Page 123 of The Grumpy Defenseman
“You called ahead,” she said.
“I asked for quiet.”
“That is very romantic in your language.”
“It was either that or show up and hope the universe had good spacing.”
“Never trust the universe with spacing.”
A smile threatened.
The server brought water. Sam ordered first, confident and fast, like a woman who knew what she wanted and did not require a committee. I ordered what she recommended because she had opinionsabout food and I had learned to respect most of them.
Most.
“You looked good today,” she said after the server left.
I looked at her.
“At practice,” she added.
“That’s what you meant?”
Her mouth curved. “Mostly.”
That went straight through me.
She knew it, too. I could tell from the way she looked down at her glass like innocence was still an available defense.
It was not.
“You looked good in the hallway,” I said.
Her eyes lifted.
“When Cross asked. You didn’t hide.”
The humor left her face, not completely, but enough for the truth to come through.
“I didn’t want to.”
“I know.”
“That was new.”
“Iknow that too.”
She reached for her water. Her fingers were steady. Her voice, when she spoke, was quieter.
“Part of me kept waiting for it to feel like exposure. Like I had handed the room something it could use against me.”
I listened.
“But it didn’t feel like that,” she said. “It felt like saying my own name and having it belong to me.”
Something in my chest went still.
I thought of a hallway full of players. Sam’s clear voice. Me and McKinney.
