Page 28 of Love Me Boldly

She was a nut. An absolute nut.

The third period started with Graham once again at the center. He got the puck and passed it to another player. The game flew by, neither team scoring, but it didn’t matter. Halfway through the period, I was sitting on the front edge of the bleacher, my hands fisted and pulled tight to my chest. The other team hadn’t scored, and our team hadn’t scored another.

They were fighting for the puck behind the net with our goalie in it, four players slamming each other into boards and kicking at the puck with their skates. Somehow, it got kicked or smacked to the side, and there was Graham, flying out of the tangle at the boards and racing down to get the puck.

“Oh my gosh!” Tracey’s hand landed on my thigh and squeezed.

He was skating, moving the puck back and forth with his stick.

Their announcer called out, “Marchese with a breakaway! He shoots…he….”

The horn blared, and the lights went out. “SCORES!”

Every single person on this side of the arena jumped to their feet and started screaming.

Tracey and I followed, slower. I glanced at her, and she shrugged. The claps in the building were louder than normal, and every student was jumping up and down on their feet.

“Hat trick! Marchese with the hat trick!”

A few seconds later, Tracey had her phone in her hand. “A hat trick is when a player scores three goals in a game. It’s a huge thing. In pro sports, people actually toss hats onto the ice.”

As she said it, two hats from the student section landed on the ice where Graham was getting bear-hugged by his teammates on the ice.

Whistles were being blown by the refs, but the chaos was too loud to get control. He skated over to his team, high-fived them all while they slammed their sticks against the boards and screamed and cheered along with everyone else.

“It’s a really hard thing to get,” Tracey continued.

I’d already figured that out.

“And rare.”

I covered her phone’s screen with my gloved hand and smiled at my friend. “I think I get it.”

* * *

My heart was racing.The game was over. We won five to nothing, but after the excitement of Graham’s last goal, I couldn’t calm down. Even as the final seconds ticked down, and it was obvious we would win, I was still leaning forward, moving left and right in the direction of the playing happening in front of me.

Even now, as the players had shaken hands and were starting to skate off the ice and disappear under a walkway I assumed led to the locker rooms, I couldn’t pull my focus off Graham. He skated like he was floating, and despite his size, he was graceful. Fast. So fast. He slapped the goalie’s helmet as the guy stepped off the ice and disappeared.

I expected Graham to follow him, but he stopped at an area that didn’t have glass and tugged off his helmet.

Immediately, his eyes met mine. “Get down here!”

“Go on,” Tracey said, shoving my back. “Go see your man.”

“Please.” I huffed and felt the force of a thousand glares on me as the girls heading in the same direction where he was standing shouted his name.

“Good game,” I told Graham, grinning down at him when I reached him.

“It was good. One of my best ever.” He was smiling wide, sweating even though the weather was freezing.

“Really?”

“I haven’t had a hat trick in two years. You must be my lucky charm.”

My chest swelled, and my smile brightened. What a nice thought for someone to have of me.

“You have plans later?” he asked.

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