It's Just A Job

Katherine got the phone call from Ray Shero about five minutes after it happened. She knew the call was coming as soon as she saw the hit and the aftermath. An emergency meeting was scheduled for the following morning with all parties; Dan, Ray, Bill, Katherine and James.

“What did Ray say?”

Paul knew the call was coming too; he knew as soon as Neal’s knee hit Marchand’s head, Thornton’s fist hit Brooks’ head and Brooks hit the ice. He also knew that Katherine wasn’t going to settle down until the team landed back in Pittsburgh. It was her job and she took the weekend off to be there with him instead of going with the team to Boston.

“Nothing that I wasn’t expecting,” Katherine said as she walked towards the glass patio door that looked out onto Paul’s backyard. “Guessing from the mood that Ray was in, he’ll probably get suspended for a few games.” Katherine stood there, glass of Malbec in hand, staring out onto the night. She admired the neighborhood houses that were decorated for the holidays and she glanced over to the tree that she and Paul had just put the finishing touches on. This was supposed to be a night for her and Paul to relax and kick off the holidays, but instead, thanks to some over emotional reactions on both sides, players were likely going to be suspended, admitted to the hospital, and Katherine had her job to do.

Paul grabbed his crutches from the side of the couch and hobbled over to Katherine. He leaned against her back, wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to her ear.

“You know that the first place he will go when they get back will be your place.”

That was the last thing that Katherine wanted to think about. It had been almost a year to the day that she had her 24-hour, one-night stand with James Neal.

Katherine met James on the day she interviewed for her job with the Penguins, got to know him over drinks and proceeded to get to know every inch of his body in various positions in her hotel room in the night and a day that followed.

Katherine signed and submitted her employment contract the minute she pushed James out of her hotel room and fortunately for both of them, her job started with some time in Wilkes Barre with the Baby Pens. She worked with Bill Guerin with player development and when the time was right, she was called back to Pittsburgh to help management prepare for the personnel trades. Katherine was gaining respect and footing within the organization and helped secure three trades that would hopefully put the Pens in a good position to win the Cup.

During the time that Katherine was back in Pittsburgh, she got to know more of the players and even lived down the hall from Beau Bennett and Rob Bortuzzo, who she adopted as her little brothers when they were all down in Wilkes Barre. She talked literature with Craig Adam and organic farming with Brooks Orpik. She found a kindred spirit in Sid with their mutual love of baseball; good vodka with Geno and even got to brush up on her French and babysitting skills with Pascal, Kris and Marc-Andre and their families. In the short time she had been with the organization, the Pens players and management were truly like family to Katherine, with one exception.

All it took was casual smirk or a side-eye glance from James and Katherine would melt. Memories of their fling kept her clear of James because she knew that she would always have to keep her guard up around him. She was afraid of the consequences if she didn’t. They would burn too hot, too fast and most of all, too obvious. James would never be family to her; he would always be the hot guy she fucked when she first got to Pittsburgh.

Everything was smooth until one morning Katherine showed up towards the end of an early morning practice at CONSOL. She sat in the stands, halfway between the bench and the concourse. She was working on something on her phone, not paying attention to what was going on down on the ice; the coaches whistles, the cadence of the sticks and pucks all blurred into one sound after a while. It was only when the echoes stopped in the arena, did she realize that she was alone in the stands, with James staring at her, standing at the edge of the Penalty Box.

“Size 9, right?” James said as he reached around the back of the bench, pulling out a pair of skates.

Katherine grabbed her coffee and phone. “What are you doing James?” She started walking down to the player’s entrance to the bench.

“Dry spell, I can’t hit the goal to save my life.” James skated around the front of the bench, meeting Katherine at the door that led onto the ice. He handed her the skates and started skating backwards away from her.

“So, getting me into a pair of skates is going to help your dry spell?” Katherine asked.

“No Kat, but maybe getting you out of your pants might.”

Three games later, during the last game of the regular season, James Neal got a hat trick and the Pens were going to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

That was eight months and a lifetime ago. It was a Stanley Cup Semi-Final loss to Boston ago and a summer, a sleeve tattoo and a Ferrari away from James.

Notes

Picking up six months after The Off Season left off. Enjoy! ~KS