Page 21 of Sporting Goods

“It’s okay. Take your time,” He nodded slowly watching me, as if debating. “I just wanted to see if you were…okay?”

I narrowed my eyes at him and pursed my lips playfully. “You see most of that before you banged on the door?”

His jaw clenched. “Sorry I…should have…”

“No. It’s fine. I can handle Max.”

“Apparently, you handled him just fine. It’s not often we see someone confront the man the way he needs to be.”

“He’s your teammate. You guys should be able to more than anyone.” But even I knew that wasn’t true.

“Yeah well, he’s also team captain and acts like he owns us sometimes.”

I knew Max was good. And perhaps that was why he got away with so much. Regardless of his unsupportive and demeaning personality, he brought in the gold.

“I remember a time when that kind of attitude should get you kicked off the team,” I mumbled.

“Yeah maybe in college, back when they had morals. It’s different here.”

“Even after…” I let my voice trail. It was years ago, and I still couldn’t fully talk about it.

“Yeah—even after the whole country saw him slam a guy to near death.”

A shudder went through me at the memory.

“Yeah, we all play like it was an accident or the game just got out of hand. But a lot of us…we know it was a jealous, competitive rage.”

“I know, I was there. Did he paralyze the guy?”

“What? No. Actually I’m pretty sure he made a full recovery. Just… never the same, you know?”

“How do you mean?”

“Never went back to the game.”

“That’s terrible. There must have been permanent damage. You can’t always tell from the outside, you know.”

He chuckled. “You gonna pull out your ligament chart?”

“I might.”

“Nah, he looks alright to me.”

“You still see him around?”

“After that game—and his release from the hospital, he stayed with his sister for his recovery. She lives here in Buffalo. I heard his manager told him to take a short break, come back next season. But Danes never bothered.”

“Danes?” Had I heard that name before? After I watched a man I used to love, a man I was tied to for as long as I lived brutally crush a man playing a freaking sport—everything in me went numb. All sounds, including words through the speakers were muffled. Except for Max’s name. His name was all I could focus on. What he’ddone. Notwhohe hurt. It never mattered to me, but it should have. Just the fact that he’d hurt someone was enough. But this poor man lost everything. Didn’t even bother going back home with his team. I wondered if someone, a doctor, had told him he couldn’t play again.

I should have remembered his name. I should have remembered, because what happened that night… was the reason I chose to forget. Forget everything Max and everything hockey and get as far away from that as I could.

“Logan Danes,” Josh added. “Owns a sporting goods store now up on Main. Guy is so overpriced, almost as if he doesn’t want a crowd.”

Logan?

I hadn’t realized my face held a tight grin the entire conversation until it was wiped off my face completely.

“Wh—What, here?” Confusion and disbelief rattled my insides. “You don’t mean that store that doesn’t—”

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