Page 80 of Knocked Sideways

“Um, Coach?” he started, not sure how angry Coach was going to be. They’d won, so it wasn’t like he’d screwed everything up completely, but he sure hadn’t earned his salary that night.

“What is it, Ladoux? Wanna talk about whatever it was that kept you from playing hockey tonight? Because that cannot happen again tomorrow, you understand?”

“I know, Coach. I understand, and it won’t happen again.”

“Good. So what do you need?”

“The thing is, my younger sister was supposed to come to the game. She lives in Montreal. But she hasn’t answered my texts for a couple of days, and she didn’t show up tonight, and she’s just eighteen, so I’m pretty worried about her.”

Coach frowned, but in a considering kind of way. Like, Remy was obviously going to have to work extremely hard to earn his way back into Coach’s good graces, but Coach thought his worry was valid.

It didn’t make him feel better.

“I take it you don’t have other family you can call to check in on her? Because you’d already have done that.”

“Yeah. I don’t. It’s pretty much just the two of us.”

“So what are you asking for?”

“I was hoping I could drive to Montreal now instead of going up with the team tomorrow morning. That way, I can check in at her apartment and hopefully track her down. I’ll be at practice tomorrow—that won’t be an issue, I promise.”

“Well,” said Coach, clearly not eager to say yes, but also clearly softening. It probably helped that Coach had a couple of teenagers. “Okay. Go ahead. Drive safe. But I’m going to say it one more time, Ladoux: this cannot be a distraction tomorrow. And if you’re not early to practice, I’m benching you.”

“Yes, Coach. Thank you, Coach. I promise I’ll play better tomorrow.”

“I’m taking that as a given. Get the hell out of here.”

Jed wasn’t around when Remy grabbed his bag from the locker room, which made Remy’s heart sink. He really would’ve liked to see Jed before he left. He really would’ve liked Jed to hold him and tell him again he was overthinking this and it would all be fine. But Jed wasn’t there, and maybe that was for the best. It wasn’t like Jed would touch him like that in the locker room anyway.

And Lily was Remy’s responsibility. He could take care of this himself. He should take care of this himself. Jed wasn’t Mike, by a long shot, but even Jed must have his limits, and they’d only been together for a matter of weeks. Remy didn’t want to test how much mess Jed was willing to put up with.

So yeah, he should go. He’d find Lily and maybe even yell at her for giving him the scare of his life, and then get back to the team and figure out how to make up for the shitty game he’d played that night. Remy paused just long enough to tell Petey why he wasn’t going to make dinner and ask him to let Jed know, and then he called for a ride to the nearest car rental and did his best to push aside any thoughts other than how he was going to track Lily down.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

JED

Jed noticed, of course, that Remy wasn’t on the bus. So he checked his phone, but there was no text and no voice message. He wondered if Remy had heard from Lily that something was wrong after all, so he tapped out a quick, Where’d you go? All ok? x, and then stared at his phone for the entirety of the short ride to the hotel, watching for the dots that never came.

He’d told himself on the bus ride to relax because Remy would be in touch soon, but he still pulled Hal aside in the lobby as the keys were being handed out.

“Hey, do you know where Remy is?”

“No,” Hal said, looking around. “He’s not here?”

“No.”

“Coach didn’t tell me anything. Want me to ask?”

Yes. “Nah, that’s okay.”

He didn’t want to make a whole thing out of it. He didn’t think Coach had picked up that he and Remy were anything more than roommates. Coach might not even have picked up the roommates part, although Hal had probably mentioned it. Hal liked his guys to get credit when they did things like put up new players.

Also, Remy was an adult. An adult who had a phone and was perfectly capable of texting Jed, if he cared to do so. And who might decide that whatever they were doing was too much or not what he wanted, if Jed acted like he had a right to know where Remy was at all times.

“Hey, you still coming to dinner with us?” Petey pushed between him and Hal and threw an arm over both their shoulders. It was a bit of a stretch for him.

“Dinner’s still on?” Jed shrugged him off and looked around. McBride and Levi Moreau were standing by the entrance, so he guessed it was. “Remy’s not here. And I don’t think Lily is, either.”