Page 3 of Flashback for the Forward

My twin leaned forward to speak to her around me. “A kid who spends their entire life at the rink.” He jerked his chin toward the ice in front of us. “If Austin sticks with this long enough, you’ll be initiated into our super-exclusive club.”

Austin was our teammate Levi’s stepson, a bonus kid he got when he married my former realtor, Arizona. And today was his first-ever hockey game. Hence why we’d found ourselves at the local rink at 9:30 PM on a weeknight.

Damn, I’d almost forgotten how much it sucked that the older kids got stuck with the latest ice times.

Crew held out the tray to Maisie. “You get first pick.”

She pursed her lips, eyeing the spread before extending a hand to snag a soft pretzel. “Thanks, Uncle Crew.”

He tossed her a wink. “You got it, girly pop.” Craning his neck around to the row behind us containing Levi and Arizona, he asked, “Anyone else?”

Levi took the basket of French fries and a soda, but Arizona shook her head, hugging her waist. “I’m too nervous. Anything I try to eat is gonna come back up.”

There was an audible cringe from my brother. “Thanks for the warning.” He leaned toward me, stage-whispering, “Might be a good idea if we vacate the splash zone.”

I merely rolled my eyes. Crew fully leaned into his role of younger brother—by two minutes—living to annoy the shit out of me.

Levi wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “He’s gonna be fine.”

Crew scoffed. “’Course he is. He learned from the best.” He pointed between himself, me, and Levi. “Us.”

“Oh, you’re taking credit now?” Levi huffed out a laugh. “Because what I remember from our ‘training’ sessions is you goofing off, doing trick shots into an open net. Or was that someone else?”

I inwardly groaned. That was the absolute last thing you should ever ask an identical twin.

My brother didn’t let the opportunity pass him by, claiming, “It was Cole.” He patted our teammate’s knee. “You haven’t been here that long, so I’ll forgive you for getting us mixed up. Happens a lot. You know, since we’re identical and all.”

Levi wasn’t fooled for a minute. “Does Cole also wear the number fourteen now instead of twelve?”

Teeth sinking into my lower lip, I bit back a smile.

Crew, having been caught, lifted both hands in surrender. “Okay, it was me.”

Levi hummed. “Mm-hmm. Thought so.”

“But I was just trying to motivate Austin. Figured he’d work harder to nail down the fundamentals if he saw all the cool moves we get to do at the professional level.”

“When’s the last time you, a defenseman, had the opportunity to shoot between his legs or attempt a lacrosse goal?” That second one was when a player lifted the puck onto his stick and curled it around the back of the net to score over a goalie’s shoulder. My brother’s position demanded that he stay up higher in the offensive zone, making a goal like that next to impossible. Regardless, that was something rarely seen in a pro hockey game.

“Never,” he admitted in a sullen tone. “But just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean that it won’t ever.”

My snort couldn’t be contained, earning me a sharp elbow to the ribs from my twin.

“Look! The teams are taking the ice!” Maisie exclaimed, drawing all our attention to the rink set before us.

Watching the players skate a few warm-up laps before grabbing pucks and working on either stickhandling or shooting on their goalie brought back memories of my own youth hockey days.

They’d been some of the best of my life. When I’d gotten to play with my brother and my best friend. When every game propelled me toward my goal of getting drafted. When my number one fan was in the stands, but no one knew except the two of us.

Back before everything changed. Before I fucked up the best thing that had ever happened to me, and Russ was taken from us too soon.

Eyes tracking Austin, who wore his stepdad’s number nine on the back of his jersey, I remarked, “He looks good.”

Levi hummed. “No doubt he’s a great skater. But the real test will come when he takes that first hit.”

Austin was just shy of fifteen. His late-November birthday made him one of the youngest on his team, since hockey grouped kids by birth year rather than grade level. Being new to the sport, Levi signed him up for a recreational-level team, but at 14U, checking was legal, and there was a noticeable size disparity amongst the players—some boys had fully gone through puberty, resembling grown men, while others were still very much kids. Our boy was at a disadvantage, not having years to learn the game before body contact took it to the next level.

Arizona was restless behind me. Her knee bounced so frantically that it shook the aluminum bleachers, and her shallow breathing punctuated the air. It would be a miracle if she made it through the whole game without having a panic attack if she was this worked up before it even began.