hector, for leaving his toys strewn around the house. “It’s okay, you know.”

  “What’s okay?”

  “If Eva becomes your girlfriend. I like her. She’s nice. And she’s pretty hot too.”

  Niki gasped. Where had her little girl gone? “You’re not supposed to think about people being hot, young lady. Especially not people old enough to be my friends.”

  “Whatever. But you and Eva should be together. That’s all I’m saying, Mom. Everybody can see it.”

  Maybe that was the problem, she thought, that everyone could see the chemistry, the bond between them. She and Eva were the elephant in the room, kiss or no k
iss.

  “Did I ever tell you that you’re growing up way too fast?” It was conversations like these that reminded her how smart and precocious Rory was. Kids had a way of distilling things to the core, to getting at the truth in the most direct way. And while reuniting with Eva might seem simple in Rory’s young mind, it wasn’t. The Games aside, there were so many other things to consider, not the least of which was Shannon’s place in her and Rory’s hearts and in their memories. Her heart, she feared, wasn’t big enough or strong enough to let anyone else in.

  “We’ll talk about it another time, all right? You need to get to bed and I need to get back to work.”

  “Will I see Eva when I get there?”

  Rory and her Aunt Jen would be arriving in Vancouver in little more than a week, right in time for the opening ceremonies and the start of the round robin games.

  “I don’t know, sweetie. It’s going to be hectic around here, and the teams are pretty much sequestered once the Games start.”

  Rory was not to be derailed. “She’ll see me. I know she will.”

  Niki shook her head. Her daughter’s crush on Eva showed no signs of abating.

  * * *

  Eva snuck a glance at Kath, who gave her a nearly imperceptible nod before disappearing to the locker room.

  On the ice, she readied herself to receive a puck. Once it was on her stick, she took off at full speed, looped around a faceoff circle, passed the puck to a teammate at the red line, received it back again and tracked straight toward the net, only veering at the last second to slide the puck off her backhand and into the net.

  She did the same drill heading in the other direction, but this time flubbed a pass and had to start over again. She scolded herself by slapping her stick across her shin pads. From her eyes, she shot darts at Alison and Dani, believing with every fiber that the two of them were responsible for Niki’s very public and unfair fall from grace. They looked like they deserved one another—beady-eyed and small-mouthed, the smirking faces of first-class bitches. Somehow, she was going to prove they were behind it all before these Olympics were done.