I just wish I didn’t have to tell her this, that my time in hockey is finally done, in spite of everything. She’ll support me either way—I know that—but I know her heart will hurt for me.
It’s one of the reasons I love her so much.
I rotate out, watching Hall glide post-to-post like he’s fresh off a bye week, sharp and weightless.
Those ten minutes go too fast, and I’m up again before I can catch my breath.
I skate over to the crease, and for a moment, I’m back in the playoffs again, shutting out all sensation, focusing on nothing but holding my post, being what they need me to be?—
No.
I promised Kayla I wouldn’t go out like that.
But how am I supposed to have fun when I’m exhausted? When the effort to be here for everyone else has taken its toll?
Hall slaps my pads as we pass. “You got this, Coach,” he says.
Griggs and the other guys whack their sticks to the ground—a show of respect that tells me they know this is my last scrimmage and they’re classy enough to honor that.
I appreciate their support, but it bounces off me like a puck from the edge of the crease. It can’t get past my pads.
Nothing can.
I’m a wall.
But then someone screams my last name, and I’m pulled back into the playoffs again, except this time, I’m talking to that reporter. The one who asks if I have a girl waiting at home for me.
“No,” I told her. “I’m not the guy a girl waits at home for. I’m the guy who waits at home for the girl.”
And I will be.
Because I know Kayla will wait for me right back.
“O’SHANNAN!” a voice screams again, and this time, it pulls me out of my memory.
That came from inside the arena.
More and more of them now.
They’re coming from the stands …
Cheers. Chants.
I glance toward the bleachers, thinking I’m losing it.
But I’m not.
There she is.
Kayla.
Kayla wearing my Arsenal jersey over leggings, face painted like it’s Game Seven of the Cup, holding a pom-pom in one hand, a giant foam finger in the other, and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen.
And she’s not alone.
At least a hundred people are packed into the bleachers.
Her family is here, wearing custom O’Shannan Arsenal jerseys.
