Sebastian grunted but said nothing. She had a point.
“Try it with one stick, use it at one practice. If you really don’t like it, switch back to the old curve using one of your other sticks.”
“I’ll try it.”
“Thank you. I’ll be watching to see how you do with it.”
Sebastian liked that thought a lot. He went and got out the blowtorch with a grin. Hey, he was a guy, and guys liked playing with fire. All different kinds of fire.
Once he got the stick like Sarah wanted, he went out on the ice with all the other guys who were taking shots on Jordan, the backup goaltender. As soon as he stepped onto the ice, Sarah leaned forward. Sebastian liked that she’d come to him to test this out. Obviously, there were other players she could’ve asked. Maybe it meant she trusted him more.
After spending a couple of minutes getting used to the new curvature, he lined up a puck and stepped into the shot. Jordan’s arm shot backward, but Sebastian didn’t see the puck in the net. He winced along with Jordan as the puck dropped out of the guy’s glove.
The goaltender took the glove off to shake his hand out. “Geez, Seb, give a guy a warning. That freaking hurt.”
“Sorry about that.” Sebastian skated over and tapped his stick on Jordan’s pads then headed toward Sarah. “Uh, I’d say that’s a success, at least so far. I’ll keep using it to make sure it doesn’t interfere with my puck handling, but that was pretty cool. I had no idea a thing like that could make my shot so much harder.”
His skates kicking up snow, Jon pulled up next to him. “What’s up?”
Someone shot a puck that glanced off the crossbar and the telltale ping caused them to flinch.
Jordan mocked the man who’d taken the shot. “Hey Rick, that the best you got?” Another puck sailed in but missed the net by a foot and careened into the glass. Jordan laughed and Sebastian pivoted away, smiling.
“I asked Sebastian to make a change to his stick to see if he could get more power behind his slap shot,” Sarah explained.
Sebastian showed Jon the new stick and Jon nodded. “Do some work with the cones before you change any others.” He sent a look to Sarah that Sebastian couldn’t miss. It was a mixture of “ask me first before you ask them to change their equipment” and “good job.” “Interesting.”
That one word spoke volumes, and Sebastian was excited for Sarah. Maybe this would work out for her after all. He hoped so. He wasn’t nearly ready to say goodbye to her yet, even if, according to her, they couldn’t date.
A few days later while the All-Star goalie Brendan Barsanti was in net during practice, Sarah stood, staring at the guy through a protractor. Sebastian, who’d been watching Sarah covertly whenever he had a minute, raised an eyebrow and casually skated closer.
“What on earth are you doing?” Doug asked her.
“I think Brendan’s weight’s not centered.”
“And a protractor is going to help you see that?”
She took her eyes off the ice for a minute to address Doug. “A protractor measures angles, so yeah, it will.” With that pronouncement, she returned her attention to the practice and Doug shrugged.
A few moments later she grabbed a T-square and held that up.
Now what the hell is she doing? Even through Brendan’s goalie mask, Sebastian could see the same question in his expression, but Brendan didn’t ask questions and quickly returned to his task.
Sarah let the T-square dangle. Then her gaze shot between the tool and Brendan.
An unhappy-looking Jon skated over, and Sebastian braced himself to watch Sarah get yelled at. “Can you either put that stuff down or tell me what you’re doing? You’re distracting the players.”
“Oh. Sure. Well, I’ve been watching Brendan and he’s not square.” Sarah didn’t appear fazed, or if she was, she hid it well, and Sebastian was proud of her for standing her ground. Many would’ve retreated when faced with Jon’s wrath.
“Square to the shooter? Of course he is. Brendan has excellent technique.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
Based on the way he was repeatedly tapping his stick on the boards, Jon was losing patience.
“Do these guys see chiropractors?” Sarah asked.
Several of the players in the area had stopped what they were doing to listen to the exchange and Sebastian felt a little better about eavesdropping.
