Page 128 of Melting the Ice

Brody swallowed hard and kept walking. Afraid that if he stopped—if he responded—he’d give all his emotions away.

When Brody finally returned to his bed, Dean, big and warm and perfect on the other side, opened one eye. “Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Brody paused. “Yeah, it really is. It’s gonna be okay.”

Dean slung an arm around him and dragged him over onto his side. “Yeah, it is,” he agreed.

Chapter Seventeen

“Hey, Coach, can Isee you for a sec?” Brody asked, ducking his head into Coach B’s office, twenty minutes before practice was set to begin.

He’d planned this meticulously. Giving them enough time to talk it through, but not so much time that things got awkward.

Coach B looked up from his laptop. “Oh, Brody, sure, come on in.”

Though he’d wanted to, Brody could admit that he’d never gotten as close to Coach Blackburn as some of the other guys. Ramsey, for one, and both Mal and Elliott, even though they seemed so fundamentally different in every other way.

Coach B had seemingly tried to get close to Finn, but Brody had noticed that instead, Finn kept to himself, resisting anyone’s outstretched hand.

Maybe Brody should’ve done more with him. But he hadn’t, too caught up in his own struggles.

“Everything alright?” Coach asked, taking his glasses off, rubbing his eyes.

He looked tired. But still less worn out than he’d looked when he’d arrived in Portland a few months ago.

“Yeah, I just wanted to . . .uh . . .talk about my situation.” The moment had arrived and now that Brody couldn’t focus on the comfortable minutiae of how to time the meeting, he found himself tongue-tied and frozen.

“Yeah?” Coach B leaned back in his chair. “You want me to call Zach in?”

“No,” Brody said, with certainty. There was a . . .well, he could call it an “air” around the two of them that didn’t make anything easier, but instead, the opposite. A tension that wouldn’t dispel, and Brody was currently full up in the tension department because of this conversation.

“Alright.”

“You said if I didn’t want to make the NHL my future, I could still play—”

“And I stand by that. This team is a launching point for that, sure, but Brody, I’d hate to lose you. You’re a great skater, really a natural out there, and I can tell you love it. There’s something to be said for that too.”

“Even though you came here to send as many of us as you can to the pros?”

Coach chuckled. “I did, sure, but I came for other reasons, too. There’s more to life than just hockey.”

“Sir!” Brody gave a faux shocked gasp.

Coach laughed now, not even bothering to hold it back. “Don’t tell anyone, alright?”

“My lips are sealed.”

“You’ve decided then?” Coach asked.

Brody barely held back his eye roll, but he did ask, “Did you figure it out, too?”

“I had a hunch. A week or so ago, you took the ice and you seemed different. Less hesitant. Like you were wanting to enjoy every second. That’s not someone who’s going to play forever.”

Brody sighed. “No, it’s not.”

“There’s plenty of rec leagues.” Coach grinned. “You’d skate circles around them.”

“I’m sure I will,” Brody said. Maybe he should be looking forward to that, but he wasn’t. He’d miss the intense competition of NCAA hockey, but he’d still get to skate.

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