Page 90 of Like A Daydream
Andrew nods. “It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I know it’s the right one. Win or lose, I’m done after this game.”
“Do you mind telling mewhy?” Landry asks. “When I sent you off to go soul-searching in the offseason last year I knew it would change your life but not make you decide this.”
“Different priorities,” Andrew says. “Coach, I’ve been playing hockey, professionally, since I was nineteen. It’s time.”
“You could have another three years, at least.”
“I know,” Andrew replies, nodding. “I’ve thought about this every day for the entire season. This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but it’s the right one for me. I wanted to let you know first.”
“Who else knows?”
“Only JT, and my girlfriend, obviously,” Andrew answers. He still loves the way ‘girlfriend’ feels as it rolls off his tongue. He’s also been practicing “fiancée” in secret, and he likes the sound of that even better.
Almost as much as ‘wife’, but he can’t get too far ahead of himself.
“I’ve been talking to JT about it a lot over the last year,” he says, “just to make sure I was really making the right choice.”
“You’re going to have to tell the team,” Coach says, “Before you go on the ice. They deserve to know.”
“I was planning on it,” Andrew says, standing. “I also know that I don’t get a say, but I think you should make Petrov captain next season.”
“I’ll take it into consideration,” Coach says. “You’resurethis is what you want?”
“I haven’t been sure of a lot of things in the last year,” Andrew replies as Coach stands, “except for this. This is the right call for me, coach. I promise.”
Coach steps around his desk and claps him on the shoulder. “Let’s go tell the boys.”
The reaction when he delivers the news is what he expects. Stunned silence at first, then the locker room erupting into protests and questions.
They’re all frustrated that he waited until the literal Stanley Cup Finals to clue them in, but they all are also feeling extra weight of winning on their shoulders. The same weight he feels, only he feels it tenfold. This is his last shot. For all of it.
He has the best team in the world, and he knows that they can win the Cup. Just like he had known it the year before.
Danielle, Harper, Jamie, and Ainsley are all in one of the suites on the second level, and it doesn’t take long for Andrew to spot them. They throw Jamie on the jumbotron and the fans cheer loud enough to blow the roof off the place.
JT hadn’t played in Raleigh for long, but he’d left a legacy no one can really forget during those two years he’d been on the team.
He spots Danielle from his spot on the ice quickly, thanks to that, and he points up to her. She has Harper on her hip and they both wave down at him.
All four of them are dressed in red and black, and he can see the blazing red ‘34’s on Danielle and Harper, and the ‘23’s on JT and Ainsley.
“That your girl?” Petrov asks, skating up next to him. “You’ve been keeping her a secret for the entire season, always rushing her out before anyone can even get a look.”
“That’s her,” Andrew confirms with a grin. “I had to do some pretty heavy convincing to get her here.”
“What’s with the kid?” Oher asks, using his stick to reach for a puck on Andrew’s other side.
“Her daughter,” Andrew says, “Ourdaughter, if she’ll marry me.”
“You weren’t evendatingsomeone last year and now you’re talking marriage and dad life?” Petrov asks with a laugh. “I guess a lot can change in a year.”
“Yeah, it can.”
He’s been here before.
Forty seconds left on the clock, jumping the boards but this time the game is tied and they need a goal to win. Florida is changing lines, and he hits the ice a split-second faster than their new players do.
In hockey, a game that moves so fast you can barely keep up, every second counts.
