Page 3 of Made for Us

I take my time to skate up, taking the puck out of the zone, looking over at Michael and passing it to him. The three forwards skate against the two defensemen in front of them. I stay back at the center ice until they get into the zone, making sure I’m on it if the puck is intercepted. Monti skates up right along Michael and Dylan. Cooper stays back with me on the opposite side. His eyes watch the play at hand. Michael passes the puck to Monti, but Dylan skates up and intercepts it, just like the play we did in practice a couple of days ago. He skates into the zone, rushing for the goalie. The three forward players are all around him, leaving Monti empty. Monti glides closer to the goalie, who is not even watching Xavier. He’s watching Dylan. He slides over to the corner to make sure he’s got it covered, but Dylan passes the puck so fast to Xavier that there is no time for the goalie to slide across to the other side. The puck hits the center on Xavier’s stick, and he slaps it toward the goal, making the goalie slide across the ice to the other side. Everything feels like it’s going in slow motion, the puck suspended in air as it flies to the back of the net. The horn fills the arena, but it’s drowned out by the crowd banging on the glass behind the net. I throw my stick down, and my gloves fly above my head as I scream at the top of my lungs. We did it! I can’t even think right now. Xavier is the first to jump into the air with Michael, who jumps with them. Dylan skates to the net to grab the puck before joining them, followed by Cooper and me.

It takes a split second before the rest of the team surrounds Xavier as we celebrate with each other. “We did it!” somebody says over and over again, the whole team in a circle jumping up and down.

“Who’s got your back?” Cooper yells.

We chant back to him, “I’ve got your back.”

It was a little thing we started at the beginning of this year when Xavier signed with the team. He came from a team that didn’t have his back and the team banded together to make sure he knew he wasn’t in this alone. “Who’s got your back?”

“I’ve got your back,” we all yell.

The crowd's roar is even more deafening when they know we are doing our chant, something the audience has also come to enjoy. Winning the games in the playoffs is always amazing, but when you get to win in your arena, with the same people who cheer you on all year long, it is beyond words. I’m not even thinking about the thirty thousand fans outside now celebrating.

We stand together as a group, as we did all year long, before breaking and skating to the middle of the ice to shake hands. Gloves are scattered over the ice, helmets thrown off, sticks tossed to the side. I take a second to finally look up where I know my girl is. Penelope. With her hair in a ponytail, wearing my jersey as she jumps up and down clapping her hands. The fullness in my chest is off the charts as the tears start to sting at the back of my eyes. The emotions are all over the place. I hold up my hand to her, hoping she sees me.

I see my mother from the side lean down and whisper something in her ear. Then her eyes find mine, as she holds up her hand like mine, right before she blows me a kiss. I pretend to grab it and place it at my heart. This little girl, who is eight years old, weighs about fifty pounds, and is almost four feet tall owns me right down to my bones. She smiles so big at me, and then I see her walk over to Abigail, and my heart stops beating in my chest as I watch the two of them together.

Abigail stops what she is doing right away to lean down and listen to what she is saying. Penelope points at me, and I just stand there and hold up my hand again. Abigail smiles and waves as she puts her arm around Penelope and kisses her head. I shake my head away from the thought that I’m jealous of the kiss my daughter just got.

Instead, I skate to the middle of the ice, getting in line, and shaking the other players' hands. I look over to the side, seeing them opening the Zamboni door, where they are rolling out the red carpet and setting up the tables for the MVP of the playoffs, as well as the Stanley Cup.

I finally get to the end of the line and skate over to the bench, grabbing a Stanley Cup hat. I look over and see Chase, the team doctor and one of my best friends, leaning against the side with a matching hat on his head. He comes over to me with a smirk on his face. “Well, would you look at that.” He takes his hat off his head and points at it. “Stanley Cup Champions.”

I can’t help but chuckle. “Is that what it says, Doc?” I joke with him, putting the hat on top of my head

“Great freaking game.”

“It was a Xavier,” I tell him, and he comes over and taps my shoulder.

“It’s like you are all grown up now,” he teases me like he always does.

When he joined the team, I had just turned twenty, and then I got hurt. He really stood by my side through it all. He worked right alongside me, and then I found out about Penelope, and to be honest, he was the big brother I never had. I knew if I ever needed him, he would be right there beside me and vice versa.

I hear chatter beside me when Cooper, Chase’s brother, teases Xavier. “The hero of the game. I still don’t like you kissing my sister.” That makes me laugh even harder.

“Who is going to tell him that I’m sure he does more than kiss her?” I say loudly, and Xavier looks at me and smiles.

“Yeah, I do,” he confirms, putting on his own cap. Having Xavier on the team has been one of the best experiences I’ve had. He is one hundred percent so open about everything that it makes you be open as well. It was hard to come in sometimes and not be okay but pretend to be okay because you never really want to burden people. Once he was here, it was so refreshing to come in and be like ‘I’m so fucking tired,’ and you also found that a lot of other players were feeling the same.

I hear the president of the NHL, Paul, speak, and then the boos start. “Looks like it’s about that time,” I say, looking over at Xavier, who just smiles.

“It’s about that time for us to raise the Cup,” he says, and we skate over to the rest of the team.

“Congratulations to Dallas on yet another Stanley Cup win,” Paul starts, and the crowd goes wild. “The award for the most valuable player of the playoffs. This person has shown perseverance on and off the ice. He is one of the top leading scorers in the playoffs, and he sure scored the big one tonight. Your award winner, Xavier Montgomery.”

The minute I hear Xavier’s name, I look over at him, putting my fist in the air and screaming, “Go get it!”

He skates over, grabbing the trophy as Cooper puts his arm around me and leans in. “Got to say, you’re a good wing partner.”

I shake my head. “I think I’m the one who should be saying this since I was the one who was actually playing where I was supposed to be playing.”

He just laughs at me as I take in the scene before me. Xavier is giving an interview as I

look around and see the crowd on their feet, their phones in their hands as they capture this moment. Looking over, I see Penelope is now with my father, who holds her in his arms. My mother stands beside my younger sister, wiping away the tears from her face. She looks at Penelope, who just puts her head back on my father’s shoulder.

I look over at Nico, who catches me looking and smiles at me with a nod. When he pulled me into his office some six years ago, I thought he was going to tell me he was thinking about trading me. I thought my injury was taking too long to heal, even though I was on the ice when he pulled me off. I thought for sure he wasn’t interested in waiting. What I wasn’t expecting was to be ushered over to a lawyer’s office.

The last thing in the world I thought I would hear was that I was a father and I had a baby girl who was two. I sat there speechless as I listened to them tell me the mother of my child had died. I held my breath as I was asked if I recognized her, and I was ashamed that I didn’t. I was a young kid on top of the world, I was with women, and I didn’t even know their names, and to be honest, they probably didn’t know mine. But they did know I played hockey, which is the only thing they actually cared about.

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