Page 127 of Breaking the Ice

But you did this, you have to see it through.

Ramsey skated his direction, as Zach argued with Elliott and Conrad.

“What do you think, Coach?” he asked, picking up his water bottle.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “You can see it as well as I can. It’s a clusterfuck.”

Ramsey just shrugged though, like hehadn’tnoticed it. That was ridiculous because Ramsey noticed everything.

“Giving Mal a job to do with them was a good idea. But the problem is that none of those kids have Ell’s backbone, so instead of rising to the occasion, they’re just folding.”

Gavin pursed his lips.

“And,” Ramsey continued, “Elliott’s not a bad leader, but it doesn’t come naturally to him. Not yet, anyway. So instead of figuring out how to make Conrad listen to him, he’s pushing him too hard.”

“I saw,” Gavin admitted.

“Not too late to fix this,” Ramsey said casually.

“We’ve spent two days trying this out,” Gavin said. “It’s worth running for one game. Maybe it’ll go better than we think.”

Ramsey raised an eyebrow and shot him a dubious look before skating over to rejoin the group.

They ran the play again, and this time it did go better, Elliott skating circles around one of their younger, more inexperienced defenseman, threading the puck between skates, and once he was deep in the zone, passing it to Ivan, who passed it reflexively right back to Elliott and he shot it, top shelf, just clearing the other goalie, Nick’s, glove.

Elliott cheered and even went out of his way to celebrate with Conrad but Gavin wasn’t stupid. Conrad had been there, by the net, as a precautionary measure in case they needed the rebound, but he hadn’t really been involved in the play. That had been all Elliott, because he was so goddamn good.

“Well, that was better,” Zach said, skating back over to where Gavin was leaning against the wall.

“You don’t need to placate me,” Gavin ground out.

“I’m not,” Zach insisted. “Itwasbetter.”

“Only because that was classic Elliott-Ivan,” Gavin grumbled.

“Hey, Conrad did what he was supposed to do, and that’s all that matters. He could’ve gotten in the lane, drifted right where Ell was gonna shoot it, and then what would we have done?”

Gavin shrugged, because there was no good answer to that. And also because Conradhadended up in Elliott’s shooting lane at least twice—and that was just during today’s practice.

“You’re grumpy,” Zach pointed out, sounded half-amused and half-concerned.

“I’m just worried,” Gavin said. “You’re right—this might not fix anything.”

“And maybe it’s just the shakeup they all needed to re-focus and figure out how to bring their A game,” Zach said.

“You don’t really believe that,” Gavin retorted.

“Actually . . .I’m not sure anymore. They’re all working harder. Maybe you were right, they got a little complacent because everything was going so well and we were so good.”

“Weareso good,” Gavin reminded Zach—andhimself.

But as practice drew to a close, Gavin was still thinking about it. How good this team was, and how it had the potential to be extraordinary.

How he never wanted to be the reason that they never reached their real potential.

After Zach came off the ice, he nudged him and said, “I’m gonna go to the gym. See you later?”

Zach nodded. “I’ve got a study session but I’ll head over after?”