Page 24 of Slots & Sticks
I’d been so focused on Dot’s loss, I hadn’t stopped to consider what he’s going through. He lost his wife. One minute she was there. The next—
My stomach knots. What if Dot had been in that van?
No. Their pain isn’t some hypothetical about me.
I don’t know what I’ll say to Coach when he comes home. Most of us know we’ll probably outlive our parents. No one thinks about outliving their spouse.
I just know I don’t want that. Not for him. Not for Dot. Not for me.
Not that I’ve ever thought about it or anything, much less cried into a craft IPA at one in the morning while imagining that happening. Not me. Nope.
“Any idea when Coach Shaw will be back?” Lenyx asks.
“Dude.” Adler elbows him in the side. “He’s in the burn unit. He’s regrowing his skin.”
“I know, I know.” Lenyx dips his head. “I meant—willhe be coming back?”
Our skates hiss against the ice as we drift in a lazy circle. The sound fills the silence that follows. I keep Dante’s dirty little secret about being a decent guy to myself. Even if Dante doesn’t fire him, who’s to say Coach will want to come back?
The quiet stretches until a familiar voice blurts, “Get off my lawn! Get off my lawn!”
Every head swivels toward Knight.
“Crap.” Knight fumbles for his phone. “Sorry. That’s my dad.”
“Answer it later!” Viktor barks, tapping his stick against the boards.
Knight’s already got the phone pressed to his ear. “Hey, old man, what’s up?”
Viktor throws his hands wide. “Fuck me, I guess! And here I thought you guys wanted to go for Lord Stanley this year!”
“We do,” Lenyx says. “But you texted last minute in the off-season. Some of us have lives. Cam’s out here being a saint, but I could be getting laid right now.”
“At eleven a.m.?” Adler’s head tilts.
“You think brunch girlies aren’t freaks in the sheets?” Lenyx bounces his eyebrows.
Knight cuts in, phone half-covered. “Hey, Cam—Dot going somewhere?”
“No. She’s been weird about driving, since… you know.”
Knight frowns and hits speaker. Everyone stops; no one wants to get roasted by Cash Hale.
“I missed that,” Cash says.
Knight fills him in.
“I know,” Cash replies. “But Ranger’s Subaru is here, and she’s pacing between the car and the house. Been doing it twenty minutes.”
Viktor rolls his eyes. “What is this, the neighborhood watch?”
“I’m watering the lawn,” Cash says, voice edged in steel. “It’s doing better since you moved away. And you’d better be taking good care of my only daughter.”
“Do you ever get on Sofia’s ass about your one and only son?” Viktor shoots back. “Knova already kicks mine when needed. You’re just a pile on.”
“Guys.” I lift my stick in a timeout signal. “Focus on Dot. She asked me to drive her yesterday because she’s terrified to. If she’s out there alone, I need to stop her before she does something stupid.”
Viktor scowls. “As team captain, I forbid it. We’re in the middle of practice.”
