Match Penalty: Coach’s Daughter Hockey Romance (The Rookie Hawkeyes Series Book 1)

It’s five a.m. as I stand on my skates with a hockey stick in my hand, my breath creating small clouds in the cold air. It’s too early for anyone else to be here, but I couldn’t sleep. Not with tomorrow’s auction looming and today’s home game, where I’ll be forced to watch JP take to the ice.

‘Always the hero,’ I mutter bitterly to myself about JP, setting up another puck. The sound of my stick connecting with rubber echoes through the empty arena. The puck hits the back of the net, but it’s not good enough. Not nearly good enough to get past JP.

I’ve been here every morning this week, watching Dad practice his shots. Sometimes helping, sometimes just observing. The weight of what’s coming sits heavy on my shoulders —one shot from my dad could change everything, and I still have no idea how much Penelope knows. I suspect she still doesn’t know anything, and the guilt I feel for that has been increasing.

Of course, if JP shuts my dad out, maybe she’ll never find out. What’s the likelihood of that? I have no idea. My dad is a legend in the hockey world, but JP is highly ranked in both his overall career and the start of this season. Who knows where he’ll end up if he continues to play professionally.

My phone buzzes in my jacket pocket. For a split second, my pulse jumps at the thought of it being JP, but it’s just Brynn.

Brynn: I stopped by your apartment this morning to say hi before my yoga class but you weren’t there. Early practice again?

Me: Needed to clear my head and get an early start on the auction checklist today, before tonight’s game.

Brynn: You’ve got to stop torturing yourself like this.

I ignore her last message, and instead wind up and smack the puck, watching it sail into the net. The emerald dress I chose with the girls hangs in my office, a reminder of everything at stake.

The sound of doors opening startles me. Dad walks out onto the ice, still in his street shoes.

‘Thought I’d find you here,’ he says, watching as I collect pucks. ‘How long have you been at it?’

‘Just got here,’ I lie, but we both know better. The dark circles under my eyes tell a different story.

He studies me for a moment. ‘You know I’m doing this for you, don’t you?’

‘Maybe you should let me fight my own battles,’ I say, though I know he means well.

‘What are you asking me to do?’ he finishes quietly.

I pause, his question heavy between us. ‘I want…’ My voice catches. ‘I don’t know what I want anymore.’

The sound of Angelica’s voice when she answered JP’s phone flashes through my mind, followed by the way he’s been avoiding me at practice. The way his gaze cuts right through me like I’m not even there.

‘If you miss, I can’t stay here,’ I admit for the first time out loud to him. ‘I can’t watch him with her, pretending everything’s fine. I already have a transfer request drafted to the Hawkeyes farm team in Alberta. It won’t be an administration assistant for the GM but it’s a start, and there is a lot of space to move up.’

Dad’s sharp intake of breath tells me he wasn’t expecting that. He’s not happy about my decision, but it’s still mine to make.

‘Wait, Cammy—’

‘Please,’ I cut him off. ‘I’ve made up my mind. Either he goes or I do.’

‘And what about Penelope? She’s put years into helping you grow as her administrative assistant. And what about everything you’ve built here? Milo won’t grow up with his sister close by, and what am I supposed to do without our weekly lunches?’

I think about my office upstairs, filled with auction preparations and years of memories. About Everett’s trust in me to handle major events. About the players’ wives and girlfriends who’ve become family. But mostly, about my dad, Brynn, and Milo.

‘Sometimes you have to make hard choices,’ I say, echoing words he once told me.

‘Is this about choices or about running away?’

Before I can respond, my phone buzzes again. This time it’s Penelope.

Penelope: Emergency auction meeting in 30. Catering crisis.

‘Duty calls,’ I say, grateful for the escape. ‘The auction won’t plan itself.’

Dad watches as I gather my gear. ‘Just remember something, Cam. No matter what you choose to do, I always want the best for you. I’m always in your corner—no matter what.’

I carry his words with me as I head upstairs to change. The emerald dress catches my eye as I pass my office, its sequins catching the morning light. I chose it to make JP regret walking away. Now I wonder if I’m the one who needs to remember what I’m fighting for.

The day passes in a blur of last-minute auction details. Seating charts, catering emergencies, sound system checks—it’s almost enough to distract me from tonight’s game. Almost.

‘Earth to Cammy,’ Brynn waves her hand in front of my face. We’re doing final checks on the silent auction displays, but my mind keeps drifting to the ice below. ‘You went somewhere else for a minute there.’

