AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My dad just shook his head. “It just makes it harder to teach them about life. Not everything has to be a competition. There is beauty in losing, in not having to be the best.”
I’d been forced into that position. My competitive dreams taken away from me and I could see the value in what dad said. My life was richer now than it had ever been while competing.
I tried to forget I was here to see Dillon. To watch him play. To exist in the same space that he did. When he wasn’t on the ice, that was easy. But now that he was out there, all my attention was on him. He was a magnet and I was nothing but metal shavings.
The game started and control shifted back and forth across the ice.
Every time he took the ice I was blind to everything but him. His size, his agility.
A brief flash of what all that size and agility had felt like in bed crossed my mind and I squirmed in my seat. I shouldn’t be having carnal thoughts sitting next to my dad, but when I was thinking about Dillon, remembering Dillon, it was hard not to have those thoughts.
One of the Voyageurs’ checked Dillon into the boards. The crowd, of course, loved it, but I groaned at the thought of him taking the pain. They scrambled for the puck between his skates and then suddenly Dillon was flat on his back on the ice.
The play moved forward, but Dillon wasn’t getting up and going after the puck.
He rolled to his side, clutching his right leg.
I got to my feet. Dad grabbed my hand.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I can’t…I don’t know.”
Play was stopped and trainers ran onto the ice, blocking my view. I looked up at the Jumbotron screens, but the view wasn’t a whole lot clearer. Dillon was yelling something, but the trainer shook his head.
They got him to his feet. His right leg bent, so his skate didn’t touch the ice. Their arms around him, supporting his weight, two trainers helped him off the ice.
The crowd clapped. The guys pounded their sticks against the boards. Dillon lifted his hand in farewell to the crowd and then he was gone.
I took off for the visitors’ dressing room.
* * *
The rumor wasa ruptured Achilles tendon.
“It’s just a rumor,” Dad said, as I paced the hallway outside the visitors’ training room. They’d cleared this area, but my staff badge gave us access. Above us we could still hear the muffled roar of the crowd as the teams kept playing.
There was no reason for me to be here. I wasn’t family. I wasn’t even his ex-girlfriend, technically. I was just a person who he texted every night and who might be in love with him.
No big deal.
My dad knew that going home without seeing him was not an option for me.
The door at the opposite end of the hallway burst open and two security guards were trying to stop Wendy.
“Miss, you can’t…”
“That’s my brother, jack off, and I will break every bone in your hand if you try and stop me from seeing him.”
“Hey!” I stepped up, lifting my badge. “She’s with me.”
“Are you sure?” The security guard asked. “Because I think she’s with the devil.”
“I’m sure,” I said, biting my lip. Dillon was going to love that one.
“Where is he?” Wendy asked, once the security guard made the sign of the cross and left.
“They’re still looking at him.” I said, and she pulled me into her arms.
