72 We were back to demands
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
We were back to demands
RILEY
If I was hoping for a calming game to watch, tonight wasn’t the night. The third period had ended with a score of three-three. We were going to overtime.
At this point in the season, every game was hard earnt. With a championship so close, there was no room for error anymore.
“I hate overtime,” Grace grumbled. “It’s too stressful.”
“Phil-U have got this,” I said. “Levi and Will have been tiring their goalie out all night. He’ll make a mistake before Maxwell.”
Lana nodded in agreement. “My money’s on Tripp scoring ninety seconds into overtime.”
“I’ll go with Levi in sixty,” Grace said.
I laughed. “I guess my money is on Will in thirty then.”
Watching the game with Lana and Grace was fun. While Lana wasn’t as invested, she knew just as much as me about hockey, and Grace loved it even though she didn’t quite get all the technicalities yet.
Watching dad interact with Will on the bench had been strange tonight. Now all the dots had been connected, I wondered whether things had shifted between them. If they had, it didn’t seem to be affecting the parts that counted. Will’s game had been as smooth as butter.
The crowd got to their feet when Phil-U returned to the ice. I was siding with Grace. This was stressful .
Being here tonight made me realise how many games I’d missed out on. How often I hadn’t seen Will’s wins. How many times I hadn’t been there to support him after the losses. A dull ached settled in my chest.
No more I vowed.
I wanted to be at every Phil-U game from now until the end of the season, and every Texas game if he’d let me. I wanted a front row seat to the Will Caufield show for the rest of my life.
Levi skated into the centre for the face-off. Will was on the ice with him. So was Ryan. I held my breath as the linesman got into position.
Levi made contact with the puck first. He edged it towards our offensive zone. There was an opposing defenceman there, but he wasn’t quick enough. Will had skated forward.
Before the opposing defencemen could gain control of the puck, Will had stolen it from him. Taking off at full speed, he skated further into our offensive zone. He stickhandled the puck before edging to the side of the goalie and slotting the puck into the net like this was a simple training drill.
The crowd erupted as the buzzer sounded. I automatically jumped to my feet too. That had been epic. The quickest OT of all time.
Loud music started, electrifying the arena further. I craned my head up to the jumbotron to catch the replay.
It was silky smooth.
Six seconds. That’s all it had taken. Six freaking seconds.
The team rushed onto the ice, swarming Will. A permanent grin was etched on my face. One that I didn’t expect would fade anytime soon.
“Holy shit,” Lana gasped. “Will Caufield is the GOAT.”
The announcer’s voice came over the speaker. “And the overtime winner goes to number nineteen, Will Caufield. I doubt anything else that happens tonight will top the feeling of scoring the game winning goal.”
*
After texting Tanner through the score and boasting about Will’s OT winner, I waited in the concourse with Grace and Lana.
I had no clue how Will was going to react when he saw me. Part of me wished we could speak in private first instead of reuniting in front of a group of people, because if he was going to rip my heart out, I would rather it happen where nobody could see.
My phone lit up in my hand.