“Worth it,” he shouts across the ice.
“Shut up,” I call back.
He grins like an idiot and disappears behind the glass.
Camera’s on me the whole time. I know it is. I don’t look up.
I skate back to my crease.
Their power play sets up. Nineteen seconds in, their captain finds a seam and puts it past me clean.
2-2.
The arena goes quiet.
That one’s mine.
I gave them that goal.
I’m getting it back.
Not panicked. Not defeated. Just absorbing it. The whole building taking a breath together and deciding not to stop now.
The penalty ends. Brody comes out of the box and skates straight past me.
“Still worth it,” he says.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You literally did.”
“Not the thing I’m gonna say later.”
“Don’t say it later either.”
“Wasn’t gonna.”
He skates off.
I look at the clock.
Four minutes.
I look at the press box.
She’s there. Camera up. Doing her job.
I face the ice.
Overtime.
Aurora in the family section with both hands over her mouth. Aiden’s name on her back, her belly under both elbows, the baby who’s going to know their whole life that they were here for this. The bench — Liam still, the way he goes still when something is real. Brody at the other end talking to himself. Sebastian and Caleb shoulder to shoulder.
The entire building on its feet.
I’m in my crease.
