Page 93 of Replay

Her mouth opened and words came out but they didn’t make sense. Medical jargon, knee, surgery, rehab.

I opened my mouth, desperately tried to form words. What came out was more air than sounds, but I pushed. “How…long.”

The doctor spoke, but Coach overrode her. He knew what I was really asking.

“Six months. Everything goes well, should be six months and you’re back.”

The doctor glared at him, but I couldn’t worry about that. Six months? Even if the team went all the way, I’d just be back after the finals ended. Except I was being traded. Was I, now that I was injured?

If everything goes well. What the— What could happen that wouldn’t go well? But I couldn’t make more words, and another jolt from my knee had the world blacking out again.

Chapter 28

I Like a Challenge

Katie

Supervising the night lab was mostly quiet. At this point in the semester, with exams nipping at their heels, students weren’t goofing off. I’d given them some review questions and stood by to assist if they needed it. The more they did on their own, the better their chances once they were sitting in front of that upcoming exam.

There weren’t any students like Josh here. These kids didn’t struggle with math the way he did, but everyone had their own blocks to understanding, and figuring out what was most effective for them was the most rewarding part of my job.

Between questions, I was working on my own exam review. The difficulty of master’s-level classes was exponential. It was tempting to check the game I knew Josh was playing, but I wouldn’t do that in front of the class. It wasn’t like the game against Minnesota when there was so much on the line.

I’d answered some questions, went through a couple more pages of my own stuff, when the door suddenly slammed open and Andrea stopped just inside, panting.

“Andrea? Are you okay?”

She shook her head. I got up and rushed to wrap an arm around her, trying to calm her while she gasped for breath.

“I…texted…”

I’d turned off notifications. I’d be too distracted with following the game if I let myself open my phone.

Andrea waved her hand, so I picked up my phone from the desk and opened it up. Before I could see what she’d sent, notifications from the game popped up.

Middleton taken off the ice.

Status of #17 unclear after brutal check.

My stomach twisted. It couldn’t be. That injury in the preseason, he’d said it had been his first one. His game style was to be fast, to get out of any dangerous situations. He had bruises, sure, after a game, but he wouldn’t get seriously hurt, would he?

I swallowed down my panic. “What happened, Andrea?”

She shook her head. “Bad…check.” She straightened up. “I know you keep your phone off during labs, but I thought maybe he’d send you something and you would need to know.”

I scrolled through my notifications. Andrea’s message, game posts about goals—Josh got one—but nothing from Josh himself. “There’s nothing. Is that good?”

“I don’t know. Teams are really bad about revealing injuries to their players.”

“What’s going on?” one of my students asked.

For the first time, I realized the entire class was following along, much more interested in this drama than math.

“Her boyfriend was just taken out of the game,” Andrea answered tersely.

“Wait, do you mean Ducky? I saw he was out.”

“My TA is dating Ducky?” The guy in the back row stared at me in surprise.

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