Page 178 of On His Mind

The Wolves win it in overtime.

Saturday’s a home game, and we’re all going to it. I get ready with the girls at my place — Melly doing her eyeliner in my mirror, Gianna narrating a jersey situation, Aspen deciding for me that I’m wearing the Wolves shirt someone dug up in Percy’s number, tugging it over my head like I’m a child. I let her.

“Look at you,” she says, holding my shoulders, turning me to the mirror.

“Look at us,” I chuckle.

“I need a picture.” She pulls out her phone and snaps one of us in the mirror, and then she goes to the corner of the room and snaps a candid one of all the girls getting ready.

I look at myself in the mirror again and smile.

“Okay,” Gianna calls from the door. “Car. Now. I’m not missing warmups.”

The arena is loud. We’re in the family section, and I find Percy on the ice. He’s easy to spot because he wears enough padding to see from miles away. The team’s taking warmup shots on him, pucks flying at the net one after the other, and he catches them like they’re nothing.

When they’re done warming up, he looks up towards the family section. He lifts his hand, and I hadn’t realized he found me that fast. I wave back and smile. It hits me right there that I no longer have to pretend that I don’t know him. Something in my chest warms, and then his attention goes back to the ice, and I lose him to the game.

It is agony to watch. I did not know this. A puck flies at him in the face, and I gasp, but he doesn’t flinch. Gianna and Aspen rub my shoulders, but my heart has completely stopped. The game moves on. The opposing team is strong, but Benson and Stanley are faster. Every shot goes through me. Gianna keeps grabbing my arm. When somebody comes down the wing and winds up, I make a sound I’ve never made before, and Aspen laughs at me and grabs my other arm.

But Percy — God, he’s good. I knew he was good, but I think he’s gotten better. He’s flexible in ways I didn’t know were possible. Benson taps his shoulder sometimes, and I catch it. The captain’s approval. He makes a save in the second period that has people on their feet in the stands, and one in the thirdthat has the whole section up, and I’m up with them, screaming with the rest of them. Gianna grabs my arm and shouts with me.

In the third, there’s a scramble, a shot from nowhere. At least to my eyes. It happens so fast, but Percy moves right in time. The puck is in his glove, and the guys are raising their hands, shouting at him. The barn comes apart. Gianna shakes me from the side.

“That’s your man!” Mara shouts.

And Percy looks up. Right away. Before his own team gets to him, before Benson’s stick is off his pads. He turns, looks up into the stands, finds my face, and holds it. He’s smiling — a big, wide smile that’s all teeth.

I’ve got both hands over my mouth, staring back at him.

They kill the minute. The Camden Wolves win. And on his way off the ice, he looks up one more time, and this time I don’t cover my face. I smile back.

He comes out from the locker room with his hair still wet and finds me before he finds anyone else. There’s no party tonight — everyone’s wrung out from finals and there’s a three-hour drive tomorrow, so the plan is just the Hawthorne house, the guys and their girls, low and easy. We wait in the concourse while they filter out, and the girls close into a knot the way we do now.

“Okay, but the glove save,” Aspen’s saying. “The second-period one. I genuinely thought that was in.”

“I know that when the puck goes toward Percy, Penelope stops breathing.” Melly bumps my shoulder.

“Someone shot it at his face,” I respond immediately.

Percy wraps an arm around me. “That’s the game. That’s just hockey.”

“It’s a terrible game and I hate it,” I mumble into his shirt, smelling his body wash. I turn around and lean against his chest.

Aspen looks up at Stanley and whispers something. He leans down and bites her cheek playfully. I glance at Lucy, who’s watching them. Then Aspen shoves Stanley.

He chuckles, bringing her in. “My girl’s going to write a list of all the shit we need to improve on.”

Blue wraps an arm around Melly and says, “I could actually use that, Aspen. Thank you.”

Aspen pinches Stanley’s stomach as he whispers something to her. “Cut it out.”

Benson says, “We could use a professional eye.”

“Yeah, babe,” Stanley laughs, grabbing her hand. “Write up a report for your old man.”

Aspen turns to him, and Stanley laughs, running away from her with his hands up and a big smile.

Gianna looks at me and says, “I’m gonna let you girlfriends do your girlfriend thing.” She’s already backing away from her brother.