Page 39 of Playing to Win

I stuck my head in through the door. “Everyone decent?’

“Tempo!”

“Tempest!”

“Are you finally back? We need you!”

The comments warmed me, soothing that fear inside that I might lose this. “Not yet, but I have someone I want you to meet.”

“Give me a sec!”

“Come on, Snickers. Cover the girls up.”

We finally got the all clear to enter. My eyes scanned the room, noting that there was a new name on my stall. My hand tightened on my cane. Of course there was. I’d been out for months.

I reached for Braydon’s hand and dragged him in behind me. Catcalls and whistles rang out, fortunately not from Braydon.

“Who’s that, Tempo?”

With the exception of Faith and Megan, none of them had met him.

“This…” I pulled Braydon forward to stand beside me. His cheeks were red. After a quick glance around, probably noting that Snickers was barely covered, he stared down at the floor. “Is Braydon Mitchell. New backup goalie for the Blaze and…my boyfriend.” The words almost stuck in my throat. I shoved them down and kept going. “I’ve convinced him to come to practice tomorrow, so he can see what it’s like to play with us.”

Most of the women cheered. We all struggled with the discrepancies between our lives as professional athletes and that of the men.

“I’m posting this too, by the way. So, you know, no pressure.”

One person who’d been quiet the whole time was Faith. She stood up, tall as Braydon in her skates, and stared at him. “Sure you want to do this, Mitchell?”

He was tense beside me but met her gaze. “I do. I didn’t know how much I had to learn, but I’m making up for that deficit now.”

She shrugged. “I’ve played with the guys, and if you think it’s going to be easy, you’re wrong.”

“I’ve been wrong about a lot of things.”

I squeezed his hand. “We’ll head out now, but we’ll be cheering for you.”

We left then, partly to let my teammates finish getting ready, partly to make sure he and Faith didn’t get into a fight.

And mostly because being there was ripping at my heart. That was where I belonged. Working at the Blaze arena was vastly different from this bare-bones, grassroots version of the sport I loved and played. I could push aside missing it in the polished hallways of the Blaze arena, but not here.

Chapter12

Don’t ask, don’t judge

Jayna

We hadseats at center ice, about a third of the way up. Close enough to feel the action, far enough to be able to see all the ice. I’d picked up our Bonfire swag on the way, and Braydon cheerfully put on my jersey. Seeing that made something in my chest warm.

A couple of people recognized him, and I was known to most of the regular fans of the Bonfire. We signed hats and jerseys and posed for photos until it was game time.

I was distracted from the game by checking Braydon’s reactions. Would he find this boring without the body checks men’s hockey had? Maybe he would think this wasn’t good enough.Thanks, Mom and Dad, for that attitude!But anytime I looked he was focused intently on the play. Our opponents were from Montreal, and that was always a tense game. We had the better goalie, but they had a rock-solid defense. This match showed how much my teammates could use my playmaking skills. They needed those goals.

I also had to do my job. I shot photos, managed socials, and smiled for the fans who found us between periods.

It was a tight game, Toronto winning 1-0, and that was all on Faith. Montreal had outshot us by fifteen goals. Coach was going to have a fit.

Braydon slumped back in his seat after the last of the fans had trickled away. “She’s really good, Faith.”

---