Page 27 of My Pucking Perfect Goalie

I stare into her eyes, expression pleading,Please don’t say anything to Harper.

She stares back, and it feels like her expression says,I won’t right now, but you need to take action soon, Braun.

***

“Because I amfreaking the fuck out, man!” I’m standing in the hallway just outside the practice rink, breathing hard, covers barely on my skates.

My hand shakes as it holds the phone to my ear.

“Okay, okay,” Brett says, and I can hear laughing and talking in the background—he must be with Fallon and her friends. It quiets down, and I imagine him moving to another room, closing the door. “Say it again.”

“Matthew Bennett is standing in front of my goal,” I say, the words feeling unreal as I say them. “Matthew. Bennett.”

“Oh,” Brett says, and I can basically see the smile curling over his face. “Just Matthew Bennett—all-time greatest goalie in the NHL, and your personal childhood hero?”

“Yea.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“Fuck you, man.”

I’m still breathing hard, my palms in a cold sweat. How the hell can I go out there and faceMatthew Bennettwhen I know my own performance this season has been mediocre at best? Does he feel sorry for me? Does he pity me?

I have no idea, because the moment I skated out onto the ice and realized exactly who it was that Finn “brought around for some extra help” I turned on my heel, skated away, and gave a lame excuse about needing to use the bathroom.

“You ran away?” Brett chuckles.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it—”

“You’re hiding in the hallway?”

“What else am I supposed to do? I had his poster on my wall, dude. I wrote a report about him in the fifth grade.”

“Breathe, man. This is a good thing!”

“I’m fucking lost.”

“Think about it: You’re the best of the best. Top of the line. Greatest of all time, and you come to help some random goalie? Why would you do that?”

“…For money?”

“Bennett has all the money in the fucking world,” Brett laughs. “Think about all those endorsements. No—he’s here because he believes in you. Because he thinks being here is worth his time.”

I blink, the realization sinking into my brain like warm oil. Matthew Bennett would not waste his time if he thought I didn’t have potential.

Right?

“Now, stop wasting his time and get out on the ice, dude,” Brett says, “First, because Fal is gonna kill me if I make her wait to finish this movie, and second, because your fifth-grade self would be pissed if you didn’t take this opportunity.”

“You’re right.”

“I don’t get to hear that often—”

I hang up, turning and clomping back out to the rink. By the time I’ve taken my covers off and made it to the center of the ice, I see Bennett hanging by the boards, laughing with Isaac and Finn. I notice she’s not on skates, but push the thought from my head as I glide toward the goal and Matthew Bennett.

A man with a camera is hanging out behind Finn, and as I approach, she nudges him a bit, gesturing to me.

She was serious about documenting the process, then.

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