Page 251 of On His Team

And then every player on that ice is skating at the same spot, and my brother is on his knees beside the crease with both arms out, and the man on the PA is saying a name I already know.

CAMDEN 4, BOSTON COLLEGE 3.

BENSON REEVE.

I lose feeling in my fingers, and I think I black out for a second while I scream my head off. My mom and dad scream beside me, and I’m jumping with Lucy. I throw my arms around her shoulders and force her to jump with me. Then I pick Melly up off the ground.

I scream THAT’S MY BROTHER at nobody in particular, over and over, at the top of my lungs. He just scored the goal that sends them to the Frozen Four. Fuck yeah!

Down on the ice, they’ve buried him. He’s completely gone — all of them are on top of him against the boards, and I can’t see any part of him. Percy comes the whole length of the ice with his mask up. Stanley launches himself into the pile from about six feet out and lands across the top of everybody. Blue gets there and doesn’t jump on anybody. He stands at the edge of it with his arms out and his head back.

Boston College is lined up along their own blue line, watching.

It takes a long time for the pile to come apart. Guys skate around in loops with no destination. Somebody’s helmet is on the ice thirty feet away from anybody. Fuller’s standing on the bench with his arms folded, letting them have it. Then Benson gets up out of the middle of it and looks into the stands.

My mom’s got both hands out toward the ice like she can reach him, and my dad is nodding. Just nodding, over and over, at his son, on the ice, in Ohio. But Benson is looking at Lucy. Even as I jump and squeeze my best friend, he’s staring right at her with a big smile on his face.

“He loves you so fucking much, Lucy,” I say, almost crying.

She puts her hand flat against her own chest, and he does something with his head that isn’t a nod and isn’t a smile. And then he looks at me. His expression changes, more playful. He points straight at me, from the ice, with his glove.

“THAT’S MY BROTHER,” I scream.

He laughs. Then Stanley grabs him around the neck and drags him away.

They start coming off in twos and threes.

Percy goes along the boards with his mask under his arm. Stanley walks the length of the ice backward waving at an entire section like a man in a parade. Mackey’s got his stick over his head. And Rowan’s out near the far dot with his helmet off, talking to Blue about something, one hand moving.

I watch him for the entire conversation, and my face falls into a smile. I only realize it when Lucy bumps into me. I look at her and smile wider.

“They did it, Lucy. Holy fucking shit!”

She nods. “It’s crazy.”

“It’s so fucking crazy!” I say, glancing down at the ice again.

Rowan’s already looking.

I inhale, unable to exhale.

His expression softens while Blue keeps talking.

His face slowly pulls into a smile.

I smile back.

God, I love that man.

Chapter 23

ROWAN

For four days after Boston College, everybody at Camden congratulates us like we already won something.

It happens outside class, in the athletic building, in the coffee shop across from campus. People I have never spoken to know we beat the number-one seed. Professors mention Vegas before lectures. Somebody hangs a sign over the entrance to the student center with FROZEN FOUR written across it in letters big enough to read from the road.

Stanley loves all of it. I don’t hate it. I just don’t know what to do with it because we haven’t won anything yet. But that’s the part nobody seems interested in.