Page 7 of Conner

“Hey Murph, how are you feeling tonight?” Conner asked the young rookie.

“Good, my cousin’s in the crowd tonight. He’s with the BU team.”

“Nice. I’m sure you’ll have a great game. If they are around after the game, I would love to meet them.”

“Really? You're my cousin’s favorite player.”

“Well, let’s get a win and maybe I can sign a stick for him.”

“Thanks!” said Murphy with a smile on his face.

“No problem,” Conner said before he popped in his earbuds and started his pregame playlist. Back to focusing and finding his center, because he did not have the yips, no matter what Niko said.

But that focus was broken when he went out on the ice for warmups. There, in the front row next to the penalty box was his sister. His sister hadn't come to a game without him begging her in years. They had grown up playing together. All McPhee's played hockey and his sister was an amazing goalie. After college she stopped playing and stopped coming to his games. He knew she was going through something, and he didn't push, but he had gotten her on the ice when they were home and now she was here at his game. Great…more pressure. If anyone would be able to tell his game was off, it was his twin sister.

He caught her eye and waved. He was happy she was there, but it was throwing him. Then he saw Wes skate over to her. That's weird…but he couldn’t think about it. He needed to focus. Why was the universe so set on messing up his mojo tonight? Between Sasha and his sister and the yips he refused to think about, his head was all over the place. He took a breath and did some puck handling warmups. Before he left the ice after warmups, he sent the puck to the net and cringed as it bounced off the post again.

Once they were in the tunnel waiting to skate onto the ice his focus was hard to find, but once he stepped he was center ice for the face-off, he hoped he would find it.

The game was awful for Conner, but they won so that's all that really mattered. His shot was off. He couldn’t seem to stop the little twitch that kept pulling his shot left. Between his shot and his lack of focus, he was a mess. Good thing Wes got a hat trick and kept the game going.

“Hey man, you wanna head to West Side Pub?” Ethan asked as they were heading out.

“Yeah, let's go.”

Conner and Ethan got there at the same time and headed up to the balcony where the team usually sat, only to find his sister there with Wes. Fuck. He didn't care who she dated, and Wes was a hell of a lot better than her ex, but it was still more to throw him off his game.

He sat in the corner drinking a beer. Wes and his sister had already cleared out and he knew he should go home, but he decided to would stay for one more drink.

“Woah, two beers,” Ethan said, looking at him eyebrows raised.

“Yeah, I know. Tomorrow's an off day and I need it. I couldn't get my head on straight tonight.”

“No worries, man, you are the most consistent player I've ever played with. You’re good.”

He was watching the crowd under him while tossing around the idea of going home. Then he saw her, and god damn it, his heart fluttered in his chest. Sasha had just walked into the bar.

“Hey man, I'm heading home,” Conner said as he clapped Ethan on the back. Cash was busy flirting, and the rest of the team was starting to filter out also.

He snaked his way through the crowd, his eyes on Sasha trying to steer clear of her. She was at the bar while he was slipping out.

“Hey man! You're Conner McPhee!” shouted a drunken frat boy. “Let me get a picture.”

Conner turned and greeted him and took a picture. He turned to leave and damn it if he didn't bump into Sasha.

“Hi Conner,” she said, “are you taking off?”

“Yeah, I'll see you later,” he brushed past her. He was ready for tonight to be over. He would spend his day at home tomorrow getting his head straight before they left Thursday for a road trip.

5

Sasha

Sasha spent the next day putting posts together and getting them ready to go. It would be helpful if she had all the post set before their first couple games. Since she didn’t know what traveling with the team would be like, she wanted to have as much done before hand as she could. The center was quiet with none of the players in, it was a rest day. So, she was deep in a groove. She got to Conner's post since he was going to be the first player to be spotlighted. She couldn't help but smile when she looked at his picture, until she remembered he had been rude yesterday.

She couldn’t figure him out. He had acted like she had asked him to dance a jig when she asked him to smile for the camera the other day. He said no, but then when she was reviewing the footage, the smirk he gave the camera made her weak. Then when she ran into him at the bar he had just left. She was just about ready to write him off if it wasn't for this captain's tips series she was working on.

She thought about dropping it, but then the GM stopped by her office this morning to introduce himself. Apparently, Hillary had talked to him about it, and he was excited for the series. He said it would be excellent use of Conner's skills and how popular he was.

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