Page 13 of Overtime Goal
Abby and I reached him at the same time, but when Abby tried to take Riley’s elbow to guide him, Riles pulled away. Cold sweat ran down the back of my neck as he made his way to the bench. On the ice, serious injuries can happen in an instant; this time, Riley had been lucky.
The first line hopped over the boards, and Harpy slapped Riley on the back on his way to center ice. Riley used the gate to get to the bench, then sat next to Packy. I wedged myself between them.
“You okay?” I asked. “That bastard hit you way too hard.”
He nodded, trying to play it cool. “I’m fine.”
I didn’t even pretend to smile. “Riles…”
“I said I’m fine, or at least pretending to be. If you show these guys any weakness, they’ll roll right over you.”
Play resumed, and though I tried to pay attention, I couldn’t stop glancing at Riles. I’d seen teammates take worse hits, but I wasn’t worried because he was ateammate. I was worried because he wasRiley.
In the end, we beat the Lynx 4–3 in overtime. Dog buried the game-winner, and the goal itself was pure chaos. Richie forced a turnover from Painter and sent the puck to Harpy. Harpy ripped a slapper off the end boards, and Brody chipped it loose and sent it to Dog, who somehow found daylight and shoved it home. It was loud, fast, messy hockey, and it was beautiful.
Since we were leaving on a roadie first thing in the morning, no one wanted to go out. Holky did his best to convince us an hour wouldn’t hurt, but since the likelihood of holding it to sixty minutes was zero, we raided the stash at the arena so everyone could enjoy a cold one.
“Want to get your stuff and come over?” I asked Riley when we were leaving. “In case you have bad dreams?”
He chewed his lip for a moment. “I still need to pack my road bag, so rain check?”
“No problem. See you at the airport.”
He shot me a grin. “It Takes Twotournament on the flight?”
“You’ve got it. I’ll make sure to pack my Switch.”
7/
riley
This might bethe day I’d finally talk to Logan about what had happened in LA. I’d been nervous as hell for three days, dying to get it over with, but there hadn’t been a good time. The morning after the Montreal game, we’d flown to Calgary and played that same night. Then, the next morning, we flew to Edmonton and hit the ice again that day. Our only breaks had been late-night team dinners and crashing in hotel rooms afterward. I was too exhausted by then to unpack weeks of confusion, which left talking on the plane as the only alternative. That was a definite no-go. There was no fucking way I’d talk about what happened in front of the nosiest hockey team I’d ever been a part of.
We’d flown to Chicago this morning, and the team had scheduled a free afternoon and evening for us. I was determined to get Logan alone and say the things I’d been rehearsing since my talk with Harpy. What had happened in LA was complicated, but I was sure we could figure it out if I could convince him to open up.
While we waited for keycards in the hotel lobby, Logan said he needed to use the men’s room, and I went along. Fortunately, no one else was there, so I broke the guy code and talked whilewe were standing in front of the urinals. “Want to grab lunch together? And hang out this afternoon?”
He smiled, and the crinkles around his blue eyes made my stomach flutter. I hadn’t realized how little he’d smiled the last few weeks, and the grin looked good on him.
“Sounds great,” he said. “I could use a break from all the chaos.”
As soon as we got back to the lobby, Holky came running over. “Private powwow, boys?”
“Nope,” Logan said. “Just talking about the schedule. How’s it treating you?”
Before Holky could answer, Packy joined us. “You tell them yet?”
Holky opened his mouth, but Harpy bounded over like a golden retriever on espresso. “The guy convinced them, so we’re on.”
“Easy, Harpy.” Logan leaned against the wall. “No hyperventilating in public. Imagine the headline:Warriors Captain Faints in Hotel Lobby.”
“I’m not fainting.” Harpy’s lips slanted into a grin. “That’s your specialty.”
Logan groaned. “Fuck off. One time, and it was when I had the flu.”
“You went down like a sack of cement,” Holky said.
“No one saw.”
