Page 47 of Offside

"I know the drill."

Declan was at the other end of the rink with Hayes, watching a return-to-skate progression. He didn't look toward Zoe's tablet. He didn't come to the boards when I started.

The first contact came from Eriksson on a low-angle retrieval. I got my feet around early, put my left side toward him, and moved the puck before his weight arrived. The impact went through my back and hips instead of the right shoulder.

The second was Garrett because he knew how to make a controlled drill honest. He drove through my center, forced me off the puck, and made me recover it with my feet.

"Change?" Zoe asked at the boards.

"No weakness. Pain three."

She wrote it down. "Two more."

I completed them. They didn't get a high-arm finish. When Reeves sent the next pair over the boards, I changed with mine. The old need to prove health had always been loudest when somebody questioned it. This time, I let my play speak for itself.

Declan and I didn't speak until the building had emptied. He waited near the staff exit in his coat.

"My place?" I asked.

"The conference room is free."

"You want to stay here?" I asked.

"For the conversation with your agent, yes."

He opened the small glass-walled room beside the lobby. There was no one left on the floor except security at the front desk. We sat on the same side of the table.

"Tell me what Marchetti said," Declan said.

I told him all of it. Marchetti had called during lunch. He considered the leak useful evidence that medical risk was already affecting valuation, but not proof of misconduct by itself. He wanted an independent orthopedic assessment so our counter didn't depend only on club medical summaries. He wanted my game usage, adapted play, penalty-kill results, and current role organized into a firm performance counter. He'd also asked whether the internal conflict belonged in our response.

"What did you tell him?" Declan asked.

"That I needed to talk to you first."

Declan looked through the glass toward the empty lobby. "And what do you want?"

"Independent assessment. Performance counter. No public fight while Park's review is open."

"What about the leak?" Declan asked.

"If anyone asks, I say that the shoulder is under a medical plan and the contract is private. I don't lie about the article, but I don't confirm anything, either."

"And us?" Declan asked.

"Not relevant. No recusal. No relationship. Nobody exposed it, and we don't do it for them."

His hands rested on the table. I could remember how warm they were on my bare skin. I shook the thought from my head.

"The independent assessment will need your file," he said. "I'll authorize the release when Marchetti has the specialist and scope. Zoe and Reyes handle what's necessary."

"If the club brings the recusal into negotiations, we stop before anybody uses it," I said.

"Call me before you answer."

"We decide together." I nodded.

He turned toward me. "Are you agreeing because it's what I want?"