“I have no doubts. Rest,” I reiterated. “I’ll check in tomorrow.”
We hung up, but the call didn’t do what I’d hoped. If anything, the pit in my stomach deepened. Perry getting sick out of nowhere. Sandin’s bizarre performance. The way his eyes had flicked to Nathan’s suite. The win that felt more like a warning than a triumph.
Something was off.
I didn’t know what yet.
But the ice wasn’t the only thing that felt slippery tonight.
The boys filtered into the locker room for the post-game talk, and I went through the motions — praising work ethic, highlighting key plays, calling out what needed tightening before our next matchup. They were buzzing, smiling, chatting with media, riding the high of a win.
And I tried to match their energy. I really did.
But the whole time, the wrongness gnawed at me.
Once the meeting wrapped and I dismissed them, I took care of my post-game to-do list as quickly as I could — including the world’s fastest press conference — before I grabbed my jacket and started down the tunnel toward the parking lot, ready to get the hell out of my own head.
But as I passed the friends and family room, something made me slow.
A flash of long golden hair. A familiar silhouette.
Ari.
I never stopped in the friends and family room, mostly because I never had a reason to. I didn’t have a wife waiting for me there. No kids were barreling out at the sight of me yelling, “Daddy!”I always slipped right by and out to my car, waving to players as they went left and I went right.
But tonight…
I stopped.
And I stepped inside.
“Coach!” Carter called out, his hair still damp from his shower. He gripped me in a big hug before pulling back and eyeing me cautiously. “What are you doing here?”
Fortunately, his new wife was holding their daughter just behind where he stood, the perfect excuse.
“Came to see my favorite girl, of course,” I answered, reaching for Lennon.
Livia Young, our team dentist and Carter’s unlikely companion, handed her daughter over with a serene smile. I felt like motherhood had softened her — not in a weakening way, but quite the opposite, actually. She seemed more at peace than I’d ever seen her, and the way she and Carter immediately reached for each other once her hands were empty, I knew they’d both found their person.
My chest tightened for a different reason then, a familiar ache squeezing my lungs as I wondered what that would be like.
It was hard for me to explain to myself, let alone anyone else, so I always kept it locked up — but I hadn’t ever moved on after Ariana. I’d tried. I’d spent my fair share of nights with women who I thought could capture my interest, but they never lasted. It was like there was unfinished business with Ari, and until I got that closure, I couldn’t move forward.
Even now, in this room, I had Lennon in my arms smiling and playing with the pin on my lapel as I chatted with Carter and Livia with apparent ease. But inside, all my focus was on where Ariana stood on the other side of the room, locked in conversation with Maven and Grace.
The apology I’d tried to give her, one too late and too little, had me rubbed raw. I wrestled with my guilt and frustration ever since she walked out of that room. If I were being honest, I felt helpless, because she wasright hereand yet I still couldn’t reach her.
It doesn’t matter, she’d said to me when we were finally alone.
It’s in the past.
It should have hurt, hearing her say those words. It should have knocked the breath from me, should have thrown me back to the cold hard ground of reality.
But it didn’t.
Because I simply didn’t believe her.
What we had… it was young and passionate, yes, but it was real. It was fuckingeverything.
