The Fear Is Paralyzing

The road trip went by fairly fast, and before she knew it, Quinn was back on the bus, headed towards the airport. It had been just one game, and she was glad about that. She didn’t know if she could spend that many more games on the road. It wasn’t that she didn’t have a good time, but it was lonely spending the day in your room by yourself. She didn’t know what Mario did with his time on the road, but Quinn found herself with a lot of downtime and not much to do.

The team had won the game, and everyone was in high spirits on the way to the airport, playing video games and laughing and talking. Quinn looked around, finding Kris a few rows in front of her, just staring out the window. She hadn’t talked to him since before the game, and even then it had just been a quick good luck.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket, texting him quickly. I’m assuming you didn’t get caught going back to your room?” She didn’t know if there were room checks or anything crazy like that with the team, and she hadn’t wanted Kris to get in trouble for not being in his room. She had assumed he would have told her if something but happened, but she wasn’t really positive about that.

Nah, TK noticed but didn’t make a big deal about it. She read the text to herself, and she suddenly felt knots in her stomach. Tyler had noticed that Kris had been gone. Had Kris told him where he had been that night? Or had he lied to him?

She had thought about letting it go, but she knew it would eat at her if she didn’t know if Tyler knew about her or not. What’d he say? she asked simply.

Her stomach turned while she waited on a reply. She could see Chris Kunitz turn around in his seat to look behind him and start up a conversation with Kris, and Quinn inwardly groaned, knowing that she wasn’t going to get an answer while Kris was holding a conversation. Just as the bus pulled up to the airport, the two finally finished their conversation, and she noticed Kris texting something.

She had her phone in her hand as she stood up to get off the bus, waiting on it to buzz so she could read his reply. However, at that exact moment, Mario said her name. She felt her phone go off, and she wanted to read it, but she knew she couldn’t when she was about to enter a conversation with Mario. So, she tucked her phone away in her bag as she walked off the bus in front of Mario, turning around to talk to him as they walked side-by-side into the airport.

“How was your first road trip?” he asked her with a gentle smile. She moved her bag to her other shoulder as they continued walking.

“It went pretty well,” she nodded her head. She didn’t really know what to say or what kind of answer Mario was looking for.

“Good,” he told her. “Oh, and I just wanted to remind you there’s a business lunch tomorrow if you want to come,” he said, and Quinn vaguely remembered him saying something about it before. She couldn’t remember if it was in her calendar or not, but she figured she should go to it if she had the chance. She had no idea what it was about, but that wasn’t important. What was important was she made an appearance at everything she could. The more she was visible, the more it would seem like she was an actual owner.

“Yes, I’ll be there,” she nodded her head with certainty.

“Good, I’m glad,” he said sincerely before picking up his pace, trying to catch up with Coach Bylsma who was several feet ahead of them.

Quinn was finally left alone again, and she was able to look at her phone to see what Kris’s text had said. He just asked me if I had a late night last night.

That didn’t answer Quinn’s question from before, and she texted him again, trying to pay attention to where she was walking at the same time. Did you tell him where you were? She decided to just come straight out and ask him what she was wondering.

Once again, she had to wait on a reply. Kris wasn’t paying attention to his phone as they waited to be allowed onto the plane, as he was talking to a couple of his teammates. Quinn stood there awkwardly, not having anyone to really talk to. So, she spent most of her time, playing on her phone, trying to look busy.

By the time she had gotten onto the plane, Kris still hadn’t texted her back, and she assumed he wouldn’t before they took off. He was a few rows behind her this time, and she wasn’t able to keep an eye on him to know if he was texting or not. She was about to shut her phone off when it vibrated, showing a text from Kris. No, I just told him not to worry about it. Don’t worry. No one knows about us.

She didn’t take any time in responding, instead shutting her phone down, though she was more at ease now, knowing that no one knew about their relationship. She knew eventually they were either going to have to break up or come clean to everyone about everything, but that time wasn’t now, and she had decided not to worry about it for the time being.

Quinn rested her head back as the plane took off, falling asleep shortly after. She woke up just as they were getting ready for their descent, and she stretched a little bit before looking out the window, watching as the ground got nearer and nearer.

The team filed off of the plane and were taken back to the arena for their cars. Quinn got into hers, wishing she could go home and go to sleep, but unfortunately, she wasn’t that lucky. Instead, it was Thursday night, which only meant one thing. She had to go to her parents’ house for the weekly dinner.

She had regrettably told her mom that she was going on the road trip with the guys before she left, and she knew Corinne would grill her about the experience. There wasn’t much to tell, but Corinne wouldn’t give up until she got the full story.

She walked into the house and was immediately met by the sound of her mother’s voice. “Quinn, come into the kitchen!”