Jon’s eyebrows drew down, seemingly confused. “Yeahhhh, if they need to.”
“I know this sounds crazy, but could you send him and ask that the chiro check out his hips and shoulders?”
“Sure.” Jon smirked. “Since he’s not square, you said?”
Sebastian tamped his annoyance. Sarah needed to keep her cool, even if she was being made fun of, or she’d never get taken seriously, but it wasn’t cool for Jon to treat her like that.
“If he’s leaning one way, even unconsciously, it’s affecting his ability to make saves, to handle the puck—”
Jon held up a gloved hand. “Fine. But you can be the bearer of good news that the kid’s crooked.” He skated away and Sarah now focused on Doug, who shrugged.
“With any luck you’re right about Brendan like you were about Sebastian,” Doug said, “and then maybe they’ll see there’s something to all this math stuff after all.”
And if she’s not right, she’ll look like an idiot…but if she says Brendan’s “crooked,” he probably is. Sebastian trusted her judgment. His slap shot was noticeably more accurate with the change she’d made to his stick.
“I believe in this stuff, even if he doesn’t.” She glanced up and Sebastian caught her eye, giving her a reassuring smile. Her face relaxed and she smiled back.
It was the best thing that had happened to him all day.
The next morning before the team took the ice, Jon came into the video room. “You were right. Brendan’s hips weren’t square.”
Sebastian watched Sarah’s face and saw the play of emotions across it—she was pleased, surely, but also a little surprised. Probably since Jon had admitted publicly she’d been right. Sebastian couldn’t recall any other time the coach had done so since Sarah had been there.
“The doc did an adjustment. I have no idea if it’ll make a difference one way or the other, and I’d prefer it if you didn’t start getting out all sorts of complicated tools during practice, but good job anyway.”
Sebastian, for one, was eager to get to practice to see how Brendan did. Some of the other players were intrigued too, which was a good thing. This could be the start of the other guys developing faith in Sarah’s ideas.
It was difficult to discern a difference, but after practice ended Brendan lumbered over to Sarah. Sebastian not-so-subtly eavesdropped on the conversation. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think that adjustment yesterday worked. I couldn’t tell you for the life of me why, but I hadn’t been entirely comfortable in the net. I felt much better today.”
Jon joined them. “How’d it go?”
“Great. I was just telling Sarah there was something just a little bit wrong before. I’d chalked it up to my rustiness, but it’s gone now, so maybe she was right.”
Jon’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously? Just like that?”
“Well, we’ll see if it continues tomorrow, but yeah. Today was good.” Brendan went to the locker room and Jon faced Sarah.
“I still don’t like you fiddling with stuff on the bench and distracting the guys, but if this adjustment really did make Brendan more comfortable, maybe you’re onto something.”
Sebastian’s eyebrows shot up. That was high praise from Jon.
Sarah smiled. “Thanks.”
Jon skated away and Doug let out a low whistle. “Nice going, Sherlock.”
Sarah laughed. “Yeah, now I just need about a million other things to work and they won’t all think I’m a waste of oxygen.”
Oh, ma belle, you’re so much more than a waste of oxygen. I want to show you everyth
ing you are.
Doug grabbed her hand as she reached for her stuff. “I work with you day in and day out, and I don’t think you’re a waste. I’m excited.”
Sebastian’s eyes were glued to the joining of their hands. Was something going on between the two of them? That would pretty much shoot to shit her assertion she couldn’t date someone who worked for the team, and Doug was married.
“Thanks. That really means a lot.” Sarah glanced in Sebastian’s direction and he debated for about two seconds if he should let her see his jealousy.
In the end, his possessive nature won out. He glared at Doug, and Sarah raised an eyebrow. Sebastian pivoted and then skated off the ice. He’d shown her his hand again, but couldn’t find it within himself to regret it. His heart was simply not listening.
