Chapter 30 Grayson
Chapter 30
Grayson
I probably shouldn’t have stayed up half the night before such an important game, but I couldn’t bring myself to regret a single moment of my night under the stars with Paige. I had to stifle a yawn as I sat in the locker room tying my skates, but I knew the instant I hit the ice for our game against the Waverley Wolves, any remnants of exhaustion would melt away. I wished I could say the same about the pain in my knee.
It didn’t feel too bad right now, but I wasn’t expecting that to last long after the game started, especially after my failed test on the lake the other night. There was just one more game to play, and I could only hope that once today was over, I would be able to relax in the knowledge that my next year, at least, was secure.
“I thought you might look a little happier once you and Paige finally got together.” Parker sat across from me in the locker room, grinning.
“Parker...” Reed warned our brother from beside me.
“I’m glad things worked out, though,” Parker continued. “Thanks, of course, to our brilliant plan. But I guess you’ll be the same old Grumpson forever.” He winked, and jumped up from the bench before I could react, heading across the locker room to talk to some of the other guys.
As I glared after him, Damien entered the room. I felt an unexpected twinge of guilt as he approached. While he and Paige had never actually gone on their date, it wasn’t exactly cool of me to swoop in and ask her to be my girlfriend before they did. Or to have spent the last week actively undermining his chances with her. Obviously, there was no way I was going to stand back and let him steal her away without a fight, but I still didn’t feel great about winning. And, even if he didn’t know we were competing, I was pretty sure Damien wouldn’t like being defeated .
“Reed. Grayson.” He nodded and gave us both a friendly smile as he passed.
I stared after him, unsure how to react. He was acting like nothing was wrong. And it seemed he was being genuine.
Paige must have told him about us, right? And if she had, he must be pissed. But he looked totally unfazed. When he reached his locker, he sat beside Owen, and the two of them fell into casual conversation. He looked awfully happy for a guy who’d had a date canceled on him. This was Damien Stone. Could he really take a blow to his ego this well?
I turned to Reed. “Paige canceled her date with Damien this weekend, right?”
“I’m sure she did.”
“What if she didn’t though? Her phone was dead this morning. Then she was in a rush to get home and had to deal with her mom. Maybe she forgot?”
“You really think she wouldn’t cancel the date after you two finally got together?”
“I think she has a lot of other things on her mind at the moment.” I glanced Damien’s way again. “Should I say something to him? ”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Just make it clear we’re together now.”
Reed shook his head. “And I thought I was a possessive boyfriend. You and Paige have been officially dating for, what, twelve hours?”
“More like eighteen.”
He laughed. “But who’s counting, right?”
“Right.”
“Paige isn’t going on a date with Damien.” He tried to reassure me with a firm slap on the shoulder. “Stop stressing. She wouldn’t do that to you. Look, we have a game to win, a coach to impress, and a letter to sign. You should be thinking about that.”
I was already way too aware of all those things. And unbeknown to Reed, I also had my injury to worry about. But even though I knew I needed to start focusing, I still found myself checking on Damien, hoping to detect any sign that he might have received some bad news from Paige. Even just a hint of disappointment. But no. He was laughing at something with Owen.
Matt took a seat beside me, as I turned to Reed once more. “I don’t think she’s canceled on him yet.”
Reed ignored me and leaned forward to explain my dilemma to Matt. “Grayson might finally be with the girl of his dreams, but now he’s worried she hasn’t canceled her date with Damien.”
Matt gave me a playful nudge. “Never happy are you, GP.”
“Don’t call me that.”
His smile only widened. “I’m sure you’ve got nothing to worry about. But scowling at him across the room isn’t going to get you an answer.” Matt turned to face Damien and raised his voice. “Hey, Stoney, what’s the deal with you and Paige? Have you got a date tomorrow?”
Could he have been any less subtle? The whole team had turned to look.
Damien smirked, and I wondered if he had already noticed how agitated I was about the whole thing. “Let’s just say I won’t only be scoring on the ice this weekend.”
Scoring? I couldn’t seem to stop myself as I rose from my seat. Reed jumped up to stand in my way before I even realized I had taken two long strides toward Damien. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure what I had planned, but it wasn’t going to end well for either of us.
“Calm down, Gray.”
