Page 74 of Holiday Interference

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I feel like I’ve still got a shot.

We win 5-2 against Denver, and I’m named player of the game.

When I step off the ice, I’m still burning.

Not just from the skate.

Fromher.

My lungs drag in cold air as I look up into the stands, heart hammering behind my ribs like it’s got something to prove.

A few fans wave. A kid slaps the glass. My name gets shouted over the chaos, but not by her.

She’s not there anymore.

Not near the tunnel. Not by the glass. Not anywhere I can find her face.

Gone.

Like she was never real in the first place.

My gear weighs twice as much as it should as I move through the tunnel, past the noise, the lights, the congratulations.

Every time someone claps my back or bumps my glove, it feels like I’m being yanked out of that moment where she smiled at me like I was worth something.

Like shesawme.

And I let her walk away.

Again.

Finn’s voice cuts through the blur as I hit the locker room.

“Look who finally remembered how to handle his stick.”

I don’t even look at him. “Didn’t forget. Just needed someone to remind me why it matters.”

“Damn,” Riley crows from the other side. “For a guy who got a hat trick, he sure ismoodytoday.”

My towel whips through the air and smacks the bench between us. “Y’all wish you skated half as clean.”

“Someone’s feeling himself,” Beau chuckles, pulling off his chest protector. “Hell of a game, Reid. Fast, focused, pissed off… whatever it was, it worked.”

I nod, jaw tight. “Thanks.”

But it doesn’t stick.

Because they didn’t see the reason behind the fire.

She did.

I don’t even know if she clapped. I was too busy chasing the high of making her proud. Too busy pretending I didn’t care that I still didn’t know how to reach her.

I sit, shoulders hunched, dragging my gloves off slowly while the chatter around me starts to fade into white noise.

The sharp scent of sweat and rubber lingers, mixing with the faint bleach of the floor. My base layer clings to my skin—soaked, cold, second skin now. My quads twitch from overdrive.

I still feel her eyes on me like heat through glass.

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