‘Sorry,’ I mutter, adjusting a display card. ‘Just thinking about tonight.’

‘About the game or about seeing JP?’

I wince. ‘Both. Neither. I don’t know anymore.’

‘Have you considered the third option? One where your dad gets a puck past JP, and you leave with him.’

‘What?’ I bark, my eyebrows almost hitting my hairline. ‘Have you forgotten everything that’s happened? The one night stand in San Diego, the DUI, the return to my stadium and my team, him leading me on and then bringing Angelica back to rub my face in it all? You think I would chase him to Canada after all of that?’

‘Love is complicated and messy. It rarely makes any damn sense, because if it did, you’re dad and I wouldn’t have ended up together. If we had met in Seattle, it never would have worked. It took a phony vacation rental booking and a hurricane to force us to make it work. Maybe what you both need is a new scenario—your own hurricane that forces you together. Maybe the farm team could be that for you two.’

‘I think you’re starting to mix your fictional books with real life. There’s no way that works out in the end. Happily ever afters are only in novels,’ I tell her.

There’s a glint in her eyes as she stares back. ‘Yeah, well, we’ll see about that.’

The home game arrives too soon. Brynn insists I can’t hide in my office forever, so here I sit in my dad’s seats, with Brynn and Milo beside me, trying to focus on the ice instead of the hollow feeling in my chest. The familiar buzz of pre-game excitement vibrates all around the arena, but I feel disconnected from it all, like I’m watching through someone else’s eyes.

Then I see her.

My heart stops, then plummets. Angelica sits in JP’s seats. She’s elegant in a Hawkeyes jersey, her smile bright as she chats with the other players’ families, filling the space I thought would someday be meant for me. Sitting in JP’s seats, wearing his jersey like a claim. The stark reality is that JP and I won’t ever happen.

‘Cammy?’ Brynn’s voice seems far away as she gives Milo a snack. She’s sees where my eyes land. ‘Is that her?’

‘Yeah,’ I barely whisper.

She grabs for the diaper bag as if she’s preparing to leave. ‘We can go. Or head up to the Owner’s Box with the rest of the girls. We don’t have to sit here.’

‘No,’ I manage, but my voice cracks. ‘I need to be here. I need to see this with my own eyes.’

JP skates out for warmups, and something inside me breaks. Not because he looks different, but because he doesn’t. He’s still the same JP who held me against the broom closet wall, who pulled his jersey over my head like I belonged to him. Who made me believe, that I got to keep him forever.

Then it happens. JP glances up toward his seats, toward Angelica. There’s something in his expression; a softness I used to think was reserved for me. His eyes drift over to where I sit with Brynn, and for a moment, our gaze locks. There’s a sadness in them. Is it for me? Is it for him? I have no idea.

And then I realize… maybe I’ve seen about as much as I can handle.

‘I don’t know what I was thinking coming down here. I should go back up and finish my work,’ I say, my knee bouncing as we watch the puck drop and the game get underway.

‘Cammy—’noveldrama

I turn back to her. I love Brynn more than anything for being the optimist in this situation, but hope is hard to come by when the truth is a blonde in his jersey two aisles away.

‘She answered his phone while he was in the shower, Brynn. She was comfortable enough to answer his phone knowing it was me. And now she’s here, in his seats, wearing his team’s colors.’ Each word feels like sandpaper scratching all the way down my throat.

On the ice, JP blocks shots with perfect precision, like nothing in his world is broken. Like my heart isn’t shattering in the stands above him.

‘I can’t watch this,’ I say suddenly, standing. ‘I need to go check on the auction preparations for tomorrow.’

‘The team needs you here, supporting. I already saw everything going on upstairs—you’re ready. And Juliet said that this is going to be the best auction ever.’

I glance over again, unable to help myself, seeing Angelica’s soft blonde hair as she laughs with another group sitting behind her.

I feel my heart physically breaking in two. ‘I’ve come to a decision. I know exactly what I’m hoping for tomorrow at the auction.’

‘And what’s that?’ Brynn asks, holding onto Milo as he waves at the players rushing past.

Angelica catches my eye, and I dart my vision away. ‘That Dad doesn’t miss.’

Later that night, I stand alone on the ice, staring out at the empty arena. The silence feels different now, heavier. Tomorrow, everything changes.

If Dad makes the shot, JP leaves.

If Dad misses, I walk away from my home, my family, my whole life here.

Either way, it feels like losing.

For better or worse, tomorrow is the end of something.

I just wish my heart would agree with my head that JP losing is the outcome I want.