Page 12 of The Recovery Coach
“I’ve met him once, and we barely talked.”
“Yeah, that checks.When Valentine is interested in someone, he gets all awkward and quiet.It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
She revisited her first interaction with Valentine in her head.How he’d silently stared at her.Was he just shy?
Daisy pulled her out of her daydream with a question before taking a swig of her beer.
“What’s that one say?”
Olivia flipped the puck over in her hand, searching for a note.Instead, she found a crudely drawn dick.She sighed and held it up for Daisy to see.
Daisy, with her beer still held against her lips, snorted.Sticky amber liquid flew from her mouth as she fought giggles.Olivia joined in, sorting through Daisy’s enormous bag in search of napkins.
Finding a pack of tissues, Olivia pulled a few free and handed them to Daisy, who wiped her hands and nose.
“I don’t know what I expected,” Daisy said.
“Why?What does yours say?”
Daisy handed her the notes and said, “Nothing special.They used to each toss me a puck before games, but our house became overrun.Connor forced Hazy and Valentine to switch to sticky notes instead.It’s way easier to store a thousand sticky notes than a thousand hockey pucks.”
Olivia glanced at the notes.One said, ‘Ice cream after?’and the other had familiar handwriting that said, ‘Bring Livy.’
“Ooo,” Olivia said.“We’re getting ice cream after this?”
Daisy nodded.“Yup.And the place has fresh waffle cones.”
Olivia wiggled in her seat, almost as excited for a warm cone as she was to watch Connor play.She watched most of his games, but TV was never the same.
The lights went out in the arena, and a storm-watch siren blared, announcing the release of the players onto the ice.
The crowd grew restless immediately upon puck-drop.Every minor infraction resulted in curses and jeers.Each penalty had the fans on the edge of their seats.Gloves fell to the ice faster than the clock ticked down.
Olivia had never been to such an intense game.The animosity between the teams was palpable.If left unsupervised, some of the men might kill each other.
Her breath caught in her throat as Connor flew across the ice on a breakaway in the second period.She sprang to her feet before he took the shot, certain it would go in.
A few seconds later she let out a different kind of scream than she’d anticipated.He had practiced how to fall safely a million times.He’d practiced safe checking for hours upon hours as a kid.She’d been there.Unfortunately, it was impossible to practice taking hits so dirty that the only possible explanation was an intent to maim.
The crowd went silent for a split second that felt a decade long.He was too still.He stayed down for too long.His helmet popped off during the second impact against the boards or ice.She breathed a sigh of relief when he rolled over.But his yell of frustration and pain when he got to all fours was discernible from a hundred feet away, through a crowd of seventeen thousand.He heaved, the contents of his stomach spilling onto the ice, and bile rose in her throat in response.
Her own scream echoed his as the crowd yelled.While Connor lay broken on the ice, Valentine laid into his attacker.A trainer rushed onto the ice while Valentine shoved the player who had injured Connor into the boards, tackling him and climbing on top to beat his face into a bloody pulp.The Bulls tried to yank Valentine away from their teammate, but Valentine held on, refusing to stop.All the players dropped gloves, everyone entering an all-out brawl.The Freeze’s goalie sacrificed the penalties he would take crossing the red line.
Olivia was both more terrified than she had ever been and beyond proud and grateful that Connor’s team wouldn’t bend over and take it when one of their own got injured.The trainer dragged the telltale white bed onto the ice between all the dueling men.Daisy grabbed Olivia’s hand, and they ran up the stairs, away from Connor.Olivia wanted to struggle—to stay and make sure he left the ice breathing—but she floated outside her body, her mind desperate to get to Connor.Daisy pushed her way through groups of gathered fans and dragged Olivia along, the only thing anchoring her to the moment.
An eternity passed as they waited in the elevator, the traitorous doors opening and closing on every floor.Olivia tapped her foot, her anxiety needing some form of outlet.They landed on their floor.Daisy reclaimed Olivia’s hand, and they broke into a jog.Daisy peeked into doorways as they passed, searching for him.
In the distance Olivia could still hear the crowd.The screaming and chanting and announcers and upbeat music.The chaos was a world away as Daisy located the room they needed to be in.She knocked on the door, and Olivia caught a glimpse of Connor.
A man waved Daisy in and stopped Olivia from following.
“Sorry,” he said.“Only authorized personnel.”
Daisy seemed torn between tearing the guy’s head off for keeping Olivia away and getting to Connor.Olivia stamped down her anger at being barred from the room, understanding the importance of maintaining the players’ privacy.
She settled an anxious smile on Daisy.“It’s fine.Make sure he’s okay.”
The door shut, cutting off her obstructed view.Muffled voices fluttered through the door, and she took solace in the fact that nobody seemed panicked.He was being well taken care of.She rested her shoulders against the wall in the hallway outside the exam room and slid to the floor.
