“Hey, sorry I’m cutting it close. We had quite the afternoon.” She blows a stray piece of hair that’s fallen over her face, and it’s then that I notice her hair is mussed. It sure looks like my daughter put her through it today.
I look down at Sophia and she quickly averts her eyes from me. I’m about to ask her what type of trouble she caused but Sadie’s hand lands on my arm.
“It’s okay. We just had a mishap with a Hot Wheels car. It was an accident. Hunter came to help me out. All is good.”
My look must convey that I’m not convinced because she sends me a reassuring smile. “I promise.”
“You could’ve called me.”
It shouldn’t bother me so much that I wasn’t the first person she called. I’m pretending I’m upset because it’s my house but I can’t deny the jealousy I feel knowing Hunter came to her aid instead of me. It should’ve been me.
Sadie drops her hand. “You had an important appointment. We had it handled. Isn’t it nice to know you don’t have to play Superman all the time and come to our rescue?”
No. It’s not nice. I want to play Superman if Sadie is involved.
Goddamn it. I need to remind myself that she and I can never happen. She’s made that very clear, and I agreed it was for the best.
Why the fuck did I agree to that again?
Just then, Sophia takes Sadie’s hand and they make their way to the front of the room. Right. We’re doing what’s best for Sophia. I’m such a shitty dad. I’m more concerned about how I feel about my kid’s nanny than I am about my kid.
I’m just not sure it really is such a bad idea. Sadie’s afraid we’ll jeopardize Sophia’s stability. But what if we find out we’re perfect together? That would also be good for Sophia to see.
I push aside all thoughts about Sadie and focus on my breathing. The only thing I should be thinking about is the game tonight.
Sadie’s voice interrupts my game day thoughts. “All right, guys. Find your mats. We’re gonna do some light yoga stretches before moving into our meditation session. Game seven. Do or die. Let’s get you focused and ready for work.”
Sophia sets her mat up next to Sadie. They both lead us through our opening yoga poses and I can’t help but feel a new sense of calm watching them together.
I’m about to play in one of the most exciting games of my career, and my two favorite girls are going to help us lead the way.
Life doesn’t get much better than that.
It’s been one of the hardest fought games of my life. There is absolutely nothing like playoff hockey. Every single man out on the ice is putting their body on the line and it’s a sight to be seen.
We’re down by one goal with two minutes to go. If we don’t score and take this thing to overtime, we’re all packing up and heading to the golf courses much earlier than we’d like.
The Hawks are giving it their all, but they’re also playing it safe to end the game. Once they get to the redline, they fire the puck into our zone. It’s a lot of back and forth but if we can keep possession of the puck, we can pull our goalie and have a six-on-five situation.
Columbus’s goalie covers up the puck after a scrum in front of the net. The linesman blows his whistle and Lincoln signals to the ref he wants a timeout. We all huddle around the bench, eyes locked in on our coach.
“You guys have two minutes to tie this game up. We’ve come too fucking far this season to have it end here in our own barn tonight. Find a way to win.”
We all nod and a few guys yell, “Let’s fucking do this!”
Lincoln steps back up on the bench and Ellie takes his spot at ice level.
“Niko, I want your line out to start us off.” She points to one of our grinders who’s on the ice already. “Hayes, you’ll be the sixth man. Plant your ass in front of that net and don’t let anyone push you around.”
Ellie draws up the six-on-five faceoff play we’ve run a hundred times in practice the past couple weeks. We have yet to run it during a game, saving it for playoffs. Teams will watch film for hours to prepare for these types of situations.We wanted something new up our sleeve for this exact moment.
Let’s hope it fucking works.
We all skate to the faceoff dot on the far side of the rink. Instead of my line mates lining up on both sides of me, they line up to my right, leaving my left side vacant. Hayes also lines up with them. We have three guys lined up on my right, directly in front of their goal.
The Hawks players aren’t sure where they’re supposed to line up. They scramble to cover the men in front of the net, leaving the left side of me completely open. Just as the ref is about to drop the puck, I hear Connor move behind me, skating up to my left where it’s empty.
I win the draw over to him and tie up the Hawks’ center, leaving Connor plenty of room to skate around us untouched. He drives the net, forcing one of the Hawks’ defenders to abandon the chaos, which also leaves Jefferson wide open in front of the net. Connor skates hard, as if he’s going to wrap around the net. The defender follows him but at the last second, Connor puts the puck on his backhand and dishes it to Jefferson, who is all alone just above the crease on the goalie’s blocker side.
