Free More Than a Game by Kate Goldman Page A

test to see if I am working or goofing off?” she laughed.
     
    “No, not at all. Considering your association with him, I thought you might have already been told or seen it on your phone.”
     
    “Seen what? What are you talking about?”
     
    Leslie had an impending sense of doom even before she looked at her phone, pulling up the breaking news feed. There, at the top of the sports headlines, was a picture of Shane in his hockey uniform. Beneath it, in big letters was the bad news of the day.
     
    “The team released him?”
     
    “Yes. First thing this morning.”
     
    Leslie tried to hide her disdain from him, not wanting him to know there was anything more than a working association between them. She closed her phone and laid it down on the desk, willing herself to remain calm until he went away.
     
    “That’s too bad. He’s a nice guy really,” she said nonchalantly.
     
    “It is too bad. I thought we really had a good shot at getting a high-profile player on the game. Better luck next time, kiddo.”
     
    With that, he walked away. Leslie resisted the urge to pick up something and toss it at the back of his head. How could he be so callous about someone else’s misfortune? Instead, she focused on calming herself a bit by taking a few deep breaths before getting up to close her office door, Then she sat back down and picked up her phone. She hit the speed dial for Shane and waited for an answer.
     
    “I guess you heard already,” he said before she had a chance to even say hello.
     
    “My boss told me. Are you okay?”
     
    “I’m as okay as I can be. They didn’t even wait for this thing to be hashed out. I can’t believe it. They have players that get in trouble that was obviously their own doing and they just slap them on the wrists. Apparently, I’m not as valuable to the team as I thought I was,” he told her.
     
    “Their loss. You’re a fantastic player. Find another team,” she told him.
     
    “Maybe. Eventually. Right now, I can’t even do that,” he said.
     
    “Why not? Just because you have this in process doesn’t mean you can’t play for someone else.”
     
    “It does. First of all, no one would have me with all this hanging over my head. And even if they did, I was suspended by the league until this gets sorted out. I can’t play for anyone until I’m cleared or they decide to lift the ban.”
     
    “I can’t believe how out of hand this all has gotten. It was just an accident!” she said, feeling angry that all of this was happening to him and neither of them was in a position to stop it.
     
    “It will work out however it is supposed to,” he said quietly.
     
    “I can’t believe you are so calm about it,” she replied.
     
    “I don’t have any other choice, Leslie. There is nothing I can do to change any of it. I just have to wait and do all that I can to protect myself from getting dragged down into some sort of abyss I can’t climb back out of,” he told her.
     
    “I’m so sorry all of this is happening to you, Shane.”
     
    “Yeah. Me too.”
     
    “I have to get back to work, but I’ll be thinking about you. I’ll call you when I get home.”
     
    “Okay. I’d invite you over tonight, but I think I’m going to just go to bed early. This has been a bad day and I just don’t feel up to being social much.”
     
    “I understand,” she said. “You know I’m only a phone call away if you need me though.”
     
    “I do. Thanks, Leslie.”
     
    “Anytime. Bye, Shane.”
     
    He had barely finished saying goodbye before he ended the call. Leslie laid down her phone, staring at it for a moment as if it held any answers for her. He had reached out for her the night of the incident, when he felt upset, not wanting to be alone. Today, he was pushing her away and she realized that it felt really bad. She had to try to understand how hard this must be for him. Being released from his contract must be a huge blow for him, much bigger than the