Page 70 of Breakaway

“Uh…no.” Laura patted her hand. “They have a penalty so it’s not icing.”

Remi frowned. Mother of pearl. She wasn’t used to feeling so stupid and uninformed. She wanted to slide under the seat. This game was more complicated than she’d realized. But then Jase swooped in and picked up the puck. The crowd screamed. Remi gripped her hands tightly together. Go, go, go, Jase! She sucked on her bottom lip as he deked around a defenseman, came to a fast stop in a shower of ice in front of another and slid around him, too, and then he was on his own, racing toward the Coyotes’ net.

“Go!” Remi screamed with the crowd, the noise in the arena so loud it hurt her ears. She surged to her feet along with everyone else. “Go, Jase! Shoot!”

He lifted his stick, took a swing and blasted the puck at the net. Remi tensed, waiting for the red light—please, please—but the goalie snagged it in his glove and fell to the ice. The whistle blew and the play halted.

“Damn!” Remi realized she was clutching Laura’s arm and hastily released it. “Sorry.” She sagged and dropped into her seat.

“That’s okay!” Laura flashed her a smile. “That was so close!”

Jase skated off the ice and another player prepared to take the face off.

Remi glanced at the clock. Only thirty-two seconds left in their power play. Only a minute and six seconds left in the game.

Do or die.

She so wanted this for Jase. She twisted her fingers together, gnawing her bottom lip again.

She looked down the ice. The goaltender was out of his net.

“He’s out,” she said to Doug and he nodded. “Why’d they dothat? Isn’t that just asking for Phoenix to score a goal on them? How can they play with no goaltender?”

Doug grinned. “They put another player on in his place. That means they have a two man advantage.”

“But an empty net!” That seemed crazy dangerous.

Her heart leaping, fingers clasped so tightly they hurt, she watched as the puck was dropped. Wolves got the puck. Lalonde circled behind the net and paused. And waited.

“What’s he waiting for?” Remi cried. She vibrated with tension.

“They’re getting set up. Look at the players on the blue line.”

Lalonde shot the puck from behind the net to one of his teammates, and the Wolves played with the puck like it was a pinball, passing it from one player to another, to another, and back again, back and forth, up and down, while the Coyotes whirled helplessly around in front of them, lunging with their sticks, trying desperately to get the puck.

“They need to shoot at the net!” Remi eyes darted back and forth to follow the puck.

“They will.” Doug patted her shoulder. “Just…wait…now!”

Finally, the opening they’d wanted and Daviduk didn’t even stop the puck, just slapped at it as it shot past him on the ice, directing it into the net.

“Yeah!”

The red light flashed, the horn blasted and the entire crowd in the Metro Center went wild. Remi pumped a fist in the air. She turned to Laura and they hugged, swaying back and forth.

Laura drew back, her smile wide and jubilant, and Remi collected herself. Dear god, she’d just hugged Jase’s mom and she didn’t even know her.

But the bubbly feeling inside her couldn’t be repressed. Amid the noise of the still-cheering crowd, Jase took the next face off and won it, and the Wolves toyed with the puck while the clock ticked down the last seconds of the game. Then the roof nearly rose off the Metro Center as the game ended—the Wolves in the playoffs.

Chapter Twelve

“The puck had fucking eyes, man!”

“No shit! With that traffic in front of the net, I couldn’t believe it went in! You had horseshoes up your ass tonight!”

Jase grinned. His only goal of the game hadn’t been pretty, but what the hell.

His brothers had greeted him as he walked into the lounge at the downtown hotel where they and his parents were staying, but although he accepted their back-slaps and congratulations, his gaze slid past them to Remi. She rose from her seat, her smile so sweet and generous, and he pushed by Matt and Logan and held out his arms.

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