Page 151 of Edging Coach
“In the cheap seats?”
“Nope. Press office put him in a freaking box. With the lead singer of Grindstone, no less. Will be interesting to see the two of them together.” Grindstone was an indie Vancouver band who had recently been making big waves in the music industry.
Wheels chuckled. “Yeah, that’ll be cool.” We hustled toward the ice. “You focused?”
I nodded. “Jack gave up everything for me. The least I can do is play my best every time I step on the ice.”
“That’s a lot of pressure.”
“No less than I put on myself before.”Sorry, Mom, just being honest. While we were in Tofino, Jack gently suggested maybe seeing a counselor for a couple of sessions to deal with the chasm of grief that still felt overwhelming at times. I’d reached my ultimate goal—and I still felt like something wasmissing. I had the man of my dreams—and I still wished my mom could’ve met him. Grief was normal. Maybe a counselor would say that. Or maybe I needed to let go of the intensity.
“Play your best game.” Karim leaned in. “You tell your man the good news yet?”
“Nope.” Keeping something from Jack was killing me, but I wanted to share the news in person, and there hadn’t been time today.
Wheels tapped my helmet. “I don’t think I could keep that from—” He hesitated. “—the person I loved. Okay, let’s go win this game.”
That wasn’t what he was going to say.I had no idea what he meant to say, though. As far as I knew, he was single. So if he had someone, I couldn’t say the partner was common knowledge.None of your business.
True. But anyone who might take the pressure of coverage off Jack and me would be appreciated.
Fans roared as we hit the ice. Again, I felt like the cheering for me was louder than ever.Probably just my imagination.And I wasnotlooking into the stands to find Jack. Bad enough he’d been dragged into this.Except it normalizes your relationship.
Right.
I skated my heart out. Again, I managed two assists.
We knocked Dallas on their asses.
Not literally. But a 6-1 blowout felt pretty damn sweet.
Jack waited for me.
He wore my jersey.
Unreal.
And apparently the damn things were selling well. More of that hero stuff, I suspected.
Or maybe because you’re a really good player.
Jack opened hisarms.
I stepped into them.
We kissed.
Fortunately, all the other players were occupied, and so no one paid us any mind. Just a player and his partner.
Jack pulled back first. Then he leaned in. “I have news.”
“Oh?” I cocked my head. “I have news too.”
His brow knit. “Maybe we have the same news?”
I shook my head. “If you knew my news, then you’d know I already knew.”
He guffawed. “God, that’s convoluted. Are we going to the bar?”
