Face Offs & Cheap Shots (CU Hockey #2) - Eden Finley Page 0,82
“I do get it. If I had as much money as you, I wouldn’t want to lose it either. But some things are worth standing up for. Some things are worth fighting for.” I step closer to him. “And Teddy? You are worth fighting for. You deserve to be happy. Money or no money, you at least deserve that. Stop looking at the short-term win of placating your father. What do you want in the long run, and how can you work toward your ultimate goal?”
“I want to run my own camp,” Beck says with new determination. “I mean, I know it will be a lot of work, and I’d have to find a position as a coach for a few years and work my way up to it, but I thought …” He sucks in another deep breath. “I figured, with your degree—you did sports medicine courses, right? Having a physiotherapist on board would be smart, and you could coach too because you’re so good, and—”
I break into a smile. “You’ve thought about us together in years to come?”
Beck’s mouth drops open. “No? I mean … hypothetically?” His voice cracks, and it’s so damn adorable.
I move to wrap my arms around him. “Admit it. You love me,” I murmur in his ear.
He lowers his head and nods. “I love you too.”
I slap his ass. “Good. Then we have some work to do.”
“Work?”
“We’re going to figure out a way for you to get what you want, impress your dad, and start working toward your hockey camp idea all without killing yourself from exhaustion.”
“Y-you’re going to help?”
I take a seat at my desk and open my laptop. “What are teammates for?”
Beck kisses my head. “Partners.”
I lift my chin so I can look at him standing over me. “Partners. Whatever happens next year, I want to do it together.”
He leans over me, touching his lips to mine. “You’re pretty good at this boyfriend thing.”
Beck tries to pull away, but I grab the back of his neck to kiss him again, deeper and slower, with no thoughts of it leading further than where we’re at. And maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves, maybe this future we’re planning won’t happen at all, but the great thing is, we don’t need to figure it out right now.
As long as we have a plan, our stubborn asses will make it happen.
32
Beck
I have no idea why the thought of telling Jacobs about my father’s ultimatum and my plan to set myself free was so daunting.
It didn’t have anything to do with thinking he wouldn’t support it and everything to do with how much I have riding on this.
This is my chance to be free of the expectations my parents have instilled in me from the moment I was born. I need my pitch to be faultless so Dad doesn’t have any other choice than to back me.
Starting my own hockey camp will need a whole financial plan, a leasable site that has easy access for students to get to over summer and possibly early mornings during the semester so I can have it operating year-round.
I could recruit coaches from colleges for the bigger capacities over summer, and I was even thinking Jacobs could bat his eyelashes at his bestie and get Foster Grant involved too. If we had NHL stars dropping in for special days, enrollments would be at capacity. It has the potential to make a lot of money.
Then I need to think of insurance, housing, following NCAA rules to make sure all students would be eligible for college entry … There’s a lot to do in a short amount of time.
Even though this is my long-term plan, I have to present the whole plan to Dad before graduation.
I’m in the middle of reading infrastructure legislation, because that’s always fun, when the door to my dorm room flies open, and my boyfriend walks in with two cups of coffee from the campus coffee cart.
“Oh my God, I love you.” I reach for the precious, precious liquid.
“Aww, I love you—wait, you’re talking to the coffee, aren’t you?”
“I love both of you equally. Don’t make me choose!”
“Oh, I think it will be an easy choice once I tell you the little nugget of information I learned from Zach’s angry friend Ray at breakfast.”
“I’m listening.”
“You’re looking at this as an opportunity to make money, right? She thinks you’ve got that all wrong.”
“Oh, great. Yeah, that really makes me love you. You’re right.”