Page 169 of Secrets on Ice

And slides.

And it goes in.

The buzzer.

The red light.

And the noise that comes down out of that building is like nothing I have ever heard in my life.

We won.

We won the Cup.

I don't remember dropping my gloves or my stick, and then I'm at the bottom of a pile of twenty grown men. Someone's elbow is in my throat, someone's screaming in my ear, and somebody's definitely crying, and it might be me.

We untangle, and Emmett's got his helmet off, hair plastered to his head, grinning so hard it looks painful. He turns and finds Jo in the family section and points right at her and mouths I love you, and she mouths it straight back with tears streaming down her face.

And that's when I look up too. She's there, hands pressed over her mouth, absolutely sobbing, with Cassidy screaming beside her.

She's looking straight at me.

Not at the ice, not at Emmett, not at the chaos.

At me.

And I stand there in the middle of the best moment of my professional life with my heart going like a hammer, and I smile at her.

And she smiles back.

They bring the Cup out, and we go crazy. There's the commissioner's speech that none of us hear a word of. Then they call Emmett's name.

The roar that goes up shakes my ribs. Emmett lifts it over his head and skates it around, showing every section of the building, and then he stops in front of the family section and lifts it higher. I have known that man since we were kids in Wisconsin, and I have never seen his face do that before.

He passes it to Pierre. Pierre takes it and just stands there for a second, and you can see it land on him, all of it, everything he's given up and everything last year cost him. His wife had their baby, and he played this whole final on no sleep at all. He lifts it over his head with tears absolutely pouring down his face.

Then Felix, and the two of them end up wrapped around each other off to the side, both shaking, two brothers who came here together and did the thing they came to do.

Then it goes around, man by man, each of us getting our moment.

Fish gets his and does the dance.

And then it's mine.

They hand me the Cup. It's heavier than you think and lighter than it should be, and it's warm from everyone else's hands.

And before I lift it, I kiss it.

I don't plan it, it just happens, my mouth against cold silver, and then I put it over my head, and the sound comes down, and for about four seconds I am completely and totally empty of everything except this.

Nine years old, a garage door in Wisconsin with a milk crate full of pucks and a stick two sizes too big, and my dad yelling at me to come in for dinner while I told him one more, one more, one more.

I did it.

I pass it on.

Then security starts bringing the families out onto the ice. Rubber mats appear, and cameras, and champagne from absolutely nowhere. Suddenly, the ice is full of wives and kids and parents, all of them crying, and Bouch has already got the Cup back and is drinking out of it, which he will do again later, twice, on camera. Collette gets to Fish, and he lifts her clean off her feet and spins her. Jo is wrapped around Emmett like she's never letting go. Pierre's got his phone up, FaceTiming Issy in her hospital bed with Alby, holding the screen out so she can see the ice. He's crying, and she's crying, and half the team keeps leaning into the shot to yell at her.

And I'm standing there in the middle of it all, soaked in champagne, with my heart going, looking for one person.