Page 125 of Hard to Get

“I’ll start,” Frosty says. He looks at Bish. “Don’t fucking do that on the ice. You got a problem with my game? Talk to me off the ice.”

“There wasn’t time for that,” Bish snarls. “We had what, two and a half minutes? We had to tie it up. We needed you on the bench and LG on the ice.”

“I can’t leave the net when they have control of the puck,” Frosty says. “You fucking know that.”

“I had the puck!”

“Not at first.”

“Okay.” LG lifts his hands. “What happened last night happened. I don’t want to make this between you two guys. You have different opinions about what should have happened. What we need to do is figure out how we, as a team, want to handle things like that. We all have the same goal, right? We all wanted to score in that game, and we all wanted to not get scored on.”

Bish and Frosty nod, still frowning.

“What we differ on is how to achieve those goals.” LG looks around the room. “We also need to agree on how to handle differences of opinion like that. It doesn’t help anyone to crash out over it on the ice.” He gives Bish a narrow-eyed look. “Maybe we should make some rules about it. Like, wait twenty-four hours to talk about it.”

“Maybe watching the video would help,” Finn suggests. “Then we’re looking at the same thing. Everything happens fast on the ice.”

LG gives the kid an approving look. “That’s a good idea.”

“So… like when Moose pinched last night right before that second goal,” Rocky says.

“We both want the same thing,” Moose replies tightly. “Keep the play alive in the O zone.”

“But there are risks,” Rocky says. “They ended up with an odd man rush.”

“Okay, yeah,” LG says. “This is good. What’s the goal? How do we do it? And why do you think one thing and Moose thinks another?”

“Do we agree that we shouldn’t be wildin’ out on the ice over that shit?” Abby says. “That’s just embarrassing.”

Everyone is nodding. Even Bish, but his mouth is still a stubborn slash.

“We’re not going to solve everything today,” LG says. “But does everyone agree we need to have some rules about handling conflict?”

Most everyone murmurs agreement.

“Absolutely,” I say.

“Okay.” LG looks around. “Let’s talk about it.”

33

STELLA

Friday night, I’ve just turned on the TV to watch the Orcas play in San Francisco when my doorbell rings. Of course my heart leaps at the thought that it could be Jayden, which is ridiculous because I know he’s in San Francisco. And also I know he’s… angry. Or hurt. It was like that at the park earlier when I took Betty for her walk; I kept thinking maybe I’d run into Jayden and Frank.

I peer out the small window and see a delivery person. Frowning, I open the door cautiously.

“Stella Brooks?”

“Yes.”

“Here you go.” He hands me a paper bag.

“Uh, thanks.”

I close the door and take the bag into the living room as the national anthem is sung at the game. The camera pans along the bench and there’s Jayden. My heart bumps.

Sitting on the couch, I open the bag and pull out a small, flat box. Through the clear lid, I see dog treats: pretty ones with pink and yellow icing, shaped like dog bones and paw prints. I stare at them, my mind blank.