Page 34 of Not A Chance

A disheveled appearance would be the least of my worries if I couldn’t pull off this interview. With my knees being a ticking time bomb, I didn’t need the added pressure of management, or worse, my family, questioning my mental well-being.

“I’m just going to grab Theo from the locker room. He probably ran into one of the coaching staff on his way here.”Indie’s voice rang out in the hallway.

“Where are you, Theo?”she said under her breath.

I glanced at my watch. Shit, my interview was meant to start five minutes ago. So much for making a good impression on the reporter.

Hell, if I was already late, a few more minutes pulling myself together would be better than going in there still shaken.

The click of her shoes on the polished floor grew fainter as I hesitated by the door of the maintenance room. At least I would be able to avoid talking to Indie immediately after she’d defended my privacy.

With shock receding slightly, the implications of her words sunk in. The tension in my shoulders eased the more I imagined the reporter’s expression after Indie was finished ripping him a new one. If they hadn’t been talking about me, I’d have loved to watch her take him down a peg or twelve.

She would have been magnificent. I’d never known anyone else like her.

When was the last time someone took your side like that? She said she would personally go to bat for you, even after feeling years of hurt.

God, it was good to know someone was on my side. I was surrounded by people who saw me as a commodity they had paid for or a teammate who had the power to screw up their careers by not doing my job. Nobody was out here looking out for just Theo.

But Indie did just now. A small light flicked on in the dark part inside me. She was so much more than a beautiful, capable woman from my past. Warmth and loneliness threatened simultaneously.

Usually, I kept myself busy with extra conditioning and PT, so I didn’t notice the lack of real relationships in my life. But since coming to Toronto, the chasm between me and the people who were most important to me had grown beyond just the physical miles between us.

In Vancouver, I could placate my conscience by telling myself that I would visit my siblings soon. That I would solve the lack of connection with my dad since my mom had been the natural bridge between us.

That I had time. I’d been an idiot.

What did I have going for me other than less than a year on a contract that might not be renewed?

Well, there’s the woman with a heart the size of all the Great Lakes combined in this arena looking for you.

I’d given up a chance to know Indie, even as a friend, six years ago. When she ran from our kitchen that Christmas morning, I didn’t chase her. Didn’t try to explain that it wasn’t her but our age difference and the demands of my career that made any kind of connection between us impossible.

I hadn’t even allowed myself to think about it.

I couldn’t fix my relationship with my family or my knees immediately, but I could get to work on repairing what I broke six years ago. And hope Indie still wanted to know me.

Our age difference didn’t matter anymore. We could be friends, or more, if she was willing. There was so much about my life I couldn’t control right now, but I wanted her to seemeagain. The Theo she wanted all those years ago in my kitchen.

Sliding back out of the maintenance room, I strode across the hall to get this interview over with.

I had more important things to focus on. Mainly the woman who was likely cursing my name as she searched the arena.

I couldn’t wait.

My role on the communications team had been wholly based in Toronto, leaving the more senior members of the team to travel with the players.

That suited me fine. I’d had enough business trips with my parents as a child to never want to stay in some random hotel for a night just to pack up again without ever seeing the city where I’d landed.

But here I was. With some awful flu virus making the rounds in the office, I was the last one standing this week. And that meant I’d been ordered to fill in for one of the team members who usually traveled with the team.

I felt horrible about leaving Gizmo, but Jermaine’s wife, Amy, had offered to stay at my place with their Morkie, whom Giz adored. She’d argued that I was doing her the favor by letting her dog-sit. Since, as she put it, she’d had enough of Jermaine’s “man cold.”

Dog mom guilt aside, I’d boarded the bus for the ride back to the hotel where the team was staying, I kept my head bent down toward the iPad in my lap. The last thing I wanted to do was makeeye contact with Theo in a confined space. I let my hair fall over my shoulders, completing my little bubble of isolation.

The overall mood of the night was subdued as the team had lost 3-2 against Montreal.

My heart clenched a little at the thought of Theo losing for the first time this season. I wondered how being a goalie factored into his sense of responsibility for game losses. People could talk all day about hockey being a team sport, but Theo seemed to give all of himself to his game. I couldn’t help but think he might burden himself more than was necessary.

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