Page 37 of Breaking the Ice

“I can only imagine the circles you ran around those guys in the beer league,” Gavin said after he’d shot his first batch of pucks.

“Sort of,” Zach said.

“Come on,” Gavin scoffed. “You look great out here. Like you never left.”

Zach felt himself flush. “Well, it’s one thing to shoot a puck into a net when there’s no defense and no goalie.”

“Can’t do much about the goalie,” Gavin said, reaching behind the boards and grabbing the second stick Zach had stashed there, “but I might be able to do something about the rest.”

Zach told himself not to look—or sound—shocked. “You wanna go?”

Gavin’s shrug was self-deprecating but his eyes were gleaming bold silver under the fluorescent lights. “Why not?”

“Why not?” Zach muttered under his breath and took off, not as fast as he possibly could, but fast enough. He half-expected to lose Gavin after the first dozen or so feet, but to his surprise, there he was, right with him, after he caught up. Zach pushed harder, breath coming out in short pants as they whipped around the net. Gavin shoved his stick in, attempting to steal his puck.

Zach muttered a quietfuckunder his breath and pushed him away with an elbow. But Gavin kept coming, right until Zach finally pushed the puck into the net.

“Shit,” Gavin exhaled sharply, but his smile was even wider now. “Forgot how good you are.” He paused and slid a knowing look towards Zach. “Guess you forgot how goodIwas, too.”

It wasn’t hot. It shouldn’t be hot. But Gavin still being good at hockey after all this time still lit him up inside.

“Guess I did,” Zach admitted. “Again?”

Gavin smirking at him shouldn’t have been hot either, but it was. “Sure.”

Twenty minutes later, they were both sweating. Zach had discarded his sweatshirt, wiping his face with it, and yeah, they were both a little rusty, maybe, but the skill was there—and the love.

“I missed this,” Gavin admitted, as he leaned against the boards, trying to catch his breath. “Didn’t know I did—no, that’s not true, either. Ididknow, but I thought . . .I thought I couldn’t have it. Not again.”

Zach wasn’t going to ask why he’d believed that. Obviously it had something to do with his wife’s death, and with Gavin smiling like that, he wasn’t stupid enough to bring it up.

“Well, I’m glad you could find it again,” Zach said.

“You wanna go over some plays I’ve been drawing out?” Gavin asked.

“Sure,” Zach said.

It wasn’t easy with only two of them, but it was enough to get a good idea of the offense they could implement with their new top line.

“I’m meeting with McCoy next week,” Gavin said, when they were heading into the locker room to shower and change.

“You gonna tell him then?”

Gavin shrugged. “I don’t think I’m gonna need to, necessarily. He knows, hehasto know, he’s better and the team’s better with Jones on his line. I’ve seen his grades. Watched his tape. He’s smartandhe’s got a great hockey IQ. I don’t think he’ll do either of us the disservice of pretending he doesn’t know it’s coming. There’s a reason that was the first thing out of his mouth when you met with him.”

“Fair,” Zach said. He could see it. Mal was tough and set in his ways and he didn’t like Elliott, but hedidput the team first, always.

“He’s going to bitch about it, though.”

Zach laughed. “No question about that.”

“He can bitch all he wants to. He’s still gonna do it.” Gavin sounded very sure about this, and Zach was reminded of the two years Gavin had coached him.

Gavin had always been a tough coach. He’d had a reputation for being hard but fair. But,always, despite that steel backbone, he’d put his players first. Team was the most important thing, and he’d always, no question at the back of anyone’s mind, been able to get the locker room to buy in to what he was selling.

That was why Zach believed Gavin would be the best possible coach for this team.

This year the Evergreens had a lot of disparate, difficult pieces. Not just Elliott and Jones, but besides Ramsey and Brady, a fairly young defensive group, and a goalie who felt like he was only a few bad games away from quitting entirely.