Four seconds of silence.
Brody’s stick hits the boards.
Then Aiden’s. Then the whole room, one after another, until it sounds like the building is coming apart from the inside.
Brody is crying.
He does not acknowledge this.
Aiden sprays champagne at Coach Barnes — direct hit, Barnes doesn’t move, has been prepared for this exact moment since we made the Conference Final and takes it with complete dignity. Sebastian and Caleb are doing something inadvisable in the corner that I photograph mentally for future reference. Liam stands in the middle of all of it watching his team come apart at the seams.
I stand there too.
My team. My building. My city.
Four seasons in this room and it’s never felt like this.
My body goes to the press area before my brain decides to.
She’s across the room.
Camera down.
She’s been crying a little — I can see it, that brightness in her eyes she’d never admit to, the way she’s holding herself slightly too still. She sees me coming.
Doesn’t move.
I walk through the noise, the champagne, the cameras, Riley making notes in the corner, Brody yelling something I don’t hear. None of it.
I get to her.
I cup her face.
Her eyes on mine.
Then I kiss her.
Right there.
In front of every camera in the arena.
She makes a sound against my mouth and her hands come up to my jersey and she holds on and I hold her and the whole arena keeps celebrating and neither of us does anything about that for a long time.
When I pull back she’s looking at me.
“Hi,” she says.
“Hi,” I say.
Brody, from approximately three feet away:“FINALLY.”
Aiden, not looking up from the champagne bottle he’s aiming at Coach Barnes:“Took him long enough.”
I ignore both of them.
She’s laughing now — the real one, the one that takes over her whole face. Her hair’s come loose. Eyes bright. She looks —
She looks good.
