"Phew!" Harper says as she pulls the back of her hand dramatically across her forehead.
"No shit." Jo says as she slumps a little in her seat. "I'm so invested in this."
"Me too." Harper says as she bounces excitedly next to me at the little counter stools looking out at the ice.
I catch Duncan looking up at the jumbotron. I wonder what he was thinking when my photo popped up.
Suddenly nerves wash over me. What is he going to say when he sees me? What is he going to think? What is he going to do?
I lean over to Harper. "What if this is a terrible idea?"
"It isn't."
"But what if it is?" I ask.
She turns towards me and sips her margarita through the tiny cocktail straw.
"It isn't because you love each other. There's no right or wrong, only love. I ran when I thought things were going south. And, after I ran, I hid. I wish more than anything I had been braver and faced Aiden sooner. We spent two miserable weeks apart." She looks down at the ice where Aiden is standing in goal. "You're here, you know how you feel, now you're going to talk about it."
"Is it that simple?"
"Yep." She pops the P before slurping the last of her drink.
The game ends and the girls encourage me to wait a bit, let the stadium clear out, let the boys get some treatment and showers.
Each minute feels like an eternity as I sit in the box. The ice gets cleaned, staff comes around to clean up the seats.
And still we wait.
Harper's phone dings with a text. She reads it, looks up at me. "It is time."
Chapter fifty-one
Duncan
Now what?
Awinontheroad should be sweet, but this one is bitter in every way.
He didn't come.
The laugh that tickles the inside of my mouth only breaks my heart more.
I was the first guy off the ice, racing down the tunnel, praying he would be there waiting for me.
Nothing.
Hope still danced in my chest. At my locker, I checked my phone.
Nothing.
I toss my phone into my small duffle and go through my post game routine. Shower, a quick massage from our physical therapist, and a snack pack from our staff.
The team bus takes two trips to the airport. A first run for the guys who move quickly and a second for everyone else. Normally, I’m one of the guys on that first wave. And the boys on the top line are with me, having our post-game routine down to a science after all these years, and getting preferential treatment for being the starters.
But today, they're all lingering near the door of the locker room.
Aiden is checking his phone. A lot.
