Page 34 of Love in Overtime

“A sweep should be easy with your lineup,” the second man says. “Especially with Dan Roberts as captain and Dawson Hayes at goalie. It’s a done deal.”

I just nod. I mean, I can’t deny both Dan and Dawson are great players.

“All the players on the team are superstars,” Blair chimes in.

Her eyes shift over to me and back to the men.

“Yes! We can’t wait to watch,” the man in the jersey says.

The men take off and continue to hype up the crowd with cheers for the Ice Breakers.

“Does it bother you that you’re in a sea of Dan Roberts-obsessed fans?” Blair asks.

I twist my mouth to the side and give a thoughtful look. “I don’t think anything could bother me in this moment.”

Blair’s face turns bright red. “Good answer.”

“On that note … should we talk about …” I pause.

She chews on her lower lip. “Probably.”

“Or we could wait,” I suggest. I really don’t want anything to interfere with how I’m feeling right now.”

“We could wait,” she agrees. “Because I don’t know what to do next.”

“Me either,” I say. “But maybe we can have dinner tomorrow night. I know it’s not on the itinerary.”

She beams. “No, it’s not, but dinner sounds good.”

She wraps her arms around my neck as I pull her toward me.

“I’ll pick you up at seven.”

“Okay,” she whispers as I move in to kiss her again.

I head to the arena before the sun comes up to get in some extra practice time. Of course kissing Blair was the last thing I thought about before I fell asleep last night and the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning. Unfortunately there’s a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that we still need to talk about how to navigate things now that we’ve expressed what we’re feeling. She’s still my publicist, and while we could maintain a professional relationship, people will talk. Fans, critics, and haters will have a field day with any gossip they can get their hands on.

I lace up and make my way onto the ice. As I skate, flashbacks of last night swirl through my mind. Normally this is the one place I can push everything else out of my mind. We have five back-to-back games coming up and I need to be at my best. At least I have Blair in my corner. Dan the man canhave his legions of supporters, but Blair is the best fan squad I could have.

It doesn’t take long for my teammates to start trickling in. Everyone is mostly quiet. I guess they all partied too hard at the Maple Fest.

Coach Strickland seems more edgy than usual this morning, and I’m sure he senses we’re all slow to get moving.

“The press is throwing out a lot of details about how these practices have been going. They are saying you guys can’t work together. It’s time to snap out of it and play as a team. You came here for an important purpose, and you’re all professional athletes—so act like it.”

He’s right. I’ve been frustrated with my own performance since our first practice.

It seems like Coach’s lecture really hits home because almost immediately things seem to flow for us. By the end of the day I feel like we made some progress.

After practice I head back to the lodge where I’m met by Ms. Hale in the lobby. She stands in front of me, blocking my path.

“Hey, Cooper,” she sings. “How has your stay been here at Hawk River Lodge? Is there anything we can improve on?”

“Not that I can think of,” I reply.

She claps her hands together. “I’m so glad. We’re all so excited for the games to start.”

The sound of my phone buzzing saves me from continuing this conversation.

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