“Yeah,” Matt added as he joined my brother. “He was just messing around.”
“Well, I’m not,” I replied. “I’m going to kill him.”
“You don’t want to fight a teammate,” Reed said. “Not today...”
I did when that teammate was Damien Stone. I’d been itching to wipe that smug look off his face ever since he arrived back in town, and I finally had a good reason to do exactly that. I’d never let a guy talk about Paige that way before, and I certainly wasn’t going to start now.
“Reed’s right,” Matt said. “Coach Mercer is in the stands today. You’re hours away from signing with Ryker. Are you really that stupid?”
I clenched my teeth tighter as the sound of Damien’s laughter drifted across the locker room toward me. I looked past Reed and Matt and gave him my most lethal glare. But he only continued to laugh. I was about to force my way past Matt and my brother, but then Damien composed himself enough to speak.
“Dude, dude, I’m only joking.” He stood up, holding his hands out in front of him slightly as though he was trying to calm a wild beast. “Paige messaged me earlier. I know you guys are together. Congrats, by the way.”
“Congr—” His words only seemed to antagonize me more. “You think that was funny?”
Damien shrugged. “I don’t know, but your reaction sure was.”
“It is fun to poke the bear,” Parker agreed with a smirk. “Especially now that he’s unlocked boyfriend mode.”
Everyone around me had started smiling or laughing along, and I realized, with my hands raised, I kind of did look like a bear about to launch into an attack. It appeared I was now the only one in the locker room still on edge.
“Seriously, Grayson,” Damien said, stepping forward to stand just behind Matt and Reed. “I’m happy you and Paige are finally together. To be honest, I was surprised you hadn’t already hooked up when I got back here. And I’m sorry if I delayed you any further. No hard feelings.” He stretched out a hand toward me, as Reed and Matt cautiously stepped back.
I was just as surprised as everyone else when I reached out to shake Damien’s hand. “Thanks, but there’s nothing to apologize for,” I said with a nod. “We’re good, Damien. ”
“Thank God for that.” Parker’s voice broke any last remnants of tension in the room. “Now, can we save some of this anger for the opposition?”
“He’s right,” Reed said, addressing the rest of the team. “Everyone get yourselves together. Let’s get out there and make the Wolves howl in pain!”
The guys all started whooping and howling in reply, sharing grins and cheers of agreement.
“Warm-ups start in two minutes,” Reed added, once the noise died down. As everyone focused on their final preparations, my brother turned to me, keeping his voice low. “You sure you’re good?”
“Well, I’m not going to prison for the murder of Damien Stone, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Day’s not over yet, Grayson,” Damien called out as he returned to his locker. His response almost had me smiling. Apparently, Damien was a little more self-aware than I gave him credit for. And perhaps he wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered.
Reed gave me a nod. “Okay, let’s get out there and remind Coach Mercer why he wants to make us Ryker Raiders.”
As I followed my brothers out to the ice, I was struggling to clear my head. Although my run-in with Damien had been a little awkward, it had at least distracted me from the variety of emotions that were coursing through my veins ahead of the game. I couldn’t work out if I was nervous about performing in front of Mercer, worried about my knee holding out, still recovering from the surge of anger I’d felt at Damien’s joke, or just bubbling with anticipation that soon this would all be over and my place at Ryker next year would be locked in .
My emotions rarely got the better of me once I put on my Devils jersey. I never let nerves hold me back, or anger cloud my judgment once I took to the ice. But today I felt a cocktail of inner turmoil bubbling beneath the surface, and I longed for this day to be over.
All I needed to do was perform well in this game without revealing any hint that my knee was bothering me, make it to the final siren, sign my letter of intent, and skate off into the sunset. So, no pressure.
I wondered whether the others were feeling anxious. Reed looked tense, and even Parker was betraying his nerves with the way he kept adjusting the grip tape on his stick. With Coach Mercer in the stands, there was pressure on my younger brother too. Reed and I had already done the hard part and impressed the coach from Ryker. We just had to make sure we didn’t do anything to mess that up. Parker, on the other hand, really needed to shine if he wanted a chance of joining us at college when he graduated. It was rare for one Darling Devil to be this tense before a big game, let alone all three.
