Page 36 of Time to Shine

“You think they’re gonna send you back to Saskatoon after one rough game?” Okay, it wasn’t impossible.

“Yes.”

“Is the other goalie in Saskatoon any good?”

“Sure. Yeah.” Landon paused, then added, “I think he’s a better puck handler than me.”

“Sounds like a dick.”

A shocked-sounding laugh burst out of Landon. Casey wished he could see his face.

“He’s not a dick.”

“If you say so.”

“I let Antton down.”

Ah. There it was. “You think Antton never had a bad game?”

“He had a shutout in his debut,” Landon pointed out.

“Yeah, but that was back when hockey was easy.”

Another muffled laugh, and then the door shook slightly and Casey was pretty sure Landon had joined him on the floor. Casey tilted his head back against the door without even thinking about it.

“I didn’t sleep last night,” Landon confessed.

“Kinda guessed that.”

Landon let out a long, exhausted-sounding sigh. Casey could picture him closing his eyes, those dark lashes fanning against his pale skin...

Yikes. Okay. Maybe Casey needed to get laid. He realized he hadn’t brought anyone home since Landon had moved in, which was kind of a long time for him.

“Sorry,” Landon said, breaking Casey’s train of thought.

“For what?”

Casey waited for a reply, but it never came. Instead, Landon said, “I would have liked to go to Vegas with you. With the team, I mean.”

Casey curled forward a bit and rested his forearms on his bent knees. He realized that he hated the idea of going to Vegas without Landon. “You will. It was one game, and we’ve seen what you can do in practice.”

“It doesn’t matter what I can do in practice if I can’t—” Landon cut himself off with a frustrated-sounding huff.

Casey ate a grape while he tried to think of something to say. Talking was easy; saying something useful was the tricky part. After a lot of thought (and four more grapes) he said, “What’s the best save you’ve ever made, do you think?”

Landon took his time answering. “It was my first season with Saskatoon. We were playing in Cleveland and they had a power play late in the game. We were up by one. One of their top scorers, Verlander, took a shot from the left circle.”

“I played with that guy. He’s got a wicked shot.”

“He does, but that’s not the save. His shot pinged off the post and went straight to fucking Travis Barnes, who’s just waiting at the edge of the crease, no one on him.”

Casey blew out a breath. Barnes played in the NHL now, and was a skilled sniper. “What’d you do?”

“I didn’t have time to think, even though it felt like slow motion. I went down, as low and as wide as I could go. Maybe a few inches past that limit, honestly, and I caught the puck with my toe and tipped it into my glove. Made it look pretty somehow.”

Casey laughed. “Is there video of that?”

“Maybe.”

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