Page 60 of Puck the Coach's Son
He does something then that I'll think about during warm-ups for the rest of this week. His eyes flick sideways toward me for a half-second, then back to the ice. In that half-second I see the whole thing on his face. He's been running on my track since Friday night, and he knows it.
Second-to-last drill of practice I line up behind him in the faceoff lane and I put my mouth near his ear, and I say, quiet, so quiet my voice is barely in the air, “Stretches last. Shower last. You know what I'm doing to you.”
He doesn't answer.
His stick tightens in his glove.
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
“Yes what?”
His stick tightens again.
“Yes, I know.”
“Good.”
Paul blows the whistle. The drill starts. Theo wins the draw clean. I swing up the boards. Nobody on the team has heard a word.
End of practice Paul keeps everyone on the ice for five minutes of stretches.
Theo does his stretches. I do mine. I'm on the ice longer than I need to be. I tie and retie a skate. I go to the bench and come back. I tell Grayson a joke I don't remember in the middle of telling it. Grayson laughs anyway because Grayson's a good teammate.
The team heads in.
I wait.
Theo waits.
Paul is the last off. He passes Theo at center and doesn't look at him. I'm pretending to stretch at the far boards. Paul doesn'tlook at me either. Paul goes through the gate. The Zamboni guy is leaning on his machine on the far side of the glass waiting to come out and resurface.
Theo skates toward the gate.
I skate behind him.
Nobody is watching.
“Shower,” I say, low, as I pass. “Last stall, far wall. Give it fifteen minutes.”
“Yes.”
The locker room is a slow clear-out.
Jax lingers because Jax is always last. Magnus lingers because Magnus can't leave a room until he's said whatever he's just thought of. Grayson is showering fast and loud in a stall in the middle of the row. Phoenix is at his stall, stick in hand, stripping tape from it with a knife. He doesn't look at me. He knows what I'm doing. He's decided he isn't my mother.
I take my time.
I pull pads off one at a time. I drink from my water bottle. I sit on the bench in my base layer and pretend to check my phone. Theo is at his stall across the room doing the same thing. He doesn't meet my eye. He doesn't need to.
Jax leaves.
Magnus leaves. Magnus saysgood work, boysto the room in general and nobody answers him, and he leaves anyway.
Grayson finishes his shower. Grayson dresses and leaves.
Phoenix folds the stick tape into a ball, drops it in the bin, puts his jacket on. He walks past me without speaking. At the door he stops. He doesn't turn.
