Page 54 of Game On

He could picture the scenario so clearly he could practically feel it, taste it, touch it. He wanted to?—

“Helloooooo. Jamie.”

He glanced at Dorian, mind in a fog. “Huh?”

Dorian cocked his head, brow furrowed. “I asked what you think the biggest challenge will be for the Orcas in the playoffs. You okay? I lost you there for a second.”

“Yeah. Sorry, my mind wandered.”

Shaking his head to clear it, Jamie focused back on the here and now, pasted on a smile, and got back to work.

* * *

Later that evening, sweat-soaked and heart racing, Jamie trudged into the locker room on his skates along with the rest of the team. The game against San Diego had ended in a tie, so they had fifteen minutes of rest and strategy before they were back at it for overtime.

Coach Shore strode into his office with Assistant Coach Li and Skills Coach Stanton while everyone else settled in for their intermission rituals. Jamie sat in front of his cubby and pulled from his water bottle.

“What are the coaches up to?” he asked Blair Brawsiski when his fellow D-man sat next to him.

“Debating who’s going in for overtime.”

“You don’t have a standard line for overtime?”

“Nope.” Brawsiski stretched out his legs and massaged his right knee. “They like to switch things up based on our opponents and how we played during regulation time.”

Jamie nodded at his leg. “Something wrong with your knee?”

“I had an MCL sprain not long ago. It’s healed but I still get a twinge every now and then.”

“All right,” Coach Shore said, coming back into the room and halting all conversation with two words. “McNicoll, Walters, Jamieson, you’re in.”

Jamie dropped his water bottle. “You want... me?”

“I do,” Coach Shore said in his quiet rumble. “Unless there’s a reason you can’t play?”

“Well, no, but... Dorian’s mad at me.”

Not quite accurate, but it was better than I hurt Dorian’s feelings and now he won’t talk to me. Something Dorian had surely spoken with his cousins about.

Some of the guys snickered.

Shore cocked his head, brow scrunched. “Does that affect your play?”

“Um. No?”

“Great. Then you’re in.”

He kept talking, but the sound was white noise in the background.

Coach was putting him in for overtime? Even though he and Dorian were on the outs?

“Hey.” Brawsiski bumped his shoulder when Coach went back into the office after his... damn, Jamie didn’t know what. Instructions for overtime?

Shit.

“What does Dorian have to do with you playing overtime?” Brawsiski asked.

Jamie took off his gloves and helmet and ran a hand down his face. “Dorian is Coach Shore’s cousin. I thought that might affect... things.”

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