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On Thursday morning we had our team at the rink, save for the seniors who graduated in May. Try outs for the team only started in three weeks, but we always started practicing regularly a week before the Fall semester started in August. Coach Davis had his sights set on the Frozen Four in the following April, which means we had our work cut out for us. And it started with selecting the best team. It was going to be a long season and if it all went as planned, we’d make it to the Frozen Four before I graduated in the Spring. What I had planned after college had been put on hold since getting legal guardianship over Daniel and I didn’t want to uproot his entire life all over again if we were to move. So for now, our lives were in here.

The guys hit the ice and warmed up for a few minutes. After having the majority of the team away for the Summer they always needed a chance to get back in sync. Although I couldn’t play anymore, I was on the ice during every practice. I studied the guys, especially the new recruits, and used that to determine where each players’ strengths and weaknesses were. It allowed us to strategize for the upcoming season and Coach Davis used to pinpoint exactly where we needed to improve. I always loved being on the ice, but it was coaching that I fell in love with.

I looked up just as Aiden skated up to my side. “Hey Coach.”

“You’re late, Davis.”

“Sorry Coach. I wasn’t allowed to leave the bed this morning.” He winked, and I had to chuckle.

“You’re a horn dog,” I teased.

He lifted his hands and skated backwards, away from me. “Can’t help that my woman finds me irresistible.”

I shook my head. He was full of shit, but I couldn’t say I didn’t understand the inability to keep your hands off someone. Before I could think about Kenzi - and how much I’d missed her since Sunday - I blew my whistle and got the team together. Coach Davis usually gave the ‘start of a new season’ speech, but he’d asked me to take over today. He looked tired and something was definitely bothering him, but I’d heard him speak to the team a hundred times and knew I could do it. I ran through the perfunctory practice and game schedule, along with all the expectations Coach Davis had and the recruitment period for the upcoming season. Once the formalities were out of the way, I gave them the go-ahead and started our first official practice.

I was looking down at my clipboard — yes, I actually had one of those — when some commotion on the ice caught my attention. I caught sight of Aiden’s jersey — he played center — right before he got wiped out and flipped onto his back. I skated towards the scuffle and saw that it was Liam - who played left wing — who had speared Aiden.

“Okay!” I yelled, pushing my way through the other players. “Cut it out!”

I looked over at one of our defenseman. “Bruiser, give me a hand here, will you?”

Sadly, the remainder of the team, except for Kyle ‘Bruiser’ Bukowski, stayed back. They knew better than to get involved when Aiden and Liam were throwing punches.

The burly player reached down and grabbed Liam by the back of his jersey. Liam resisted, and in the process of flinging his helmet off his head, he elbowed me in the face. I grunted, feeling the sting on my cheek bone, and flew back, losing my footing on the ice. My left elbow broke my fall, but I cursed out aloud when pain shot up my arm and into my shoulder. Aiden scrambled back to his feet and then lunged for Liam.

“Stop them!” I shouted, trying to stand.

It became a mess of arms, and guttural sounds of struggle, and from my vantage point no one was winning. What the hell?

I managed to stand and pushed myself amidst the chaos. I spotted Aiden and when I reached for his arm, I unknowingly put myself in the line of fire. Liam’s fist made contact with the side of my head, and the strength of the blow blurred my vision and made me dizzy. Then we heard it. An ear-piercing scream from the other side of the rink. I dropped beside Aiden, and looked to where the sound had come from. Kenzi was running across the ice in ballet pumps, her face drawn tight as she managed to stay upright. How she did it I didn’t know, but what had me completely dumbfounded — aside from the blow to my head — was why she was running toward us. Not many people knew it, but she hated the ice and I always thought it was strange because her Dad and all her brothers were ice hockey players. But then she explained it to me, and I got it. When she was seven, the year before her Mom died, she fell and cut her chin open while skating. There was a faint scar, barely visible unless you looked really closely, but she’d developed a fear of the ice since then.

So it made no sense that she was hurtling herself across the rink straight towards us. She spotted me, her face awash with panic, and the moment she reached me, she was at my side.

“Vaughan! Are you okay? Look at your face!” Her hands fluttered over my face, and she looked ready to cry. That confused me even more, and just when I thought she couldn’t confound me even more, she stood up, found a stick that had been tossed at some point and swatted Liam.

It was like a scene out of a cartoon. He flinched, and spun around, scowling when he saw it was Kenzi. “What the fuck?” he bellowed. “Why are you hitting me?”

“Stop fighting!” She swatted him again, until our other defenseman, Benji Lancer, gripped the stick mid-swing. The sight of Kenzi so worked up had everyone wide-eyed and at a loss for words. Even I didn’t know what to say. Aiden was also sporting a shiner on his left eye, and Liam’s lip was busted open. Aiden helped me up, and looked at his sister if she’d lost her mind. What was she thinking running across the damn ice with no skates? One slip and she could have been seriously hurt, but she didn’t seem worried about herself at all.

“What were you two fighting about?” I asked Aiden. Liam overheard us, and turned his head to murder Aiden with a glower.

“This fucker,” started Aiden. “Decided to sleep with Callie, and now she’s quit.”

Some of the guys on the team whistled.

“Why do you care?” snapped Liam. “You’re never around anymore to check up on me, Aid.”

Aiden looked furious, as did Liam, but I suspected it had a whole lot more to do with Liam missing his brother. Of course he would never admit it, but it was there.

“She was our team trainer, Liam and in case you forgot we start our new season soon. What were you thinking?”

Liam’s expression was stony and he opened his mouth to say something but snapped it shut.

“Whatever,” he grumbled. “Don’t act like you care.”

He picked up his stick, and skated toward the rink’s exit. He disappeared into the locker room and Aiden exhaled beside me.

“Damnit.”