Page 11 of Offensive Edge
CHAPTER8
ROWAN
With eighty-two games in a season,it was easy for everything to blur together. It didn’t take much for the media to decide an event was news. The Ruby Reds were in town for the first and only time that year, and that meant Rowan and Felix would be on the ice against each other for the first time ever.
“How do you think it will feel to face off against Felix tonight?”
“I don’t take many face-offs, but I get what you mean. It will be weird for sure. I’ll have to remember not to pass to him.”
“In terms of centermen, Felix and Theo are quite different. Whose style do you prefer playing with?”
“I don’t have a preference. Both are a privilege to play with. Guys at that level—you feel how good they are no matter how they play the game. It reverberates through the ice.”
“Have you been able to connect with Felix since he’s been in town?”
“We got lunch today. We’ll have dinner after,” Rowan said, leaving out the fact that Felix was going to be staying with him tonight. No one else needed to know that.
“Good luck tonight, Rowan. Have fun.”
* * *
Seeing Felix in an away Ruby Reds jersey was still jarring. He was sure Felix felt the same way about his green Serpents jersey. He’d played against plenty of former teammates before, but it never felt like this. So off.
And though he would never admit it to the media, playing with Felix had never felt as good as playing with Theo did. Off the ice, Theo mostly ignored him now. Someone had convinced him to back off his hostility. On the ice, Theo put hockey above everything else, and talked to Rowan the same way he would talk to any other teammate. He was communicative, encouraging, celebratory, sometimes critical when Rowan deserved it.
They didn’t have to talk about how to solve problems together on the ice, they could just find each other. Theo backed him up when he needed a second presence, and gave him space when he could tell Rowan had things under control. Theo dished him drop passes and cleaned up his rebounds, and when he watched tape of them playing together, they made it look so easy. He and Felix had been good together on the ice, but they had never reached this level of playing together absolutely effortlessly. Maybe it was because he and Theo learned how to play together. Maybe it was something else. Something deeper.
Rowan woke up grateful every day that his dad had talked him out of playing goalie when he was a mite. His team needed one, and it looked fun enough to his little six-year-old self. But watching how defeated Blake Brennan looked as they continued to score on him was a little heartbreaking. This was the NHL. When it came to scoring, Rowan would never hold back. It was his job to score as many goals as possible, and he took that job seriously.
Still, he didn’t delight in knowing it was his fault a goalie got pulled.
Their game was full of energy and momentum, and the ice felt wide open. They had to fight to make sure Sammy got a shutout, but the scoreboard said 6–0 when they all got off the ice.
The boys were filling the room with happy sounds and EDM, and it had been a while since this feeling had entered a locker room he was in and stayed. They were on a five-game streak, and of course they were working hard, but something was also working for them. Hockey magic.
He was in the shower when he remembered Felix would probably be grumpy. He hated losing as much as Rowan did, which was a big reason they signed with new teams to begin with. Being on the ice with him during the game hadn’t been too hard, even if it was a little weird. Being off the ice with him had the potential to suck.
Rowan kept to himself as he waited by the visitor’s locker room, and Felix was predictably grumpy looking when he emerged. He followed Rowan to player parking, and was quiet on the drive to get dinner. Rowan drove himself to the game that day, so he didn’t have to make Felix carpool with Theo and Vic.
They grabbed takeout from a steak place Rowan liked, and when they started getting close to Vic’s house, Rowan told him not to expect hospitality from Theo.
“Vic is cool, but Theo still hates me.”
“I’m sure he’ll love me,” Felix said, with a little raised eyebrow.
“We’ll just avoid him,” Rowan said, already putting his guard up for how Theo would react.
They didn’t get the opportunity to see. Theo had gone out with a handful of the younger guys to celebrate the win. Vic was going on the fourth or fifth date with the same girl, and texted to let Rowan know not to expect him back that night. They had the place to themselves.
“Nice house,” Felix said.
“I like it. Can’t decide whether to try to find a place of my own or stay for the rest of the season.”
“Every day you find a reason to complain about Theo.”
“Housing market out here is brutal. And I’d have to see Theo basically every day, anyway.”
“But not in your kitchen.”
