Rushing the Goal (Assassins #8)(15)

Okay, then.

Lowering down into a squat, Benji met her worried gaze. Well, more like panicked. “Hart?”

“I keep messing up,” she whispered, looking away.

He leaned down to meet her gaze again, seeing the tears gathering in her eyes. “It’s okay. What’s wrong?”

“I’m nervous.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to mess up.”

He smiled. “We all mess up, Angie. It’s how we pick ourselves back up and try harder. Don’t worry. You got this.”

She swallowed hard, looking around as her teammates watched her. She looked to Lucy and he did the same, seeing that Lucy was standing now, her face full of worry. “I think I—”

But he shook his head. “You don’t want to go home. I know you don’t. You want to do this.”

She met his gaze once more, a little more determination in her eyes. “I do.”

“Then, go. Come on, we’ll do it together.”

“Together?”

“Yup, I bet you can’t beat me,” he said, standing and putting his stick down, ready to go.

Her lips curved as her eyes filled with excitement. “Yes, I can!”

His grin matched hers as he brought the whistle to his lips. “Let’s go.”

As he blew the whistle, she shot off, and he was behind her, running around the cones and sliding the puck around the little cones that were there for stick handling. Like he knew she would, she flew through the course, almost at the rate he did—he was maybe a few seconds in front of her. But when he finished, he faked a leg cramp and hit the ice, sliding to the finish as the little girls laughed and Angie rushed back, finishing with ease.

Turning, she pinned him with a look as he slowly got up, favoring his “cramped” leg. “My leg cramped. That’s why you beat me.”

“Sure,” she said, her eyes bright with no anxiety to be seen. As he held his glove out, she tapped it and then nodded. “Thanks, Benji.”

He tipped his chin to her and then blew the whistle once more, the next group going as Angie went to the back of the line. They were having a blast by the seventh time they did it, and Benji was convinced he had the best group of girls. As he watched the girls round the cones, his eyes diverted to where Angie’s mom sat, her eyes on them intently. She held her face with one hand, the other holding her phone as she watched. She looked a little panicky, almost nervous and vulnerable.

He smiled, though, for her, but Lucy rolled her eyes and moved her gaze toward where Angie was about to go again. Man, she really didn’t like him, but he was sure that wasn’t his fault. He was a good enough guy, nice, and obviously awesome since Angie liked him. No, there was more to it. He didn’t know the whole story—how could he? But man, he really wanted to.

He wanted to know her.

Which was crazy since he’d never wanted to know any woman but Ava. Though, something was different with Lucy. Maybe it was because she was so shut down. He wasn’t sure, but he wanted to know her story. He suspected that her ex-husband was a douche and didn’t treat them right. That had to be the reason why Angie was so nervous, almost too scared to do anything in case she failed. Or maybe Benji was way off. One thing was for sure, while she was with him, she was going to be reassured and she was going to be supported.

Because that sweet little girl had wiggled her way into his heart in the mere hour they had been together.

And for some reason, he wanted to be more than just the replacement for her uncle.

He wanted to be her friend.

That wasn’t weird, right?

Crap.

Maybe it was.

But when Angie looked back at him for reassurance after killing it and beating the other girls back to the line, he figured, yeah, it may be weird to want to be friends with a seven-year-old girl, but he didn’t care. This was supposed to have been his life now, but he’d lost his daughter and didn’t get to have that chance. For so long, he had been lonely. Holed up in his house, all by himself, but being on this rink, surrounded by these mini-players and Angie, he felt right. Maybe this was his calling, following in Shea’s footsteps. Coach a team one day, because he was having a blast.

And it was time for Benji to be happy.

If coaching a bunch of girls three times a week could do that, he was going to do it.





Practice was over before Benji knew it. They even had a little scrimmage at the end. Nothing crazy, but when Angie scored, you would have thought he had been the one to score. He was so excited and Angie ate it up. Lucy was in the stands, hollering her butt off too, but she didn’t smile when he sent her a grin. She probably thought he was strange. Oh well, he probably was. For as much as he’d thought about her in the last two hours after just meeting her, he was starting to think he was an odd one.

Keeping the puck from Angie as the girls started to clear off the ice, Benji was laughing with Angie when Shea blew the whistle. “Come on, guys, they gotta clean the ice for the next group.”

“Aww, man,” Angie complained and Benji tapped her helmet.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get your mom to bring you early on Wednesday, and we’ll do a little pickup before practice.”

Her eyes lit up as her grin almost broke her face. “You’re coming back!”

“Yeah, you’re coming back?” Shea asked with a grin as they skated toward him.