Page 125 of Best Man
Paulina cracked a smile. Sasha hadnothingto worry about with Dad. Yeah, maybe Dad was a little concerned when he first found out she was pregnant so quick—let’s face it, whowasn’t? But once Dad realized how seriously Sasha was taking fatherhood, he was in his corner. And he’dstaythere, as long as Sasha always did right by him.
The second goal, scored by Reavo, came just five minutes later. The girls immediately thought of Katerina—oh, to be at the game, if only to see Katerina’s reaction when Derek scored! She was probably so amped right now.
The Devils were buzzing, and it seemed like simply a matter of time before the third goal would come. But that was the problem, because time was the one thing the Devils didn’t have.
The seconds continued to tick off the clock. With each minute that passed, the prospect of that sure-thing goal began to diminish.
“Two and a half minutes to go,”the play-by-play guy announced.“And the Devils’ goaltender, Tanner Vaughn, is headed to the bench for the extra attacker.”
“Oh, God, I can’t watch,” Piper said, averting her gaze. “I hate it when they pull the goalie.”
Pulling the goalie meant taking your goalie off the ice so you could put an extra attacker on the ice. The advantage of an extra attacker was clear; it meant a better chance of scoring a goal.But without a goalie protecting your net, it was easier to get scored on, too. Losing possession of the puck could be fatal, as the opponent could fling the stolen puck at the unguarded net, even from his own end of the ice, and score.
“Me neither,” Paulina said, happy to be distracted by her daughter instead.
The sisters listened to the game instead. The announcer’s voice pitched higher as he frantically tried to keep up with the frenzied play—
“Jax Cameron with the puck, he fires! He misses! Hathaway finds the rebound and shoots!Greatsave by Johnson! Nikolaev scoops up the loose puck and funnels it back to Vedros . . .”
Paulina’s heart raced as she listened to the action. Two minutes remained. As long as the Devils didn’t lose control of the puck, they couldn’t get scored on.
“. . . the pass around the boards is cut off by Volkov! Great defensive read by Volkov, who has to hurry here. He shovels the puck at the empty net, aaaaaaand …”
Even without watching the game, Paulina cringed as the puck slid two hundred feet down the ice. The crowd’s rising, terror-stricken whine told her the puck was getting closer and closer to the net.
Then, suddenly, the crowd burst into a relieved cheer.
“HE MISSES by an inch! That puck looked destined for the net, but it hit a rut in the ice and changed directions!”
The whistle blew, and the girls let out a deep breath.
“And we have an icing on the play,”the play-by-play guy said.
“We have an injured player on the ice!”the color analyst said abruptly.
Paulina and Piper grew silent. Sasha and Jax had both been on the ice before the injury.
“Who is it?” Mom asked. “Who’s injured?”
“We don’t know yet,” Piper said, worry in her voice.
The camera cut to the injured player, who thrashed and rolled around on the ice in pain.
Paulina’s heart sank.
“That is Aleksander Nikolaev,”the play-by-play announcer said.“And he is in a world of pain right now.”
“No,” she muttered beneath her breath. “No, no, no.”
“Please, God, let him be okay,” Piper prayed.
The camera cut to the team trainer, who carefully but hastily jogged across the ice on his sneakers. Meanwhile, the broadcast guys talked among themselves.“I didn’t actually see what happened to Nikolaev, did you?”
“No, but just judging by his reaction, this doesn’t look good. Nikolaev isn’t one to embellish injuries.”
“Not to state the obvious, but this will be a huge loss for the Devils if he can’t play. The Devils have managed to claw their way back into this game largely because of the boost he gave them.”
The crowd was dead silent as the trainer knelt next to Sasha and talked to him.