****
One day, Sarah arrived at the rink to find a large, clumsily wrapped box covering the entire surface of her desk. The attached card read “To Sarah, from the guys.” Her guard immediately rose. She gingerly picked up the package, half expecting it to be a goat or something equally awful as evidence of a bizarre hockey hazing ritual.
Hockey players were known pranksters, but so far she’d escaped unscathed. Strangely, if they were playing a prank on her, it would make her feel more like a part of the team. Why would they bother if they didn’t like her? At this point, several of the players were seeking her out to ask questions, but there were still some holdouts who sneered every time she tried to explain something.
There was no way she was opening this thing in her office though. Keeping it at arm’s length as best she could—the box probably measured three feet by five feet—she carried it into the video room, where the morning meeting was set to begin in a few moments. The package is so large but yet so light. A few of the men smirked as she walked in and her hackles rose.
When Rick, the team’s enforcer and one of the biggest pranksters, spotted her, he shouted, “Hey, guys! She’s opening it in the video room!”
The rest of the team swarmed in from the locker and training rooms. It was strange to have the team all gathered and waiting for her to open this mysterious gift. Even more so, it was hard not be suspicious with all those impish faces grinning at her.
Sarah fixed the guys with a stern look, making eye contact with each one, though she skittered right over Sebastian. She definitely didn’t need that distraction with the entire team watching her. “All right, I want you all to promise this isn’t a live animal. I mean, you didn’t even poke holes in the box.”
They molded their faces into innocent expressions, mostly without success. She inspected the sides for clues, but it appeared to have regular sides and a top.
Ben, the captain and de-facto leader of the motley crew of players, said, “It’s not alive, we promise.”
“Good. I was afraid this was some kind of sick hazing ritual with a live goat or something,” she said. But if it wasn’t holding something alive, what the heck was it?
Rumblings of “should’ve done that” and “now that’s a good idea” went up from the boys.
Sarah laughed. She’d laughed more in the past month than she had in her entire life previous to coming here.
“Well, open it already.” Rick sounded much more like a petulant five-year-old than a six foot, five inch, two hundred sixty pound on-ice pugilist, known more commonly in the hockey world as an enforcer.
From the outside, given the brutal, violent game they played for a living, you would never suspect they were just a bunch of big teddy bears. She loved working with them and seeing all their different views on the game.
Sarah unwrapped the box, which was for a mini-fridge. This was no mini-fridge. With trepidation she removed the tape from the top of the box then opened the top. Inside was another box, heavily taped—with hockey tape, of course. She wasn’t surprised they had used hockey tape to wrap her “gift.”
She lifted the smaller box in her hands and glared at it. “Seriously, you guys? What am I supposed to do with this?”
The group doubled over in laughter. One of the equipment guys took pity on her and passed her a pocket knife. Sarah attempted to cut off the tape, which wasn’t easy since they’d used miles of it stuck on every which way. She struggled until Rick got impatient and did it for her, tearing through the tape with reckless abandon.
In time, he got the box open. Sarah leaned in then let out an exasperated sigh when she found yet another, smaller box. She pulled it out and threw a murderous glare to the room at large.
Everyone guffawed harder. The whole thing would’ve annoyed her, but she understood this was their way of telling her they accepted her. The anger was really only for show. Rick was obviously the ring leader, but Rob, who was falling off his chair with laughter, had no doubt helped.
Next to Rob sat Sebastian, stretching his long legs out into the middle aisle and relaxing back in his chair. Sarah had been ignoring him without much success, but was nonetheless happy he was there. He was definitely a person in her corner and she needed everyone she could get. Right now, he was valiantly attempting not to laugh openly, briefly turning away before watching the action again with an obviously amused smile.
He was taking pleasure in watching her sweat. Of course, if the shoe were on the other foot, she probably couldn’t even be as polite as he was, so she had to forgive him.
