Page 180 of On His Team

He uses his stupid flat voice. I have wanted him here all morning without letting myself admit that I wanted him here. Because he has a game tonight, the team needs the win, and this is my thing, and I don’t need him standing beside me for it to matter. Still. He came.

Mackey raises his coffee. “Morning.”

I look at him. “Morning, Mackey. Thanks for coming.”

“I drove,” Mackey says.

I turn back to Rowan. Rowan drinks his coffee.

I narrow my eyes. “So he brought you?”

“He offered coffee,” Mackey says.

“He drove,” Rowan says at the same time.

Then somebody shouts my name. I look over my shoulder. A volunteer is waving from the bench.

Rowan follows my eyes. “Can we help?”

I look back at him. “You two?”

“Yeah.”

That is a dangerous offer. I could find twenty things.

Instead, I point toward the far bench. “Go sit over there. I’m sure someone will find something for you to do.”

Mackey looks relieved.

“If the kids don’t,” I add, “the parents will.”

Rowan’s mouth shifts.

I lean slightly closer. “They’ve been talking about the game all morning.”

“Yeah?”

I nod. “And the tournament.”

He looks toward the ice. “Come on, Mackey.”

They walk away.

I make myself turn in the opposite direction.

I do not watch Rowan walk. I am at work. For the next half hour, I barely think about him. Two of my volunteers leave at ten exactly like they said they would, which means we suddenly have forty-eight pairs of skates that need loosening, retightening, checking, and in some cases completely relacing.

When I come around the boards again, Rowan and Mackey are on the bench. Both on their knees. Gary’s ancient hooks are in their hands.

I stop.

A line of children stands in front of them.

Mackey is wrestling with one skate while explaining something to a kid about stick flex.

Rowan has one foot braced against the bench and is pulling a lace tight with the hook while a little boy watches him with absolute concentration.

I don’t know why the sight of Rowan Laurens lacing a ten-year-old’s skate nearly takes me out at the knees. Maybe because he looks completely normal doing it. Not like he is performing kindness. Not like he showed up to impress me. He is simply useful. He sees something that needs doing and does it. That is Rowan in almost every part of his life.