The Publicity Stunt

30. Chapter Twenty-Nine

Kace sits in the locker room between the second and third periods. It”s the sixth game of the semi-finals, and the Twisters are tied three and three with the Bootleggers. Whichever team pulls off the win moves on to the finals. The stakes are high, and a year ago, he”d be head down, focused on nothing but winning.

For some reason, he can”t shake Bri from his mind. He hasn”t attempted to reach out since the funeral because he knows how much she needed to process. If she gave in and found comfort in him, he knows it would”ve been from grief, and the only thing worse than losing Bri would be having her regret time spent with him. That might actually kill him.

”Lyons! Where”s your head at?” Coach shouts.

”I”m here, Coach.”

”You”re here on the ice, but I need you to focus now!”

He turns and nods. Apparently, he missed something important in this major speech aimed to kick their asses into gear and bring them back from the possible loss as the Twisters lead by two right now.

”This is our last chance for the season,” he reminds them. ”Now, we’re not out there saving lives or anything, but this is pretty damn big. Especially for one of the newest teams in the league. Now, come on! Let”s get out there and remind the fans what they came out here for!”

The men all cheer, and Kace joins in. He should be all in. On the ice, he is, but he finds it hard to focus right now. It”s like he can feel the woman he”s in love with but can”t see her.

”Hey, are you in it with us?” Bruno asks, nudging him.

”Huh? Yeah. I”m in it.”

Rudy grabs his shoulders. ”This has been our dream before all this shit happened with us, okay? Can we pretend, at least for the next twenty minutes, that we”re still those guys? The friends who dreamed of making it to the Cup?”

”I”m in the game, Rudy. I have been the entire time. We”ve been losing on the defense, not offense. I”m the one who got us the two goals we have, remember?”

”I guess I”m just worried your anger with me runs deeper than it does. That you”d throw the game to get back at me.”

He shakes his head. ”I”m not the plotter of revenge when it comes to the two of us. That”s you, remember?”

Releasing him, Rudy nods. ”I know.”

”My head”s in the game the moment my skates touch the ice. And I’m not going to let an entire team down just to fuck with you. You”re not that important to me, Rudy.”

”Is that a yes or a no?”

”To?”

”Pretending we”re those college kids with a dream?”

As much as he wants to hate Rudy, the man he remembers as his friend seems to be the man showing up ever since the truth came out about Amanda. ”Yes.”

”Great!”

They head out, and they climb onto the ice for the face-off. He stares Brett down, ready to knock him out of his way, if needed, to get the puck into the Twisters” net. He may have lost one dream, but he knows it”s worth fighting for this one.

The puck drops, and Rudy hits it to Kace. He shoves his shoulder into Brett and speeds past him down to the net. Two other players team up on him, and he passes it back to Rudy.

Rudy knocks the puck between his defender”s legs, and Kace breaks away from the defense. Now open, Rudy passes him the puck, and he swings, hitting the puck as hard as he can. It misses the net by just a sliver and bounces off the pole.

Brandon picks it up before anyone can get it, and he scores between the goalie”s legs. The train horn blares, and everyone rushes to the rookie, lifting him off the ground in celebration.

The score is now three to four, and Kace feels a little better with almost a full period still on the clock. There”s still a chance.

The Bootleggers can”t quite get past the Twisters after the last goal, and Kace gets frustrated. The defense has kicked up two notches while the Bootleggers” defense seems to have completely given up. Kace gives it everything he can, along with the rest of his line.

The clock shows two minutes left, and they”re still down by one. The rest of the period has passed without another score, and they need to win this game to advance. Kace feels his nerves kick up as he waits for his turn back on the ice.

The line finally changes, and he hops out there. Brett”s team trips Rudy, knocking him flat on the ice, but the refs don”t call a penalty. Rudy picks himself up and holds his arms out, trying to figure out how they failed to make the call.

”You”re just going to ignore the basic rules of the game?” Rudy shouts. ”That was a damn trip!”

”Calm down,” Kace says and pulls him away. Rudy”s the calm one out of the two, and he”s letting the pressure get the better of him. ”The last thing you want is a trip to the penalty box this close to the end of the game for unsportsmanlike conduct.”

Shrugging his shoulders, he nods. ”You”re right. We can do this. At least tie it to bring us into overtime. Then we”ll wipe the floor with them.”

”That”s the spirit!” Kace shouts and hits his helmet.

They have ninety seconds to score, and Rudy has possession of the puck. He races down to the other side, and the same player as before rams him into the boards, knocking his helmet to the ice.

Kace looks at the refs, but they call it clean. Rudy shouts at the guy who tosses his gloves. ”Don”t do it, Rudy!” Kace shouts.

Instead of listening, Rudy shakes his hands down, throwing off his gloves as well. The game stops as the two exchange blows before the opponent falls to the ice, and they both are sent to the penalty box. Rudy just lost playing the last sixty seconds of the game, and unless someone can score, the last game of their season.

Kace stares at the ice, waiting for the puck to drop, and he passes the puck to Brandon before racing towards the net. Brandon passes it back to Kace, but Brett intercepts it. Brandon reaches for the puck, and his stick trips Brett on accident. The ref calls the penalty, and he”s in the box next to Rudy.

”Oh, you call it when the other team gets tripped on accident but not when they trip us on purpose,” Kace says and looks around. ”Thanks so much.”

They”re down by one player, and he looks over to Coach, who nods to Bruno. Bruno skates off the ice from the net, and Philip, a player from the minor leagues recently brought up, hops onto the ice. It makes Kace nervous to have the net open, but at least they”re evenly matched now. Kind of.

The other team gets the drop, and Kace races to get it back into their possession. He refuses to let Brett and his team get a breakaway to an empty net.

