Page 6

Reid

“She’s gone,” Javier says.

I quit arguing with Caleb to take in the space where Tobie, the girl with the worst luck in the world, stood moments before. Her sweet and slightly floral scent clings to me. “I’m going after her.”

“Let the girl go home!” Caleb calls after me as I stalk toward the exit.

“Yes,” I call back as I grab my coat and gym bag from a bench. “Let the girl with the potential concussion find her way back home on her own. Great idea, Cap.”

“I’m coming with you.” Javier grabs his bag and follows.

The door slams shut behind us, and Javier is quiet as we head for the exit.

The big green door at the end of the hallway is slightly open.

“She was quiet,” I say. “I thought she would say something before she left.”

Javier scrubs a hand over his face. “It was my fault. Caleb was right. I don’t know what I was thinking, listing out her night of hell like that when she was already about to cry.”

“Doubt that. I’m the one with the big trap who told her about the game being on ESPN .”

“You apologized,” he says.

“And she promptly snuck out the second I was busy arguing with Caleb.”

I don’t even know why I felt the need to say it. I was pissed for her, and I needed Caleb to understand why she needed our help.

Instead, I’d wound up chasing her away.

He nudges my shoulder. “Your heart is too big.”

It’s quiet outside the Fairfax Arena. The arena is set apart from most of the academic buildings and dorms, surrounded on three sides by a parking lot that is jam-packed on game day.

I’m well aware of how lucky we are to have our own arena on campus since not all schools do.

It was one of the biggest draws to Lamont U.

During the day, contractors are in and out, busy making it pretty for the championship at the end of this semester, a game we’ve all spent years working toward.

With regionals behind us and us winning in emphatic fashion, we entered the playoffs as a dominant force with unshakeable confidence. This is finally our year.

In our freshman year, the Lamont Wolverines were thirty out of thirty-two teams. Last year, we were fourth in the league and came in third during the championships. The year before that, we were fifth.

Along the way, we’ve collected sponsorships, fans, and more self-belief that we’re a force to be reckoned with.

“You think we should pay the ex a visit?” I suggest, envisioning knocking him out.

Javier stops scanning the campus to glance at me. “Going down that path will lead to nothing but trouble. It won’t matter if the guy deserves it. Coach will come down on you hard.”

“Yeah.” I’d known it was a bad idea as soon as I suggested it, but Tobie had been hurting. I barely know the girl, yet seeing her so upset and trying not to cry had made me want to pummel the ex.

A couple of cars are parked on the far side of the parking lot, but they must belong to security, or someone might have drunk a little too much and left their car here overnight. Most students walk through campus instead of driving to the arena and fighting for a parking spot.

Tobie Myers looked young enough to be a student. I kick myself for not asking more about her when I had the chance. If I hadn’t been gunning so hard for the ex, I might have taken the time to actually use my head.

“Do you think we should check out the dorms?” I ask. “She was carrying her shoes, so she has to live on campus, right? She’d have still been out here waiting for an Uber otherwise.”

Javier scratches his stubbled jaw. “We could.”

“But?”

His forehead creases. “Maybe she just wants to crawl into bed and forget all about tonight. After the thing with Daniela, all I wanted was to go someplace quiet and lick my wounds. Tracking her down and showing up at her door might not be what she wants.”

The breakup happened soon after Javier transferred to Lamont from Harvard. He’d been a first-year pre-med student and transferred to a major in biology.

Daniela, his ex, came to visit, breaking his heart to fucking pieces when she returned her engagement ring. He’d thrown himself into hookups to get over her.

I frown. “But she’s hurting.”

“That doesn’t mean she wants to talk to us,” he says.

We study each other.

When Javier’s lip twitches, he must be remembering what happened in the hallway.

“That was some scare she gave us,” I say with a smile.

“She made you scream.”

I shake my head. “No, my friend. That was not me screaming. Had to be Caleb.”

A door slams shut behind us.

“It was not me.” Caleb has his gym bag over his shoulder as he scans the parking lot. “Any sign of her?”

“What happened to practice?” A smile pulls on the corners of Javier’s mouth.

“Just here to make sure she gets home okay. That’s all.”

I raise my eyebrow. “You feeling okay? The last time you showed any interest in a woman was when your mom offered to come down and do your laundry.”

Javier laughs, and Caleb flips me off.

“She has to be a student here,” Caleb says. “I saw her face when you said it would be all over campus. If she weren’t a student, she wouldn’t have cared.”

I wince. Me and my big-fucking-mouth.

“We think so,” Javier says, glancing at me. “Quit feeling guilty.”

There are four dorms on campus.

She can’t be in Reynolds Hall. It’s the only athlete dorm, and we’d have bumped into her at least once over the last couple of years if she lived there. Jubilee Hall, closest to the academic buildings, is home to most freshmen and international students.

“Tobie looked around the same age as us, and she’s from Nebraska, so definitely not an international student. She has to be in Fisher or Montgomery. What do you think?” I ask the others.

Both are upperclassmen dorms unless she lives off campus. Then we’re fucked.

“Sounds like a plan,” Javier agrees, and Caleb nods.

“What did Coach want to talk to you about earlier?” Caleb asks as, by silent agreement, we leave the arena behind us and head for Fisher Hall, which is the closest.

“When?” I ask when I know exactly what he means.

He gives me a probing look that I return with a lazy smile. “You’re deflecting.”

“What I’m doing is trying to find the girl with the worst luck in the world,” I say, very much deflecting.

He stops and turns to face me. “You realize you can’t save everyone, right?”

“I’m not trying to save everyone.”

Just the few people who I have the power to. My teammates I regard as family after years of playing together. A beautiful stranger doing her best to hold back her tears after having her heart broken. And my brother, who gave up his future for me.

