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“It’s a long story,” I say. They all shrug. With that, I start from the beginning. By the time I finish, they seem speechless. I didn’t leave anything out.
“And now,” Zane starts. “He basically doesn’t know when to stop being pissed at her and get back to annoying the hell out of her into being with him.”
I shoot him a glare. I didn’t annoy her before. I was simply insistent.
“Sounds to me like you’ve already stopped being pissed at her,” EJ says. “You’re meeting with her when we get back, right? If you spend any time alone with her, you’re probably done for. If you’re not ready to forgive her, I would cancel.”
“I disagree,” Noah says. “If you love her and you want to be with her, then you better get started on that now, especially if she might be resistant at first because of your past.”
“I say do whatever the fuck you want, Bruiser. You don’t want too many people butting into your relationship with advice.”
Everyone nods at that.
“But you’re all saying you would forgive her?”
“It’s not about what we would do; it’s about what you would do,” Noah says.
“I can see her side of it.”
Everyone looks at Zane, who shrugs from the attention. “You came back into her life. She was shocked you didn’t know on top of you hounding her for her forgiveness. And then, things went right back to normal between the two of you. Once that happened, she lost her moment to say anything without any consequences and you were pushing for more. I can see how she let it go on for so long. You said so yourself that she’s scared of being with you and you didn’t get it. You should now. On top of everything else, she has a little girl to look after and take care of.”
Well. Leave it to Z to shock the hell out of me. That makes more sense to me, even though it definitely doesn’t excuse her action
s. Man, I wish I was home to see her. The rest of lunch is free of any talk about me or Sydney, which I’m grateful for. I want to focus on the remaining games on this trip, so that when I get back to Raleigh, I can focus on Sydney.
The next day, we’re on the ice. Less than a minute into the game, the Jets score a goal. But thirty seconds later, they turn it over in the neutral zone and Nathan O’Donnell is the one who ends up with it. Donny is halfway to the net when he rears his stick back. The puck dances through the air. The goalie lifts his body, but it goes right over his shoulder.
Tie game!
There is energy from the start, obviously. The fans are rowdy and loud with their chants. Kellan Hellsberg fights for the puck behind our net and I keep an eye on those around me. The puck comes free, going toward the guy I’m closest to, so I poke my stick out to try to get it while bumping into him while I’m at it. Ross Strome is right there with me.
Rossy helps me clear it from the boards and thankfully, it goes in the direction of Gus Zito. He darts down the ice with a pair of Jets on his heels. Soon, we’re all following after him as the play goes down the ice. He takes a shot. There’s a ring of the iron as it bounces off. As the play starts to head back down the ice, I head for the bench for a line change.
Aaron Peters steals the puck, which gets stolen back, and we spend some time in our own zone before finally heading down the ice. Tommy nearly loses a pass to him, but he quickly recovers and shoots. The goalie’s arm waves up, but he misses.
Two-one game.
The first game of this road trip, we lost, so it would be great to win this one and the next one and have a good trip overall. We seem to be on top of it tonight; the other night, Brayden took too many penalties. Granted, I took a few myself and so did some other guys. Basically, the penalties killed us. Coach was pissed. We’re supposed to behave tonight and keep our hands and sticks to ourselves.
So far, so good. I have a feeling we’ll be able to come away with the win tonight at least. As long as we can keep the pace and take advantage of every opportunity we get. That’s the game plan. Let’s just hope we can stick to it.
There’s a banging on my door. It’s Monday and I’m back home. We won the last two road games, so I’m feeling pretty damn good today. I’m supposed to meet with Sydney soon, and I’m not expecting anyone, so I’m curious as to who may be here. The banging is persistent and loud, annoying really. I jog to get there faster and open the door.
Sydney’s cheeks are streaked with tears and Savannah is on her hip, consistently wiping them away.
“What’s wrong?”
“Logan was in a car accident. I don’t know if he’s okay or not, and I was hoping you’d watch Savannah while I go to the hospital to find out.”
My heartbeat skids to a stop as I glance over at our daughter. “By myself?”
“Please, Ian. I don’t have anyone else and I’d rather not take her until I can find out what’s going on. You’ll be fine.” She hands Savannah to me and I have no choice but to take her.
“But I don’t know what I’m doing.” The panic starts to enter my voice because she’s actually going to leave me alone with this kid! “I don’t know anything about kids! You can’t leave me alone with her! Are you crazy? I’m not ready for this.”
Sydney grabs my face and pulls me down so we’re nose-to-nose. “You are smart, and it’s not rocket science. Feed her, play with her, calm things down around eight and she’ll be asleep by nine. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“But?—” She can’t do this!
