Page 78 of Time to Shine

“You suck,” he said, and jabbed Casey in the chest with his blocker pad. “I don’t sound like that.”

“Yes you do,” Casey said, even deeper than before. “I’m a goalie and I’m way too tall.”

“Wow. Hit me where it hurts.”

Casey leaned up and tapped the front of his helmet to the forehead of Landon’s mask. “You’re gonna fucking crush it tonight,” he said in his normal voice. “I can’t wait.”

Landon closed his eyes, just for a moment, and enjoyed Casey’s closeness. The fact that his proximity relaxed Landon instead of making him anxious was probably important, but Landon didn’t have time to think about it right now. “Kick ass tonight, Casey.”

Casey took a step back, breaking their contact. He was smiling when he said, “Best game ever, remember?”

It was pretty damn close to being Landon’s best game ever. By the time the third period had started, he had stopped over thirty shots, and had only let in two goals. He hadn’t poke checked anyone, but he’d made some pretty decent saves. One glove save in particular that he hoped would end up on some highlight reels.

Calgary had scored four goals, so they were in good shape. Minnesota came hard in the first half of the third, keeping the action in front of Landon most of the time. Landon could sense his teammates getting frustrated, and sloppy. With about ten minutes left in the game, West tried to clear the puck but a Minnesota forward intercepted and took a shot from the point. Landon stopped it, but was then run over by another Minnesota forward (and a little bit by West) who was trying to grab the rebound.

Chaos broke out. West and whoever had run Landon over were wrestling on the ice next to Landon, another fight broke out to his left, and he could hear Casey yelling from the bench.

“You’re dead for that, asshole! Fucking dead.”

It was honestly kind of cute.

Landon extracted himself from the net and took a little skate to show that he was okay. He checked in with his body and didn’t notice anything worse than a probable bruise on his upper back.

Eventually the fights were broken up and order was restored. Both teams received matching penalties for fighting, and no goaltender interference was called. On his next shift, Casey skated up to Landon during a break in play.

“You okay? Really?”

“Yeah,” Landon said. “I’m fine.”

“I still might kill that guy.”

“Don’t. Score a goal instead.”

Casey nodded, but he wasn’t smiling. “Okay. Yeah. Okay. But...you’re not hurt?”

“Not hurt.”

Casey exhaled. “Good. Sorry, that looked bad. Reminded me of what happened to Morin.”

Right. That made sense. The Outlaws really couldn’t afford to lose another goalie. “Part of the job.”

Then Casey touched his forehead to Landon’s again, and the bad mood that had been creeping in disappeared. Casey didn’t even say anything before skating away, leaving Landon feeling a bit touched and a lot smitten.

Somehow, even after an exhausting game that had required Landon to make forty-three saves, and a flight to Winnipeg immediately after, Landon couldn’t sleep.

He still felt adrenaline from the game, mixed with a million thoughts racing through his head. He thought about his parents coming to visit soon, about meeting Casey’s family, about going back home to Calgary, about Casey. Always about Casey.

West was snoring a bit, too, and that wasn’t helping things.

Landon felt around for his phone on the nightstand, picked it up, and took a chance. He didn’t expect Casey to reply—he was sure he was asleep—but he had to try.

Landon: You awake?

The three dots appeared immediately.

Casey: yep u

Landon grinned and shook his head, then wrote: Nope. I’m fast asleep.

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