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Liv: Are you joking? Everyone is saying you’re quitting hockey?
Dillon: I’m not sure if you know this, but there are more important things than hockey.
Liv: Is this Dillon Le Coeur?
He sent a selfie.Dimples Grande on full display. I could have wept, he was so handsome. So familiar and dear.
Dillon: How is Montreal? Have you tried the bagels? You gotta go to Schwartz’s for the smoked meat.
Liv: TELL ME WHAT IS HAPPENING!
Dillon: Ron Morgan pulled all that shit with you and I have made it clear to McKay that he can have that POS on this team, or he can have me. He can’t have both.
Liv: You would quit the Bruisers?
I paused, breathless and unsure.
Liv: Over me?
Dillon: I know I’m too late with this. But I am doing what I should have done the second I saw you in Calico Cove. I’m choosing you.
Liv: …
Liv: …
In the end, I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing. Maybe that was cowardly. Or maybe it was just self-preservation. I didn’t know anymore.
Dillon: I got this, babe. Well, the lawyers do. You just focus on killing it in Montreal.
The news broke the next morning that Ron Morgan was retiring from hockey and taking some time to be with his family.
Dillon gave a press conference with Novek and O’Rourke beside him. O’Rourke had a Believe Women t-shirt on. Novek wore head to toe Gucci and kept winking at the camera like he was on The Bachelor.
“That Novek is hot,” Marci said. The three of us were standing in the PT room, watching one of the zillion screens in the facility. Everyone connected to professional hockey was watching this press conference.
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Veronica asked.
“He looks like a bad boy who is also sweet.”
Dillon read a statement regarding The Bruisers’ commitment to providing a safe and inclusive environment for everyone on staff. He didn’t mention any names, so the world may not know exactly what happened, but everyone knew he was talking about Ron Morgan.
“We can’t change the past,” Dillon said, looking right at the camera, looking right into my soul. “But we can learn from our mistakes. Hold ourselves accountable. Make better choices. I am dedicated to doing that.”
He flashed those dimples one last time and stood up.
Novek leaned forward and said “We miss you, Coach.”
Then he stood up and walked out behind his captain. O’Rourke stood, let the photographers get a bunch of pictures of his shirt, and then he left too.
Without a word to my friends, I went to my office, locked the door and cried.
* * *
Red Center Arena
Montreal
November