It takes some work, but he finally gets the puck back in his possession. Racing towards the net, the clock shows three seconds left. Swinging, he shoots the puck at the goalie with all his strength.

The goalie falls into the splits and catches the puck in his right hand, blocking the final goal to bring them to a tie. The period ends, and the Bootleggers lose the semi-finals to the Twisters.

Brett and his team jump onto the ice, cheering in celebration for making it to the finals. Brett gets to play for the Cup. Kace skates back to the bench, and Coach slaps his back.

”You did everything you could, Lyons.”

He just nods and takes off some of his equipment before getting in line to shake hands with the winners of the semi-finals. All he wants is to get this over with, go to the locker room to shower and change, and get out of here. Without the game to think about, he”s left with only Bri, and he doesn”t know what to think or feel about the situation.

”Good game, man,” Brett says when they reach each other.

”Congrats.”

”Celebrate after?” he calls over his shoulder.

Kace shakes his head no and finishes the line before skating off to the sidelines. He”s not yet ready to continue their tradition like they had before the interview, and the last thing he wants to do is celebrate with other Twisters right now. Besides, if Kace hadn”t been benched for almost a month, the outcome might”ve been different because the Twisters may not have ranked as high as they did. Can Brett really beat him if he wasn”t in the game to play?

In the locker room, he showers and changes. The whole team seems defeated, but they played their hearts out. At least the offense did. But now Kace has to figure out what all of this means for him. His chance at winning the Cup may have just gone down the drain tonight. His contract”s up, and there”s a high level of uncertainty whether another team wants to pick him up. He”s on the older side, and he has the stain of bad publicity on his record.

”Hey,” Rudy says and sits next to him on the bench. ”I”m sorry.”

”It”s fine.”

”No, I lost my head, and I shouldn”t have gotten into the fight. I let my emotions get the better of me,” he says and looks at his hands. ”Kind of a consistently fun character trait these days.”

Kace nods. ”Yeah, well, there”s always next year.”

”Assuming we”re teammates.”

”We won”t be.”

”So, that”s it? We”re never talking again?”

Sighing, he casts his eyes to the ground. ”I don”t know.”

”We can”t ever be friends? There”s no way for us to move past all this shit and move forward?”

”I don”t know,” Kace says. ”I”m not trying to be a dick, but it”s the honest truth. We can be in the same place without killing each other, but I don”t know if I can ever trust you enough to be friends again. And the ship with any chance of becoming the friends we were before all this bullshit happened sailed the moment you did that interview.”

”I kind of figured that, but I thought I”d ask. If it helps, I don”t plan to see Sasha anymore.”

Kace laughs. ”I thought you already broke up.”

”We kind of slipped up a few weeks ago.”

”Don”t break up for me. I don”t care either way, so don”t make me part of your decision,” he says and stands.

”You”d hate me every time you saw us together. No, I can”t do that.”

He shrugs. ”Seeing Sasha does nothing for me. I”m not angry or sad. I”m completely indifferent. If you two want to give it a go, and we run into each other, hell, I”d buy your round of drinks. I might chat for a few minutes, but I honestly don”t care.”

”Seriously?”

”Seriously. I told you, before that stunt you pulled, I thought we could bury the hatchet. You did me a favor. For one, Sasha and I would have never made it. We weren’t meant for each other, no matter how much I tried to make it that way. But the biggest reason is that I wouldn”t have met Bri otherwise. Breaking her heart is what makes our friendship impossible.”

Rudy hangs his head but nods. He knows it”s the truth, and Kace has nothing more to say. He steps into the hallway and sees Oliver with the Twisters” General Manager, Mario Hanes.

”Lyons, my man!” Oliver calls. ”Got a minute?”

”I have all the minutes in the world. I”m not the one heading to the Cup.”

Mario smiles brightly at Kace, and his veneers make Kace slightly uncomfortable. They”re for vanity, not for missing teeth, but at least he”s not as wide as he is tall. And he”s played the game before. ”Kace Lyons! I”m Mario.”

”I know who you are. How are you, sir?”

”Looking for a new left wing.”

”And you”re looking at me?”

Nodding, he looks to Oliver. ”The publicity didn”t do well for you this year, and you missed out on some ice time, but it never got in the way of your playing when you were out there with a stick. That”s the kind of player I”m looking for. Resilient and determined. Someone who can teach the new kids coming onto the team.”

Playing with Brett won”t be much better than playing with Rudy, but at least he could see his dad more. ”I”m looking to get a little closer to home, so I”m definitely interested,” Kace says.

”We”ll work with Oliver to see what kind of offer we can put together. I know Louis wants to keep you, and with how you kept your head and played tonight, he knows you”re one who can help bring a team to the Cup. It won”t be as high as I”d originally planned when I knew you wanted out of Canada, but I”m sure we can figure something out.”

Oliver rolls his eyes. ”We”ll figure something out. I think that publicity stunt issue actually makes him a hotter option because everyone knows his name. Would you rather put a no name on your team for more money, or would you rather have Kace Lyons on your line up and guarantee media coverage? He”s a household name, regardless of how it came about. That”s a man you should put on your roster.”

”We”ll talk,” Mario says. ”I have to go celebrate with the team. We”re one team away from being champs, you know.”

”Good luck,” Kace says, suddenly unsure if he wants to play for someone like that.

Oliver walks with Mario, and Kace turns around to see his father standing in the hallway. ”That was a hell of a game, son.”

”Dad?”

”I”m so proud of you.”

”We lost.”

Shaking his head, Victor smiles and hugs him. ”You played like a winner. There”s nothing else you could have done out there. I”m so proud.”

As much as his father”s pride makes him happy, his heart races. No... it”s not possible. Is it? ”Dad, how”d you get here?”