Page 92 of Slew Foot
Rafe was glad to see Mickey could skate on his own and he wasn’t wobbly or anything, but he was even gladder when Mickey was off the ice.
As Rafe followed, he could hear the ref announcing Logan’s slew foot penalty. There were a few boos from the crowd now. They didn’t want a guy hurt too seriously, but they didn’t want to see their team go to the box either.
Guys on the Harriers bench murmured they were glad to see Mickey was okay and held out gloves to bump. But Coach Rasmussen pushed through them and pulled Rafe and Mickey aside at the end of the bench in front of the tunnel.
He pointed at Mickey. “You, go with the trainers.”
“I’m fine!” Mickey protested. “I had the wind knocked out of me for a moment, but I didn’t lose consciousness.”
“Your head went off the boards,” Coach Rasmussen said flatly. “Concussion spotters flagged it. You’re getting checked out.”
Mickey grumbled his way down the tunnel.
Rafe turned to see Coach Rasmussen glaring at him. “We aregoingto have a talk later.”
Rafe grimaced because yeah, he was probably in trouble for bolting out onto the ice and oh shit, that time was apparently now because he could see a linesman gesturing for him to get back on the ice and the ref announcing his own penalty for there being too many men on the ice.
Rafe scowled on his way to the box and stared resolutely ahead, ignoring Logan in the other one as he tried not to worry about Mickey.
For a few minutes, it had been a nice feeling to have two guys fighting over him. But Mickey getting hurt? That wasn’t what he wanted at all.
After the penalty was up, Rafe did his best to focus on the game, but he wasn’t mad when Crawford laid Logan out. It was a clean hit but was ahardone and Logan looked a little stiff immediately after as he skated away.
Good. Maybe that would teach him a lesson.
After Crawford returned to the bench, Rafe reached over and bumped fists with him. “Thanks, man,” he said gratefully. He wasn’t sure if he’d have been able to go after Logan himself, but he wasn’t mad Crawford had done it.
“That slew foot was a shitty play,” Crawford said. “He needed to know we won’t tolerate it.”
Tanner, who sat on his other side, snorted. “You fucking slew footed a guy last fall.”
Crawford shrugged. “It’s different when I do it.”
He winked and shot Rafe a grin, showing off his missing tooth, and Rafe laughed, despite his worry over Mickey. Crawford was kinda growing on him or something.
The game wound down quickly. The Harriers managed another goal in the final minute of the game, thanks to Tom Bass, but they still lost 4-2.
Rafe tromped off the ice after, feeling too deflated and worried about Mickey to do more than congratulate the new guy for a great goal.
Tom thanked Rafe, shooting him a smile. He seemed nice enough and Rafe felt like he should get to know him better. But right now, all he could do was think about Mickey.
He hadn’t come back from getting his head checked out.
It was normal, really, because concussion protocol took a while. Rafe had been through it a couple of times and was no stranger to concussions himself.
But this wasMickey. So Rafe’s stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots.
“Guys,” Coach Rasmussen tiredly said after they were back in the locker room. He stared around the unusually quiet space. “Thatwasn’tthe kind of game we needed right now.”
Rafe winced. He was right. Especially since the plague that had swept through the team had taken a number on the team’s win/loss record. They hadn’t been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, but it wouldn’t take long if they didn’t start to turn it around.
Post-game media was awful too.
Reporters kept asking Rafe why he’d come out onto the ice, and he’d kept repeating the same bland answer Tyson had told him to say. Finally, Tyson put an end to those questions, and they moved on to asking Connor about the team’s losing streak.
He looked royally unhappy at the moment, and his Boston accent was particularly thick as he growled his answers at the reporters.
Rafe was grateful when he could finally run away to shower the sweat off and loosen his tight shoulders.
