“No, you dry yourself,” Tane called back, trying his best to sound upbeat. “I need to finish writing an email.”
“Okay,” Jacob called back, a tinge of disappointment in his voice.
Tane sighed. He hated disappointing his darling Jacob. But with his mind unwilling to settle and the prospect of the final game against the Lynxes swirling in his head, Tane knew that he wasn’t the best company at the moment.
Tane stopped pacing and looked up at the various framed photographs on the wall. There was one photo that stood out. It was from Tane’s threepeat season where alongside Coach Mitchell, he not only won three titles in a row, but three playoff and regular season MVPs in a row too.
Tane had been the clutch player for the Enforcers for so long that he had almost taken it for granted that this would alwaysbe the case. But Tane’s shoulder hadn’t felt right since returning from the shooting. According to the doctors, everything was fine with the shoulder, but Tane knew his body better than anyone – and there was something that just wasn’t the same.
As Tane stared at the photo with Coach Mitchell, the pair of them holding the large title winning cup on each side, Tane smiled ruefully. Did Tane still have it in him to bring on another MVP performance against the Lynxes. It was certainly set up for a classic Tane Rivers show of skill, dominance, and total reliability.
A deciding game.
It’s a chance to bring the old Tane Rivers back onto the ice.
But… does that version of me still even exist?
Tane began to recall meeting Coach Mitchell for the first time. Tane had been at the Enforcers for a couple of years and was doing well. The team was still young, and the coaching structure was in its infancy. The Cardini family were still working on improving the training facilities and making sure that all the conditions for success were in place.
But it wasn’t until Coach Mitchell arrived that everything changed for the Toronto Enforcers -and more specifically, for Tane too.
It was as if Coach Mitchell saw something in Tane that no one else could see. Tane had always been a good prospect, and some earmarked him as a future hall of famer. However it was only Coach Mitchell who saw Tane’s true ceiling as a hockey player.
Sadly, Coach Mitchell had passed away a couple of seasons ago. Tane would have done anything to have one of their famousfour coffee sit-downs. The two of them would meet up even after Coach Mitchell had returned and sit there four hours talking about hockey and life in general.
But the option of talking to Coach Mitchell was gone, and it wasn’t coming back.
“Tane…” came Jacob’s voice from behind Tane.
Tane turned around and saw Jacob standing at the doorway to his office. Jacob had dried off and was now wearing a white t-shirt tucked into a pair of light-blue denim jeans. To say that Jacob looked cute standing there with his stuffed bear Blade under one arm would be an understatement.
“Hey, sorry I didn’t come through to you in the bathroom,” Tane said. “You know…”
Tane allowed his words to trail off. The last thing Tane wanted to do was burden Jacob with all his internal worries and problems ahead of the final Lynxes game.
“It’s fine,” Jacob replied, stepping into the office and walking up to Tane. “I know you’re worried about the game against the Lynxes. It’s a big deal. But I know that you’re saving your best until last.”
Tane felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders.
To hear and see that Jacob was fully supporting and still believing in him was a big deal to Tane. But as it turned out, the boy wasn’t content with giving Tane one compliment, he wanted more…
“Tell me what’s worrying you,” Jacob said, walking over to the couch in the corner of the office. “Let me snuggle up in your lapand then just talk to me. Get it all off that big chest of yours, Daddy.”
Jacob was going to give him some guidance in his moment of need? It was almost always the other way around. But maybe these times called for a new approach. And opening up before had worked. Tane saw that he had nothing to lose. And if he couldn’t trust Jacob, then who could he trust?
And it was clear as Jacob sat down on the couch and patted his hand on the expensive thread cover that he wasn’t about to take no for an answer when it came to getting deep.
Tane walked over to the couch and after a quick rearrangement, he was sitting with his boy cradled in his lap and looking up at him with his bright blue eyes.
“It’s just…” Tane said, searching for the right words.
“It’s okay, you can take as long as you want,” Jacob said, his sweet smile and cherubic face putting Tane at ease. “You’ve got this.”
“Injury or no injury, I honestly worry that I’m not the player I was,” Tane said, the floodgates suddenly bursting open. “I’ve done more laps on the ice than I can remember. I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen great players come onto the scene and fade away. I’m scared that I’m one of those players now. Even with the doctor telling me that my shoulder is good, I know that it just hasn’t felt right so far. I just want to get onto the ice against the Lynxes in the final game and feelgood. Like the old days. I don’t even care about how well I play or even if we win or lose, I just want to feel good on the ice.”
Tane let out a long sigh.
The cathartic effect of letting go of all his worries to Jacob was something that he hadn’t anticipated. Although it wasn’t quite like how he and Coach Mitchell used to talk, Tane felt so grateful to his love for encouraging him to let go and let his fears spill out.
