Page 244 of On His Team

The team-room door opens.

Stanley sticks his head out. “Laurens!”

“What?”

“Four.” He holds up four fingers, stares at me like that explains everything, then disappears back into the room.

Gianna hears him. “What is he yelling about?”

“Four.”

“Four what?”

“Games.”

The words settle differently when I say them out loud.

Denver. Another game if we survive that. Then two more. Four wins between us and a national championship.

“Holy shit,” Gianna says quietly.

Someone calls my name again from inside. “I have to go. I’ll see you tonight.”

“You better.”

“I will.”

There is another pause before she says, softer this time, “I’m really happy for you.”

I look down at the floor. “Thanks, G.”

When I go back into the team room, Stanley has dragged the whiteboard out from wherever Fuller keeps it and is standing in front of number five.

WIN THE FUCKING THING.

He points at it with the marker.

“That was never about the Big Ten.”

Benson is still smiling when he says, “It was a little about the Big Ten.”

“No.” Stanley shakes his head like Benson doesn’t know what he’s talking about. “I said the fucking thing. Singular.”

Somebody laughs.

Stanley turns back to the board and writes beneath everything else.

DENVER. THURSDAY.

Then beside it, he draws a huge 4.

The room quiets, and we all stare at it.

Yesterday, I was trying to figure out whether I had already played my last college hockey game. Now there could be four more. I look around the room at Benson, Percy, Blue, Stanley, Mackey, and all the guys I have spent years sitting beside in places exactly like this one.

The end is still coming. Just not today. Today we get another week.

Chapter 22