Page 58 of Hitting the Goal Line
Tonight is no different. So, since my family is here, Liam wants all eyes on her, just in case anything happens. And from the text message I just got from my brother, something is happening.
“Oh, shit,” I say out loud, grabbing Christian’s attention.
“What?”
I look over at my teammate and decide to tell him. There’s no way in hell that I’d be able to go a whole game holding this news in.
“I told my brother to tell me when Chloe made it up to the suite,” I start to explain.
“Okay, and?”
“And according to him, she’s there but that her mom wants her to go to the hospital because apparently she’s having contractions.”
The way Christian’s face transforms is insane. By looking at the guy, you would think that he doesn’t give two shits about anyone, but then you tell him news like this and he comes out to be a total fucking teddy bear.
“Oh, shit,” he says, repeating my words from a minute ago.
“Do we tell Liam?” I start to panic. I should be getting in the damn zone to play in one of the most important games of my life, but instead, I’m over here freaking out if I should tell my team captain that his baby might come tonight or not.
Who the hell put me in charge of this? Why couldn’t Christian take care of this? His family is here, they could be sitting up in the suite, informing him about all of this. Why did this have to fall on my hands?
“Dude, why are you freaking out?” Christian asks, taking a step back as if I’m about to explode.
“Because I don’t know what to do here.”
“We’re not going to do anything. If we tell Crawford what your brother told you, not only will he freak out, he will either leave to be with Chloe or play the game and be distracted the whole time. We’re screwed with either of those choice.”
“So, you want to lie to the guy?” At least it’s Christian coming up with this plan and not me.
“Do you want to win tonight?” he asks, raising one his eyebrows at me.
“Yeah.”
“Then we withhold information from the guy. We don’t tell him unless it’s absolutely necessary. Now get your head on right. We have a game to win,” Christian states, clapping me on the shoulder before walking away.
Ninety percent of the time I wouldn’t listen to a single thing that Christian says, but tonight I’m following his word. Both with what I tell Liam and with getting my head on right. It may be wrong in a few areas, but I’m following it.
After Christian leaves do go do God knows what, I turn my phone off and try to get myself back in the zone. That is after I check in with Liam and tell him that Chloe made it up to the suite we designated for our families.
He seemed to relax a little bit when I told him, which made the decision to not tell him the other little bit of news a lot easier.
As we get closer to the game, the more my head becomes clearer. I try to block all outside noise and everything that comes with a game of this magnitude. This game can go one or two ways.
We lose and people forget that we even played in a game this big, or we win and our names will be engraved into history. Literally.
I try not to think about that, though, as I slide my jersey on and get one step closer to hitting the ice for three solid periods. I try to think of why I decided to play hockey and why I love it so much. I try to think of my support system and how without them, I wouldn’t have even been here. If it wasn’t for my mom, Isaac and even Sophia, I wouldn’t be in this locker room right now, about to play in the most important game of my life.
I would be nowhere without my mom and everything she did to make sure I continued to play the sport that I loved. I would be nowhere without Coach Martinez, who taught me everything that I know and has treated me more like a son than my own father did.
A father that I know for a fact is in the stands tonight, a father that has been in the stands for every game that the Knights have played this playoff season. As much as I want to tell myself that he’s here to support me, I know it would be a lie. He’s here to show his buddies and colleagues that he has a pro athlete for a son, one that he is supposedly proud of, just like he did when Hunter played in the Super Bowl. Roy Jacobi only cares about image, and money. Nothing else.
He doesn’t deserve to be in my thoughts tonight, so push everything that has to do with my father to the side and think of what is important.
The second that my skates hit the ice, everything becomes clear.
Why I chose this over anything else.
Why I love it so much.
