Page 6 of Heart of a Defender

“Hey, Madison.” I turn and raise my voice to get her attention. “I’d like to show you something. You free Friday night?”

She cocks her head and lifts her eyes to the ceiling as she taps her jaw, overplaying the let-me-check-my-schedule scenario. I chuckle, feeling lighter and enjoying her playful yet guarded side.

“Hmm, I think that can be arranged.” She flashes me a grin, which is anything but cautious. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Madison’s flirting with me.

And I like it. Maybe too much.

CHAPTER 3

HISTORY LESSONS

***

Madison

Thursday’s practice session goes long. I linger in the bleachers long after the players leave the ice with my laptop open, doing a deep dive into Zach’s background. He generously gave me a glimpse of his personal life yesterday, but there’s so much more I want to know.

I scroll through old articles and interviews. Most of them do little more than skim the surface of Zach’s career from high school to college and his big break into the National League when the Saints chose him as a first-round draft pick. The sports coverage lists game highlights, stats, and the usual canned quotes.

It’s clear Zach doesn’t like to share details about his personal life, but the deeper I dig, the more bits and pieces begin to surface. I find a photo from a few years ago of the Hockey League Entry Draft in Vegas. His mother, Ava Brooks, is significantly absent from the signing day photo, but his sister, Lauren, stands by Zach’s side, beaming up at him like he hung the moon.

Further digging turns up an article about a fundraiser the team held a year after Zach signed with the Saints. The team raised over three hundred thousand dollars, giving the bulk of that to cover the cost of medical treatment for one of the team’s family members. Neither the team member nor his family member is mentioned in the article, but one shot shows Zach, Lauren, and a woman in a wheelchair at the guest of honor table.

The photo’s grainy, but I save it to my computer files and continue scrolling. I type Ava Brooks into my search engine and find her name on the board of directors of a non-profit patient advocacy group. She’s listed as an honorary advisor helping cancer patients navigate the healthcare system.

I jot down notes with a growing understanding of Zach’s hesitance to discuss his family. Health care is personal, and if his mother is a cancer survivor, as I suspect, Zach might fear that her cancer could resurface one day. That’s a heavy load to bear.

I dig deeper and look into Lauren’s life. Zach said she’s studying to be a nurse. There are several mentions of her in the paper. She’s often seen cheering for Zach at games, once mistaken for his girlfriend by a reporter trying to get a scoop. Lauren’s not as averse to speaking with reporters as her brother. In one interview, she talks about how proud she is of him and how he’s always been her hero.

Like the little boy from the other day, only Zach is more than a sports hero to the women in his life. If his mother is the foundation and Lauren’s the rock, then Zach is the glue that holds their family together. I bet the only thing that kept his mom from being with him on signing day was her bout with cancer.

As I piece together the fragments of their story, a clearer picture of Zach comes to the surface. He isn’t just playing for himself or his teammates. He’s playing for the team who gave him everything he needed to succeed––his family; Ava and Lauren.

I’m touched and a little misty-eyed. The pressure Zach puts on himself to succeed and be a leader is incredible. The pressure to succeed isn’t just about winning games—it’s about validating the sacrifices his family made to ensure his future and theirs.

I feel a bit guilty for assuming Zach was nothing but an arrogant star player. I close my laptop, my mind racing with ideas for the feature article. Not only will I not screw it up as per my editor’s helpful suggestion, but I’ll do justice to the story and show the world that Zach is more than a hockey star. He’s a real role model.

The story is about family, sacrifice, and the unbreakable bonds that shaped Zach Brooks. I’m determined to uncover every layer and show the world what true heroes look like––a dedicated single mom, a supportive sister, and a man determined to keep his family unscathed from the world.

***

Zach

Coach makes us run extra drills today. Says our heads aren’t in the game. He didn’t single me out, but I felt his words heavy on my shoulders. I’m distracted, and that’s the last thing I need right now heading into the season. Our first game is coming up quickly, and we’re not ready.

I’m beat but can’t sleep. I usually conk out as soon as my head hits the pillow, but not tonight. The air conditioner’s hum drowns out the late-night traffic noise, but a thousand thoughts spin like an eddy in my head. Madison wasn’t at the exit when I finished in the locker room tonight. Granted, it was later than usual, but I’m getting used to seeing her.

I rub my hand across my bare chest, picking up the beat of my heart beneath my palm. I missed her today. She had her nose in her laptop all through practice, barely looking up. I spent so much time trying to catch her eye that I missed easy shot after easy shot on the ice. It’s a wonder Coach didn’t pull me aside or bench me.

It’s only a matter of time before Madison picks up any number of stories about my family. She’s determined, but I can’t help but wonder what drives her so relentlessly. I hope inviting her to the team fundraiser tomorrow night will open her eyes to the positive things my place on the Saints affords me and how the team rallies around family. Salacious gossip mags are always looking for the bones in the Brooks family closet, but there’s no future in dwelling on the negative things in my past.

Thanks for nothing, Dad.

I grab my phone from the nightstand, considering a quick scroll through social media to get my mind off things. Who am I kidding? Madison’s got my mind twisted in knots. I type her name into the search bar and scroll through a few articles she’s written.

She’s good—really good. But it’s not her sports writing that catches my eye. It’s her human interest pieces that draw my attention. Before her stint at the Sable Creek Times, she wrote several pieces for Campus Community, Single Edit, and Her Heroes. The underlying theme of all her writing focused on empowering women, the obstacles they faced in their careers and personal lives, and how they rose above the challenges.

I click on an article written a few years ago titled “Breaking Free: Empowering Myself.” Madison writes about her early career and the challenges she faced as a young journalist struggling to make a name for herself in a male-dominated field. She was assigned stereotypical soft news like fashion, entertainment, and restaurant reviews, had her fair share of workplace harassment, and suffered from imposter syndrome. The last something I can relate to.

---