Page 53 of Melting the Ice

“Ignore Razey. He’s just trying to goad you,” Tally said halfway through the second period as we caught our breath on the bench after our last shift.

“Yeah, he wants a fight, but I’m not dropping gloves just to get into a pissing contest with him.” I shot the enforcer in question a glare when he skated by our bench to get to his.

“Got something to say?” he called out.

I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t taking the bait. I fought to help my teammates and to show my support. Not because some pissant wanted to send me to the penalty box—or even worse, get me ejected from the game.

Plus, we were on fire tonight. Four to one with half the game left. Yeah, it could change at any point, and there was no way we had it automatically in the bag, but it was going a fucking lot better than the other night against Calgary, and Dallas was a decent team.

A decent team that was currently racing up the ice toward our goalie, with Lamb and Batesy tracking their moves in front of Tucks. One of their forwards skated around Lamb, but he got right back into position and poked out his stick to knock the puck loose, with Dom close by also trying to nudge it away. The Dallas player kept control and passed the puck to his linemate, who pulled back to take his shot. It deflected off Batesy’s skate, and Dallas grabbed it back. They took a second shot, and Tucks slid to the right, dropping down and covering the puck to end the play.

“That’s fucking right,” Sin yelled from the other side of Tally.

A few minutes later, Timmy and I hopped onto the ice for our shift. Our first forward line—made up of Tally, Santa, and Sin—had taken to the ice only seconds before in a seamless line change that had to have made Millsy proud. He wasn’t grumbling as much since we’d actually showed up to play tonight.

Timmy moved back toward the blue line on our side while I stayed close to center ice. Tally had the puck on his stick and passed it to Santa as we all moved up the ice toward Dallas’s net. Santa took his shot, and it rang off the goalposts, but he grabbed the rebound, sending the puck over to Tally, who sent it to Sin. Two of Dallas’s forwards crowded Sin into the boards in thecorner, and Tally and I moved in to help as one of the forwards shoved his shoulder into Sin’s biceps.

Sin managed to keep the puck on his stick and send it to Tally, who took a hit into the boards from one of Dallas’s defensemen. We all moved along the edge of the boards, and I caught Tally shifting slightly toward me right before he sent the puck my way. I got a decent amount of goals, but I wasn’t a high-scoring defenseman like some of the other guys in the league. But as Dallas’s defensemen turned their attention to me, I took in everything around me and found an opening, then sent the puck over the goalie’s shoulder before he could even lift his blocker high enough to stop it.

The goal horn blared, and the crowd jumped to their feet, cheering. And then, my four other teammates on the ice crashed into me, and I was pushed back into the boards as they surrounded me.

“Fucking beauty.” Tally hugged me as tightly as our gear would allow.

“Sweet, man. Razey looks pissed.” Timmy’s grin split his face.

“Fuck yeah. No chance of stopping that.” Sin slapped his gloved hand on my shoulder and tapped my helmet.

I glanced up at the jumbotron to watch my goal on replay. And then I looked to my left, and there she was, on her feet and screaming, that Stampede toque looking perfect over her purple wavy hair as she jumped up and down with the biggest smile on her face.

Damn. She was so fucking beautiful. I couldn’t wait to get a victory kiss from her tonight, but before I could focus on that image anymore, I was skating back with my teammates and tapping my glove with the rest of the guys on the bench. Even Sunny, one of our assistant coaches, was grinning, and he was the sternest of our coaching staff.

“Nice goal,” Millsy said when I finally slid back onto the bench after my shift. “Razey’s a dick. Don’t stoop to his level unless you have to.”

“Not planning on it.”

“Five to one, boys. Let’s hold strong,” Tally called down the bench before flashing me a grin. “Josie wasn’t at the last game, was she?”

“Uh, no. Why?”

“Ever think she’s your good luck charm?”

I scoffed. “I’ve played a lot of games without her in the arena.”

“Just saying, I think we’ve won the home games that she’s been at.”

“She’s only been around for two weeks.”

“Maybe she’s exactly what you’ve needed for multiple reasons.”

I would not read into his words. “Knock it off with that shit.”

He shrugged. “Just saying.”

I turned my attention back to the ice. Yeah, so maybe we had won every home game she’d been around for. But was two weeks really long enough to call someone a good luck charm?

Of course not.

Did I want her to come to all my home games?

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