After removing, with Rick’s assistance, the scads of hockey tape holding the even smaller box closed, she wrenched it open and found a pair of hockey skates. Would she come to regret her casual mention at practice a few days before that she couldn’t skate but would like to learn? She pulled the skates from the box. “Well, I guess there’s no chickening out now, huh? Thanks, guys.”
Jon, who had come in near the end of this little display, regarded the room with a grin she didn’t trust for a second. “Her first practice should be later today, don’t you think, boys?”
“But—”
“No buts. You can skate with the injured players.”
There was really no reason to put it off, and she knew it. She’d been bested. “Fine.”
Jon quieted everybody down and went through the video she and Doug had produced from practice the day before. Sarah settled into her seat, the warm glow from the acceptance by the players not fading even as the video session wore on.
I love my job.
Near the end of training camp, the team went to an Army boot camp. It was a common practice for teams to go to corporate retreat spots, dude ranches, boot camps, whatever management decided would bond the team together. Sarah was excited. She’d never done anything like the boot camp and, despite the hard work it would inevitably be, it sounded pretty cool. And, the day before they left, Sarah and Doug presented their thick binder full of player evaluations to management, so she’d be able to relax and enjoy herself.
Every day, Jon divided the team and off-ice staff into three different groups, explaining he wanted everyone exposed to everyone else during the exercises so they would learn to trust each other. Sarah had considered herself in fairly good shape, but her screaming muscles at the end of each day told her otherwise. She wouldn’t trade the experience for the world, though.
Of course, one day she was put on the same team as Sebastian. She’d known it would happen and had tried to mentally prepare herself for whatever exercises they were given. Despite that, her heart pounded as Jon read what they’d be doing: a “getting to know you” talk and an obstacle course the team had to navigate together.
The obstacle course could prove to be a problem. When they’d done something similar a few days before, she’d had a lot of bodily contact with the guys, who had treated her with kid gloves, besides Jaroslav, who had of course tried to take advantage of them being on the same team. She’d been expecting him to behave like that and was ready with a couple of sharp barbs to deter him.
The last thing Sarah wanted right now was to be in intimate proximity to Sebastian. She was finally being accepted by the team and even by
management and she didn’t want to do anything to mess that up. Her team was further divided into three smaller teams and Sarah’s group, consisting of her, Rob, Sebastian, and a Russian player named Nikolai, settled under a tree to complete the first exercise. She was determined not to let being in such close quarters with Sebastian affect her, but knew it wouldn’t be easy.
Rob, who had appointed himself the group leader, opened the folder containing the instructions and questions. “Introductions Game,” he read from the paper inside. “Read each question out loud and go around the group until each person has answered every question. Listen carefully. There will be a quiz later.”
Rob read the first question: “Tell a funny story about something that happened to you.” He paused for a moment and then grinned. “Well, during juniors I threw a big check on a guy and the buckle on my hockey pants broke. They fell down and I tripped over them when I landed. Of course, everybody got a good peek at me in only my jock, which is probably why I had so many dates that season.” He let everyone get a chuckle out of that then motioned to Nikolai, who sat next to him.
“I am eating with teammates before game. I am happy to know English word, so I ask for eggs. Waitress ask me what kind. I am confused. I say ‘eggs’ again and teammates laugh. Waitress laugh.” He grinned and rolled his eyes.
Sarah leaned over and patted him on the shoulder. “Have you gotten over that horrible experience? Do you still eat eggs, or is it too embarrassing for you?”
Nikolai laughed then stuck his tongue out at her. “I eat eggs. I like them very much scrambled.”
Rob pointed at Sarah. “Okay, funny lady, your turn.”
Sarah had her story all ready. “When I was in undergrad I got invited to a Halloween party. This particular party had a theme, and somehow I got my wires crossed. I showed up in pajamas while everybody else was in gangster and flapper costumes. I was teased mercilessly.”
“Please,” Rob said. “Surely something worse than that’s happened to you.”
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