Quinn groaned as she made her way towards the kitchen, practically dragging her feet, not wanting to face her mother right now. “Hi mom,” she said with a smile as her mother turned around from the refrigerator, moving to give Quinn a hug.

“Dinner’s almost ready. You’re lucky you get here so late that you don’t have to wait too long for food,” Corinne spoke.

“I couldn’t help it, Mom,” Quinn defended herself. “I literally came straight here. I haven’t even stopped at my apartment yet,” she informed her.

“Well wait til dinner to tell us all about your trip! I’m sure Garrett and the boys are going to want to hear, too!” she said excitedly, and Quinn hung her head low. This was exactly what she didn’t want to happen. She didn’t want to have to talk about the trip in front of Dean. She already knew how he was going to respond to everything she said. “Go on in there! They’re already there!” Corinne said, ushering her daughter out of the kitchen.

“Hey Quinn,” she heard Noah say, and she smiled at him, sitting down next to him. Claire and Riley weren’t there this evening, and she wished more than anything that she was one of them right now.

“Nice of you to join us,” Dean said flatly, and she noticed Garrett give his son a look.

“She came straight from the road trip,” Corinne said cheerily. Quinn was confused. For the last several months, Corinne had been pushing Quinn to give up the team. However, since she had told Corinne of the road trip, she seemed happy that Quinn had gone. If she wanted her to give up the team, why would she be happy that she had gone on the road trip with them? “Okay, Quinn! Give us all the details! What happens on road trips?” she asked.

Quinn noticed even Dean seemed to sit up a little bit, paying attention to her. Quinn shrugged. “Nothing too much. I stayed in my hotel room for most of it. The game was good, though. We won by two goals,” she said, surprising even herself by using the term ‘we’ instead of ‘they’.

“You stayed in your room for most of it?” Dean scoffed. “What kind of owner are you?”

“Really, Quinn,” Corinne said, seemingly agreeing with Dean. “Shouldn’t you be out with the team? Or doing something for or with them?”

Quinn shrunk back into her seat as Corinne started serving the food. She hoped that if her family had their mouths stuffed with food that they wouldn’t be able to question her as much. “The players did their own thing pretty much for dinner,” she told them.

Dean looked at her, and she already knew she wasn’t going to like what was going to come out of his mouth. “We weren’t talking about the players,” he rolled his eyes at her. “Only you would be thinking about them like that. God, Quinn. You don’t hang out with the players when you’re the owner. I thought that was like rule number one. You should be with the coaches and other people high up. You don’t know anything, do you?”

Quinn didn’t say anything, biting the inside of her cheek, trying to not let his words get the best of her. The last thing she needed right now was to let her emotions get out of control and let Dean see that he had made her cry.

“Leave her alone, Dean,” Noah said firmly.

“God, Noah,” Dean said, turning on his brother now. “She’s a grown person, she doesn’t need you defending her.”

“And she doesn’t need you acting like that with her,” Noah countered.

Quinn opened her mouth to try to stop their fighting, but Garrett beat her to the punch. “Boys, settle down. This is a nice family meal. It’s not the time for fighting. Do you hear me?” he asked firmly.

“Yes,” both men said at the same time, feeling like they were eight years old again, being scolded by their father.

The rest of the evening went by slowly, no one really wanting to say anything. As soon as they were finished eating, Quinn was ready to leave, though she knew Corinne wouldn’t approve of that just yet. So, she waited a little while until Noah announced he was leaving. Quinn immediately stood up from her place on the couch and followed his lead. She went over and hugged her mother and Garrett, following Noah out of the house.

Noah stopped as soon as the door had shut behind them. “I’m sorry about Dean,” he apologized for his brother.

Quinn shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I should be used to it by now, shouldn’t I? I mean I’ve only dealt with him for how many years now?” she asked, forcing a smile on her face to feign being okay. In reality, what he had said had stung. And, she knew his words would affect her. She had already decided that she was going to take her job a lot more seriously, putting all of her effort into being the team owner, not worrying about anything else for the time being.

“Quinn, Dean is full of shit. You’re a good owner. He’s just jealous,” Noah told her, and she just smiled at his words. She knew Noah was just saying that to be nice. There was no way Noah actually thought she was a good owner. She didn’t really do anything that an owner would do. She didn’t think the way an owner should think.

“Thanks, Noah,” she told him politely, making her way to her car that was at the end of the driveway. “Tell Claire and Riley I said hi,” she added as she opened her car door.

“Will do,” she heard Noah say as she got inside her car, starting it and driving back to her place. She had a new mindset, one of a business sense. Starting at tomorrow’s business lunch, she was going to be all team owner. She was determined to be the best owner she could be.