The Real Deal (James Neal)

Chapter 3

Tbh, I wrote the beginning of this chapter like 10 times… I didn’t know how to start it. But here it is.

Waking up got me thinking. How can I date one of the players and be coaching at the same time? I don’t even know if James and I were dating right now…

“Briana?” My brother, Kyle called out.

“Yeah?”

“Want to go to the rink?”

“Sure, let me grab my stuff.”

My mom left a lot of my hockey stuff in the garage. I would always play when I’m not playing volleyball. It kept me busy all the time.

“So I hear about you getting a job as the assistant coach for the Pens.”

“And I’ve told you many times to keep your eyes on the road.”

He shook his head, “Just because you’re older than me…”

“Trying to look out for you.”

“Tell me about getting the job.”

There was a rink a few blocks down the road to our house. Kyle recently got called to play for the WBS Penguins. I was helping him to get all the practice to could for the game he’s playing in, in two days.

I was getting water from the bench, when I saw someone walking towards the ice. They got closer and closer. James again.

“What are you doing here?"

“Thought I would come hang out with you, but I guess you already have someone else to be with.”

“That’s my brother James. He just got called to play with WBS.”

“Oh. I assumed he was your boyfriend or something.”

“Of course you did.”

“Kyle!”

He skated to us and I introduced him to James.

“You could use some help from a real player.” James smirked, I heard Kyle laugh a bit too.

“Right, because I’ll be the one coaching you.” I think that shut James up.

We practiced for another two hours. Kyle waited for James and I in the car.

“Your brother is going to do well in his first game.”

“I know he is.”

“Then what do you looked so worried about.”

“Us.”

“What about us.”

“You know exactly what James. I can’t be dating you and coaching the team at the same time.”

“I know but I heard Jacques is going to be back in less than 3 months. I think we can hide our secret for that long.”

“I don’t like secrets. Can we just talk about this when Jacques’ back?” I got up and walked towards the car.

“Do you want a ride?” I asked James.

“No, I drove here.”

The ride back to our house, my brother kept asking me what happened, but I never said a word. I wanted him to focus on his hockey stuff and not to worry about me.

My mom’s car was parked in the driveway, I wondered why she was home so early.

“Hey mom, why so early?”

“No reason, just got off work early.”

“Oh.”

“Briana, can I talk to you?”