Tess is carrying three drinks, as if she expects all of us to need them immediately.
“You are early,” she says as she drops into the seats beside us.
“We wanted good seats,” Anna explains.
“These are excellent seats,” Leo adds, looking toward the ice with the calm confidence of someone who somehow always ends up exactly where he intended to be.
“You didn’t even have to say that,” Tess mutters.“You probably own half this section.”
“I do not own half this section,” Leo says mildly.
“You do.”
“Don’t stroke the man’s ego,” Gwen teases Leo, and I can’t help but laugh.
“You ready?” Leo asks me as he sits down.
“No,” I answer honestly.
“Good,” he says.“That means it matters.”
The lights dim slightly. The crowd begins to rise. Music rolls through the arena speakers like thunder moving across the ceiling. And suddenly, I can’t breathe properly anymore because this is happening. He’s actually coming back.
“They’re lining up,” Tess whispers unnecessarily.
“I know,” I whisper back.
“Relax,” Anna says beside me.
“I am relaxed.”
“You are not relaxed.”
“I am aggressively relaxed.”
“That’s not a thing,” she laughs.
Enter Sandman begins to play throughout the arena. The crowd rises to its feet. The doors open. And the Grizzlies skate out onto the ice.
Jake first.
Then Jones.
Then Zane, skating fast and confident like he always does, waves toward our section when he spots us.
Then… Blake.
The moment he appears, the crowd gets louder. Not just cheering. Roaring. Standing. Welcoming him back like they’ve been waiting for this exact second since the night he left the ice, holding his shoulder and trying not to show how much it hurt.
“Oh my god,” Anna whispers.“He’s really back.”
I don’t answer because I can’t. Because he’s smiling. Because he’s skating normally. Because he looks exactly like himself again.
He spots us almost immediately.
His eyes find mine in the crowd like they always do, like they always have, like they always will, and when he lifts his stick slightly in our direction, I forget entirely that there are thousands of people in this arena besides me.
“He waved at you,” Anna whispers.