The Wolves players were already warming up when we arrived. A large chunk of the crowd were dressed in their colors of gray and black, and the atmosphere was charged with anticipation. Each team started weaving through cones, taking shots at the goalies, and passing the puck around the ice.
Our opposition were the least of my concerns though. Instead, my attention was on the stands. I just needed to see Paige’s smile and I knew everything would be all right. My eyes scanned the crowd, searching for her face, but I couldn’t find her. My search continued as Coach Ray called us together, and I was only half-listening as he delivered his pregame pep talk. I usually spotted Paige the moment I placed my skates on the ice, but today, she was nowhere to be found .
She didn’t appear during our warm-ups, and my stomach hollowed as we went to take our places for the start of the game. I still couldn’t see her, and I started to wonder if something was wrong. She usually got to my games early, so it concerned me she wasn’t already here. She’d been so nervous to see her mom again, and I worried she might have gotten into trouble. Could she be grounded? Would her mom really stop her from coming to today’s game? She’d messaged me to say good luck a couple of hours ago. Had something changed since then? I’d assumed everything was fine, but maybe I should have called.
I started muttering curses under my breath. They were mostly directed at myself, but a couple of Wolves players who were close by gave me strange looks and edged away. Most players were apprehensive about facing off with Grayson Darling on a regular day, but they were about to get a nasty shock. I was usually an emotionless machine. Right now, I was feeling everything, and I wasn’t quite sure what that meant for me, or for the unlucky guys on the other team.
The puck dropped and I burst into action, ignoring the pain in my knee that sparked when I pushed off the ice, doing my best to block the rest of the world out and focus on the game.
We started well. Reed scored an early goal and Matt got another only a few minutes later. The Wolves were struggling to keep up with us, but they did come close to our goal a couple of times. One of their attackers was particularly quick, and my knee practically screamed at me to slow down as I raced after him to stop a breakaway. Then I had to throw myself to the ice to block a shot headed right for our goal, hurting my knee even more .
I just kept telling myself to play through the pain, but it was becoming harder and harder to convince myself that was possible. Especially when I knocked into a Wolves player and sent him flying. My knee buckled from the contact, but I managed to stay steady enough on my feet to get control of the puck and pass to Parker so he could score our third goal of the game. As my teammates celebrated, I was almost limping back to center ice for the faceoff.
Miraculously, as the game continued, no one seemed to notice how much pain I was in. My teammates were too busy tearing the Wolves to shreds. Even Damien was impressing me with his skills, and for the first time, I allowed myself to admit he was actually a decent player. Every time I tackled the opposition or made a last-ditch block, he was there to take the puck and skate off up the ice while I clambered back to my feet.
When the second period started, I still couldn’t see Paige in the stands. She’d missed games before, but as more time passed, the more her absence was distracting me. Whenever I got a moment, I scanned the crowd again.
I was glancing at the stands when the puck came spinning my way. I reacted a split second later than I should have as I went to chase it down. It wasn’t an obvious delay, but I already knew Coach Ray had noticed and he’d be pissed. It didn’t matter how quickly I skated to make up for my momentary lapse, I’d be yelled at for not staying focused on the game. Would Coach Mercer have spotted it too ?
That mistake should have been enough to get my head straight. But as I sped toward the loose puck, a flicker of red caught my vision from the stands. I knew I shouldn’t look. But I was struck by a feeling deep in my gut that Paige was finally here.
Despite the fact that I was racing across the ice, I glanced up. I couldn’t help it. The pull toward her was just too much to resist. I allowed my eyes to stray from the puck in front of me and quickly found Paige, just as I suspected, beaming at me. I was surprised to see she wasn’t wearing her usual Devils jersey, but the same red sweatshirt I’d given her last night. I started to grin. I’d told her this morning that seeing her in it made me want to steal her away again, and it felt like she was giving me a sign—she wanted to be stolen away too.
It gave me a renewed sense of energy. Everything finally felt right. But another flash of color caught my eye. This time it was the gray and black of a Wolves player flying toward me. The same guy I’d knocked over earlier in the game. And he wasn’t chasing after the puck. He was coming for me. Before I could react, he slammed into my side, and I felt my feet lift off the ground. I winced in pain as the hit shook me to my core, sending me soaring through the air. I opened my eyes just in time to see the boards and the ice hurtling toward me and then —