TWENTY-FOUR
NICK
After spendingfifteen minutes digging in the icy snowbank to find my keys, I blew on my hands to try to get the feeling back into my fingers. Steeling myself, I pushed the door to the dressing room open, expecting to see heads hung low and morale in the toilet.
“Nick.” Chaser walked across the room, still in his skates, and wrapped his arms around me. “It was close.”
My gloves had been tucked under my arm and they fell to the floor with the surprise hug. “Not close enough. I can’t believe…fuck.” I dropped onto the bench and rested my face in my hands. I’d let Evie down and failed the town. Yet, these guys, who had taken me in like a brother, still didn’t hate me. What the hell was wrong with them?
Jason, one of the second line defensemen, passed me a flask. “Better get that into you. We’ve got some marching to do.”
I didn’t move to take the flask. “Come on, man.” Jason leaned into me and pushed the metal container into my hand. “Cheer up. You played great tonight. That last shot was a fluke.”
“Fluke?” I wasn’t going to cry, but I was damn close. “There’s no such thing. I’m sorry, guys.” My eyes stung, but tears didn’t fall. “I let you down. I let the town down. They were all looking forward to celebrating, a bunch of them have been out of work since the mill shut down. We had the opportunity to bring happiness to this town and I fucked it up.” I jerked as a fiery tear dropped from my eye onto my cheek. It was unexpected and I got rid of it with an angry swipe of the back of my hand.
Mack pulled off his skate and dropped it next to the other one. He padded across the rubberized floor in his socks and sat on the bench beside me. “Dude. First of all, we’re a team. You didn’t lose this game, if anything, it’s my fault for that dirty hit. If I hadn’t gotten that penalty, he wouldn’t have gotten that breakaway.”
“Yeah.” Chaser stood up. “And if I hadn’t lost the puck on that pass, he wouldn’t have had anything for his breakaway. Come on, Tinsel, we could do this all day long.”
They didn’t know about the mental trick shots that had been playing through my head for the past week. I had finally decided to be a Bobcat, to make the town—and Evie—proud of me, and I’d accidentally played right into Coalman’s plan. “I really thought we were going to win.”
Mack slapped my knee. “We all did. We should’ve won, but we didn’t. To be honest, Tinsel, we all thought you hated it here. Today, I saw a change in your playing, for the better—even though we lost. We’ll get them next time. Now, get your lollipop-throwing arm ready. We’ve got to go and give candy to everyone in town.”
“Are you sure they won’t throw eggs at us?”
The stocky defenseman returned to his spot across the trailer. “I’m sure.”
After all of my teammates had left the building, I took the envelope from the top of my cubby and tucked it into the inside pocket of my jacket. The guys were in surprisinglygood spirits for losing such a major event. The Rapidians, though, I wasn’t sure that they would be so forgiving.
I was wrong.
The Bobcats’ float was a flatbed trailer pulled by a tractor. Cotton batting was piled high into fake snowbanks and a tree wobbled at the front, its decorations shaking as we were pulled down Main Street. My pockets were filled with lollipops and I tossed them into the crowd as we passed.
To my surprise, everyone in town was smiling and waving at us.
Even me.
Chance Rapids was hockey crazy, yet after their team lost, they were still full of smiles. I recognized a few faces as we went by. Officer Henderson took off his hat and waved it, Muriel stood in the doorway of the G-Spot, and Freddie clapped his hands over his head. “Come on, Nick! My wife needs a lollipop.”
Drawing my arm back, I tossed a red sucker at Freddie. He leapt into the air, caught it, and handed it to the pretty blonde woman next to him. The whole time I kept seeing Evie in the crowd, only she wasn’t there. My breath stopped at every cowboy hat, starting again when they turned and it wasn’t Evie’s face under its brim.
Bells jingled from their harnesses and their fake antlers waved in the breeze as Simon and Dave ambled in front of us. I’d spent a bit of time with the two of them and could tell that they were loving all of the attention.
Santa’s float was directly behind us, pulled by two horses. As we approached the center of town, a crowd of people dressed in red clustered together and started singing “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” It was cheesy as hell, and if Ihadn’t lost my chance with Evie, I would’ve been swept up in the heartwarming scene.
“Nick,” a squeaky voice shouted, but I didn’t see anyone. “Look down.”
George was running beside the float, but his little legs couldn’t keep up. I hopped off and jogged to meet him. “Here you go.” I handed him a lollipop. “Sorry about the game, kid.”
He grinned, and I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like he’d lost another tooth since the last time I saw him. “That’s okay, Nick. It was a fun game. You’re the best goalie I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t believe you stopped that shot in the first game, the one where you stepped out of the crease and snatched it out of the air.” He made a grabbing motion. “I can’t wait to watch you play again.”
I hoped that my sadness didn’t show. There was no way I could stay in town now. If word got out…I shuddered at the thought of all of these people finding out I’d fixed the game. Even if it wasn’t true.
When we reached the end of the street, all the players hopped off the trailer. We were mobbed with kids looking for autographs and lollipops. Over the top of the sea of child-sized Bobcats hats, I saw Charlotte and Logan. I took everything in, then wove through the crowd to find Logan. This was the last time I was going to be a Bobcat.
“Great game.” Logan shook my hand.
Charlotte smiled. “It was so close,” she said. Obviously, she hadn’t spoken to Evie. I didn’t know if Evie would tell anyone what she’d heard—but it was up to her. I couldn’t ask her to keep it a secret. I just hoped if it did come out, it would be after I was on the other side of the mountain pass.
