Page 18 of Yo Ho Ho
He quickly turned back to the kids, trying to distract himself from looking up again in the stands. A little girl with her pigtails hanging out of the top of her helmet wanted to show him her backwards skating.
"My coach said if I can get better at it, I can be a good defenseman like you."
She smiled up at him in a way that almost melted his heart.
"What did you say your name was again?"
"Emily."
He put his huge padded glove on her shoulder. "Emily, with a little practice, I think you could do it. Want to try it again?"
Her grin took up her whole face and without saying a word, she sprinted down the ice, quickly turned and started to skate backwards. Then she fell over.
"Don't worry, Emily! We can practice that!" he yelled over to her.
She stood up and brushed herself off, then gave him a sort of thumbs up with her gloved hand and went skating off to do the next set of drills.
He could only shake his head and start talking to the next set of kids who had come him way and wanted his attention. All while he tried desperately to not look at Max or make eye contact with her.
But that was easier said than done. At one point, he took some kids down to where Matt Jackson, the Pirates goalie, was helping out some other players. He would cheer for everyone: the girl who scored a girl, the boy who made a cool save. Whatever he needed to do to not look at Max.
As the session started to wind down, Logan rallied the kids together for a final ice dragon drill. It was one of his favorites. He would pretend to be the head of a dragon, roaring along with the kids all following him.
"The goalies have to go to the back because they can't skate very good!" Logan announced.
The kids laughed as Matt scowled. "Alright, goalies. We're going to prove that defenseman wrong, right?"
The goalies gave this cute battle cry that made even some of the parents in the stands laugh.
So Logan started his hockey dragon, telling all the kids to duck down or stand up. Turn this way or that way. As he got close to Max's spot in the stands, he figured he would make his roar a little louder under the guise of winding up the kids a little more. He wouldn't have to admit that he did it to wind up a certain reporter in the stands too.
By the time he was finishing up his final pep talk, he was ready to go up and do his job. Because of course he was doing his job. It wasn't to spend more time with Max on a project that he had easily agreed to so he could spend time with her. It was something he had to do for work — or whatever.
The kids gave him and Matt fist bumps as they headed off the ice, which was a little trick they used to help the kids off without them realizing they were getting help. As the last of them got off the ice, Logan and Matt headed to the adult locker room for quick showers and a change into clean clothes.
"Hey, you want to do lunch?" Matt asked as they got dressed into clean track suits.
"Can't. Have to do an interview," Logan said.
"I thought you hated doing those at these charity things."
"It's with Max." Logan pulled on his t-shirt, trying to hide his expression from his goalie. "I figured I should do it to help her out since she only has a few more weeks left."
Matt stuffed the last of his goalie gear in his huge bag. "Yeah, that sucks for her, but I'm glad you're doing that interview instead of me."
"Another time?" Logan asked.
"Yep," his goalie replied. "I'm headed out then. Don't say anything stupid to Max."
Logan gave him a lopsided smile. "We both know that's probably going to happen."
Matt laughed and the two of them headed out of the locker room with their gear. Logan held the door open for Matt as they chatted and walked to their cars, tossing their gear in their trunks. Then after a quick goodbye, Matt headed out and Logan walked back for his interview.
The ice had been cleared of most of the gear for the kids. The parents had all left to meet up with their little hockey players after the morning skate. Max was still hanging out on the bleachers, talking to someone with a camera.
"Hey."
Logan tried to sound casual as he approached the pair, hoping he didn't come off as being jealous of the man who was sitting so close to Max.