That’s all.

“Coach will agree,” Caleb says.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie as I walk away.

Caleb grips my arm and yanks me back. He’s got his captain face on. “You want me to have a word with him?”

I lose a bit of my tension. Some things you’re scared to want in case the universe shits all over those dreams. This is one of those things.

I shake my head. “It’s not you who has to speak to him. It’s Ryder. And it isn’t just Coach who has to agree. The assistant dean has to agree as well, and Ryder doesn’t have his bachelors. That’s going to hurt him if there’s someone else who has one.”

“A degree isn’t mandatory,” Javier says. “Experience matters more. If Coach thinks he can do the job, he’ll get the assistant dean on his side. Degree or no degree.”

I’ve spent all year trying to get anyone to take a chance on my brother the way they took a chance on me.

Like most Division 1 teams, the Wolverines have the budget for two to three assistant coaches.

We have a head coach, two assistant coaches, a trainer, physio, and team doctor.

With how well we’ve been doing and all our new sponsorships, Coach told us they’re looking to take on a third assistant coach next year.

My brother would be perfect for that , I thought.

It’ll be easy, Reid , I told myself. Ryder loves hockey, and he loves to pass on his knowledge. Coach can see firsthand what Ryder’s teaching has done for me. Yet, here I am, still fighting a fight I thought I would have won months ago.

“It’ll be more likely to happen if your brother comes to speak to him himself,” Javier says.

“Which he won’t because he gave up one dream for me. He doesn’t want to believe this will happen after I’ve been trying for so long in case it doesn’t work out. I wouldn’t be the player I am without him.”

“Coach knows,” Javier says as we approach Fisher Hall. “But he needs to know your brother wants this too.”

It’s a catch-22. Trying to make my brother’s dream happen when he’s given up believing in dreams isn’t easy.

Like most dorms, during the day, there’s a visitors’ office you can buzz for someone to let you in.

All students have keycards to get in the building, so unless we bump into Tobie, or we can convince someone else who lives in the dorm to let us in, we have no way of getting inside.

And even if we got into the building, there’s like eight floors, and fuck knows how many students on each.

We need someone who knows Tobie to confirm she lives here.

A guy is heading to the building as we approach, eyes glued to his cell phone.

“Hey, man. We’re looking for a girl,” I call out.

He keeps walking. “Don’t know her.”

“I haven’t even told you her name,” I say.

“Whatever.”

Caleb grips him by the front of his shirt and lifts, sticking his nose in his face. “Her name is Tobie. Tobie Myers. She’s about five-foot-four, curvy, curly brown hair, hazel eyes, and wearing a blue dress. Probably carrying black sandals. She might have a concussion. Have. You. Seen. Her?”

The guy shakes his head, stutters out a ‘no,’ and the second Caleb releases him, he bolts to the building, fumbling with his keycard to open the door. He slams the door shut, peering through the glass as if to make sure we don’t follow.

“We hitting Montgomery now?” Caleb turns around, finds Javier and me staring at him, and stalks past us, muttering, “Stop looking at me like that. He was fobbing us off.”

“Like a hockey Terminator Jekyll and Hyde,” I whisper loudly.

“I heard that. Let’s go.” Caleb leads the way to Montgomery Hall, one of the older gray stone buildings on the edge of campus.

I grip Javier’s arm, slowing him down before he can catch up to Caleb. “I think he likes her.”

Caleb’s back stiffens slightly as he stalks ahead. “I don’t like her.”

“He did seem to be taking his sweet time with his hands in her hair,” Javier says, eyeing Caleb with interest. “I’ve seen him check for concussions, and I never saw him run his fingers through anyone’s hair like that before.”

“Because none of you guys have hair.”

The last time Caleb showed an interest in a woman was the beginning of our junior year before the weight of responsibility of team captain took over his life.

Javier will hook up with a girl to blow off steam. I occasionally do to have fun. It’s never a girl I’ve seen hanging around the arena in case she wants me more for what I am than who I am. And I always make it clear beforehand that I’m not looking for anything serious.

Caleb likes to take the weight of everything on his shoulders, because of his parents’ divorce when he was twelve.

His dad stayed in Canada, and he saw it as his responsibility to look out for his mom and little brother since he was the oldest. Because of that overdeveloped sense of responsibility, if we lose the championship, he will never let anyone convince him it wasn’t his fault.

He should be back at the arena, needing to be pried from the building by the security at midnight, who likely regard the task as an unpaid part of their job with how frequently he’s been living on the ice.

Yet here we are, at… I glance at my watch… ten fifteen, and he’s marching ahead, choking out people who get in the way of his mission.

And he has made it his mission to track down Tobie Myers.

A smile stretches across my face. “She’s pretty. It’s okay to like her, you know? Liking a girl doesn’t mean you’re betraying hockey. You know that, right?”

Caleb doesn’t respond.

We spend fifteen minutes hanging around outside Montgomery Hall, waiting for someone to enter or leave so we can ask them about Tobie. When no one does, and more lights in the building flick off as students head to bed, Javier suggests we leave it until tomorrow.

She had a shitty night, and I can’t see her wanting to stay up late.

We walk back across campus to our dorm, and before we head up to our different floors, Caleb turns to face me. “I have a meeting with Coach in the morning. You and Jay can try again in the morning. Text me.”

He takes a few steps and stops, but he doesn’t turn around. “And remind her to get her head checked out,” he says, walking away before Javier or I can respond.

“Interesting,” I mutter.

“I heard that,” he yells back.

Laughing, I slap Javier on the shoulder. “Come to my room. We have things to discuss.”