Page 94 of When Alec Met Evie
I scoot forward in my seat, anxious to find him, and Megan does the same. “Did henotstart? I don’t remember the last time he didn’t start.”
A few more minutes pass before a line change finally brings Alec onto the ice. I practically hold my breath as I watch him play. He’s playing well, but something feels different. When I moved into my new house, Alec transferred his sports subscription package to me so I could continue watching his games. I have beendiligent,watching every Appies game he’s played since we started dating, so I’ve gotten used to the way hemoves on the ice. It’s why I was so excited to finally come see him play in person.
But tonight, there’s a physicality and a roughness to his game that I haven’t seen before. Even as a defenseman, he’s not the kind of player who will ever throw the first punch. When he was in college, he spent very little time in the penalty box relative to other players, and when I dug up his stats on his Appies seasons, the same held true. He uses his speed and his ability to read the game more than he uses his body. But he’s using his body tonight.
A lot.
He looks like a tightly coiled spring ready to explode if someone touches him the wrong way. If I didn’t know him so well, I might not notice anything. But there’s definitely something off.
“Um, what has gotten into him?” Megan says at the end of the first period.
I bite my lip. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play like this.”
She glances at the scoreboard. “I mean, they’re killing it, so maybe it’s not a bad thing?”
Van’s wife, Amelia turns in her seat and looks up at me. “Alec’s really on fire tonight.”
I nod and smile, and we chat for a few minutes about the game, but I can’t quite shake the tension spreading up my shoulders, making my neck feel tight.
We’re two minutes into the second period before Alec is back in, this time paired with Theo as his defensive partner.
I cross my fingers for Alec as the game shifts from one defensive zone to the other. It’s hard to follow all the action when I’m semi-distracted by Juno, so I happily surrender her when Alec’s mom asks if she can hold her for a while.
I’ve just moved back to my seat and gotten Juno’s sling off when Megan gasps, and I turn my eyes back to the ice. “What is it? What happened?”
“He was hit,” she says. “I think Alec was hit with the puck.”
At first, I can’t find Alec on the ice for all the players surrounding him, but then they move out of the way, and I finally see his face.
Hisbleedingface.
“Oh gosh, Megan. He’s bleeding. Is he bleeding?”
She wraps an arm around me. “He’s bleeding. But he’s okay. He’s still on his feet.”
We watch in silence as he crosses the ice and heads into the tunnel. Play continues without him, but I have zero interest in watching the game.
“I have to get to him,” I say, spinning in my seat, looking toward the aisle.
Parker lifts her hands, gently placing them on my arms and stopping my momentum. “You can’t get to him,” she says gently. “But I’m sure he’s okay.” She drops her hands and pulls her phone out of her pocket. “I’m going to text one of the trainers and see if he can get me an update from the medical team.”
I force myself to take a deep breath while we wait for a response.
Parker smiles warmly. “It’s not his first injury,” she says, her voice infused with a measure of calm I wish I could steal and have for myself.
“Definitely not,” Megan adds.
I think of the bruises and scars I’ve noticed on Alec’s body over the past few weeks. Some he’s had a story for, others he hasn’t been able to identify at all. That’s how many there are.Notvery many on his face, though, which is lucky because he hassuch a pretty face.
I force another calming breath. “Does this feeling ever go away? This…worry?”
Parker’s eyes turn sympathetic. I’m not sure how long she and Logan have been together, but she has to know exactly what this is like. “Not really,” she says gently. “But you do get a little more used to it.”
Down on the ice, the Appies score, and I look down to see that it was Logan who made the goal. I feel bad for keeping Parker’s attention off the game, but she waves away my concern. “He’s done it before, and he’ll do it again.” Her phone pings with an incoming message, and she looks down. “Okay. Eleven stitches on his left cheek, but otherwise, he’s totally fine.”
I sink back into my chair while Megan relays the information down to her parents, but barely another moment passes before a cheer erupts in the arena because Alec is back on the ice.
With eleven stitches in his freaking face.
