Page 122 of Oh, Puck!
"Alright, Coach. I got this."
He slams me on the helmet, and the second we take the ice, third period belongs to me.
I win the opening face-off clean and I don't stop. I'm everywhere, killing plays before Portland finishes thinking them, breaking up a two-on-one because I knew the pass was coming, feeding Finn back-door for a goal that brings the building screaming back to life.
We make it two-one. When I skate back after celebrating, the VIP box is still empty.
Josie…
Four minutes later I strip their defenseman at the blue line and find Mason pinching down from the point. Mason shoots and buries it top shelf, then looks at me with a truce in his eyes. Two-two.
The Bear Cave is wild.
Ninety seconds left. Tie game.
We line up for a face-off in their zone, and I look at Beck across the circle. Somehow, he looks back. Whatever's broken between us is still broken… but he taps his stick on the ice with the old signal we came up with in our own backyard as kids.
I'm here.
The puck drops, and I win it back to Beck, Beck walks the wall, and I read the players movements splitting around me. I move quickly, and I'm already there when Beck's pass arrives.
The net opens up in front of me like a door, and… I bury it.
Three-two.
The Bear Cave detonates, ten thousand people becoming one animal. My teammates crash into me, the goal horn shaking the rafters, and the clock runs out.
We've won, we'vewon, the franchise is breathing again. Our season is still alive…
And I don't care.
I peel out of the pile and from the edge of the boards, Coach is staring at me. I point at the empty VIP box, and Coach, God bless that man, just nods and steps aside.
With my heart in my throat, I skate off the ice, run through the tunnel and down the corridor in full gear. My skates hit the concrete as I blow past a security guard and hit the emergency exit door with both hands.
I burst out into the night air of the parking lot.
And there they are.
Under a light between a rental sedan. Josie's crying, mascara streaked, still fighting. Her mother's voice carries across the asphalt, crisp as a slap.
"—and now I understandeverything. The secrecy, the lies. Because you knew, Josephine. You knew exactly what you were doing and you were ashamed—"
"That's not—Mom, please, you are not listening to me. I didn'tsleepmy way into this job."
"I saw what that screen said, in front of all those people. You created ascandal! And you know what breaks my heart? Your father."
I can't move across the parking lot fast enough, watching as Josie physically flinches at her mother's words.
"He filled your head with all of it. Thisfantasythat you belonged in a man's world. And look where his nonsense got you. Thank God he's not alive to see what it made of you. He'd be ashamed that his littleslutof a daughter—"
"That'senough!"
Both women turn at exactly the same time. And yeah, I'm aware of what I look like right now. Six-four, full pads, skates on fucking asphalt while still dripping sweat under a parking lot light.
I don't care.
No one speaks to my girl like that.
