Page 9 of Home of the Brave

I think we all felt a little bad for him.

The injury that ended his career had been devastating and gruesome. Before then, I hadn’t been aware the human body could turn so many shades of purple and green. His knee was destroyed after a player from Boston landed on him behind the blue. It hadn’t just been a dislocation or sprain. It shattered the bones and tendons. Decimated them. The perfectly wrong angle met the perfectly wrong amount of pressure and force.

One moment, he was in his prime, and the next, I was on the ice finishing out the last two periods.

Having your career end with zero warning was every player’s worst nightmare. Watching it happen to your mentor and friend was almost as bad.

So when he felt the urge to heckle me, I didn’t fight back.

Even though he was retired and getting weirder by the day, he still had some wisdom to share, and apparently, I had a few errands to run before we left.

3

VICTORIA

“Just scoot a bit this way,” Miles, the cameraman assigned with me, waved his hand while staring down at the camera screen. I stepped to my right, and he held up a thumb. “Perfect.”

I smoothed my hair, cursing the late June humidity.

“Thanks for stopping to talk with us, Piper. I’m sure there’s a lot of nerves and excitement for your team, especially being able to reunite with your Olympic teammates.”

She grinned. “It is a little strange to be playing against some of them, but this is such a fun experience, and I’m so grateful for any chance to show off the talent of the women in our league.”

Miles lowered the camera a bit. “Can you do the animal trend?”

I fought to hold back a glare.

She looked between the two of us. “What animal trend?”

This was the part of social media I hated. We couldn’t just do short one or two questions interviews; no, we had to do stupid bits to attract views.

I shot her an apologetic smile. “We show you an animal and see if you can mimic the sound.”

Miles pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled. “You can do the donkey or monkey.”

“Seriously?” she asked me.

“It will just take a second.” Miles held up his phone.

I shook my head. “You absolutely don’t have to do this.” I glared at him.

Her smile shook. “I want to be a good sport about this and do the silly things for socials, but we’re really trying to get fans to take us seriously.”

I swallowed. “I know. I understand.”

Miles finally lowered his phone and slipped it back into his pocket. “Right.”

“Maybe after our first win,” she added before slipping away.

I let out a sigh and leaned against the wall.

“Sorry,” Miles moved beside me. “They’re just really pushing for content.”

“I know.” I’d already received five texts from Chris reminding me of what the goal was here. Initially, this was only going to be written web content, but once excitement spread about the event, the network upgraded us to video as well. That meant I got to work with Miles, a videographer I hadn’t met before, but that I wouldn’t be doing only traditional interviews and articles.

“But we have to be respectful and build rapport with them before asking them to do something humiliating,” I explained again.

He glanced around the room. “Or we could find another trend.”