AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We chat for a good, long time. We chat the next day, too, as I walk with Donut to our stretching class at the assisted living home. We chat as I head over to Peak Performance. We chat as I work on my new Sea Dogs classes. We chat as I walk into my building in the afternoon and the doorman calls me over.
I put down the phone.
“Delivery for you,” he says, then hands me an envelope.
I rip it open. Inside are tickets to the Golden State Foxes next home game.
61
LAST MAN STANDING
Gavin
The plan is simple—win.
But the execution will require a little finesse. Because my friends are knuckleheads.
Figures it’s come down to me, but life is funny that way. Sometimes when you wait the longest for something, you’re the first to know you want it.
But wanting something doesn’t guarantee you’ll get it.
I already got my game day nap in, so after I finish a light workout, I find the idiots I’m best friends with in the athletic trainer’s room. Kelsey’s working Hollis’s shoulder, and Diego is stretching Rhys’s quads.
“Didn’t get enough flow and flex this week?” I drawl.
Rhys flips me the bird but he doesn’t bite back. Once they’re done, I motion for them to follow me down a quieter hallway.
“What’s up?” Hollis asks.
We all got her the tickets together. We sent them to her together. We invited her together. But that’s as far as we’ve gotten. And it’s not far enough. “Listen, we need to win tonight, guys.”
“News flash: we need to win every night,” Hollis retorts with a smirk.
I clap his shoulder. “But tonight we need to play like a team.” We’ve been playing better the last few away games, but we’ve only won one out of three on the road, and by a hair at that. “We need to work together. I know it’s not just the three of us out there, but when it comes to the three of us, we need to keep our heads in the game and our focus on.”
Rhys gives me a dubious look. “Are you saying?—?”
“That the woman we’re obsessed with is distracting?” I finish for him since I know, I fucking know, that’s where he was going.
“Yeah.” He squares his shoulders, holding his ground.
I smother a smile as I shake my head. “No. I’m saying we’re distracting. We distracted each other. We’re up in our heads because we left Lucky Falls for this road trip acting like…well, like we’re not totally into her.”
There. Someone had to say it.
A smile tips Hollis’s lips. “Look at you—last to fall, first to issue a call to arms.”
I roll my eyes. “I wasn’t the last—” I wave a hand through the air, nixing that denial. “Whatever. It’s not important. She knocked some sense into us over the last week in our chats, but we need to knock some sense into ourselves too. It wasn’t Briar that distracted us from hockey. It was us not…”
Emotions lodge in my throat, shutting me up for a few seconds. Feels like I’m reaching my fist into my chest, squeezing my heart. But I’ve gotten better at letting myself feel, thanks to her. And at letting myself say what my heart wants. Before I can tell her though, I need to tell my friends. “It was us not having each other’s backs on the ice. Before that week, we looked out for each other when we weren’t playing. We did that while we were with her, but then when we left her, we stopped. It was like we all shut down as friends to get over her. To convince ourselves we could be just friends with her. But shutting each other out won’t work either. Eating tacos or not eating tacos won’t do the trick. It’s up to us to play hard.” I take a deep, fueling breath, then shrug in admission of this new truth. “And that’s all we can do out there on the ice.”
Denying my feelings won’t make me play better.
Ignoring the ache in my heart won’t make me a better teammate.
Eating the same meal every night won’t make us win.
Putting my heart and soul into the game—that’s what will make the difference. The only difference.
