Chapter 14
“How was the flight?” Cam asked as he pulled Jules in for a hug.
He’d come down from his hotel room to meet her in the lobby of the same hotel the team was staying in and she leaned into her brother’s tall, familiar embrace. It didn’t matter how old they got or how frustrated she could be with him, his hugs were always comforting to her and she smiled.
“It was good, shorter than I thought it would be,” she said, glancing around the swanky lobby.
The hotel was nice; full of plush seating and gold accents everywhere you looked, from the wall sconces right down to the trash cans. Her brother looked out of place standing on the granite floor in shorts, compression socks and slides.
“You’re going to come out with us after the game tonight, yeah? Apparently the GM booked a private room at some fancy restaurant for the players and their families after the game. Even the coaches are coming to celebrate with us, win or lose.”
At the mention of coaches, the image of Frankie popped into her head and Jules smiled to herself.
She was looking forward to watching her brother take to the ice as one of the faces of a brand new franchise for the first time in his professional career and she was so unbelievably proud of him.
At 28 years old, he’d accomplished a lot and she’d been right there alongside him.
His success was well earned and she knew that when he took to the ice tonight, he'd be doing it for the both of them but most of all, for their parents.
Cam was used to big game days like today but this one felt different – it carried more weight for reasons she couldn’t explain yet – but he would step out onto the ice and play with an unbridled passion just as he had at the start of every other season.
But Jules was proud of Frankie too. She was proud of the woman who had quickly become one of her closest friends and though Jules hadn’t dared to act on anything, Frankie had become someone who made her heart skip a beat, who gave her butterflies when she said her name, whose company she craved more and more every day.
For Frankie, this day represented so much more than playing a game. It was a milestone, not only for herself, but for women working in sports.
Having another woman behind the bench in the league and watching her lead, watching her show the world how capable she is, was monumental.
Not only was Frankie debuting as the second ever female coach, both teams with female coaches were kicking off their seasons that night on opposite sides of the country and that was something to be proud of.
And Frankie was going to dinner with the team after the game.
“Of course I’m going,” Jules said. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
"Good, and I have a surprise for you. I think you're going to love it."
Hours later, Jules slid into her seat at TD Garden and the energy coursing through the building before the teams came out for warmups was electric.
Given the Bruins were one of the original teams in the league and a franchise with over one hundred years of history, an atmospheric environment is exactly what she expected.
Just as she did on the first game of every season since her brother’s professional career began, she had arrived wearing his jersey.
This year, she got to wear a Halifax Harbour jersey with Clarke 44 stitched on the back and the start of a new season, especially with a new team, was always a a thrill.
Cam had worn the number 44 since he was ten and their dad gave him the choice between 21 and 44. He’d chosen the latter and had never strayed from it.
She received a few looks of disdain from the home fans around her as she got settled and given the fact that the Harbour were a new team, there were very few jerseys like the one she was wearing scattered around the rink.
Her seat was located a few rows up from the glass directly across the ice from the away team bench so when the music in the arena changed and the players on both teams flooded the ice for their warm up, she had a clear view of the tunnel that led to and from the away team dressing room.
As coaching staff don’t typically come out to the bench for the pre-game skate, Jules had to patiently await Frankie’s arrival but she watched her brother take his first skate as one of the stars of a brand new franchise.
Jules didn't notice it at first as she watched Cam glide across the ice with ease, a fluidity to his strides she always envied. She'd wondered more than once over the last decade if she could have been as he was if she’d been given the chance.
Cam turned and then she caught sight of it, the 'surprise' he'd mentioned – a large C on his chest above his heart.
Her breath caught in her throat, her vision blurring slightly from the enormity of what she was witnessing. Her brother, the Captain. He'd dreamt of it, had once told her that even being named an Alternate captain would mean everything to him, but this was so much more.
Cam skated around the boards with a puck at his blade and stopped, scooping it up with his stick. He tossed it over the glass for a young fan then glanced up into the crowd in search of Jules and when their eyes met, he grinned and tapped the C on his jersey.
Her twin, her family, her best friend, and Captain of the Halifax Harbour. He waved, smiling bigger and brighter than he had in months and a stray tear rolled down Jules' cheek.
“You must be so proud of your boyfriend,” said the woman in the seat beside Jules, her voice just loud enough to be heard over the music. “He is so handsome and he’s the captain? How lucky are you!”
“Oh, hah, no,” Jules replied, her own voice nearly a shout. She smiled awkwardly and used her sleeve to dry any stray tears on her cheek. “I mean, yes, I am proud, but he’s not my boyfriend. He’s my brother.”
“My apologies,” her seatmate said. “I’m sorry for assuming, you just…you look the part, that’s all.”
“No worries,” Jules laughed. “It happens all the time.”
It was the only real downside to wearing her brother’s jersey; the fact that people often mistook her for someones wife or girlfriend.
Jules couldn’t deny that she had the stereotypical look of a hockey player’s partner but in her case, she preferred the opposite sex, never once feeling a damn thing for the men she had been watching play for years.
Warm-ups ended and Jules sat back down in her seat, her leg bouncing up and down nervously as the music inside the arena thundered, the bass vibrating in her chest. It was so loud she almost couldn’t think but fifteen minutes later after two zamboni’s had passed over the ice, the lights dimmed and the pre-game show started, kicking off the home team’s season.
Through the flashing lights, Jules watched Cam’s team come down the tunnel and as the starting lineup stepped onto the ice, the remaining players flooded the bench, followed by the coaching staff.
She couldn’t get a good look at anyone until the main arena lights came back on. She'd have to wait until after the announcement of the home team’s roster for the season was complete and the national anthems had been sung but as soon as the rink was lit, Jules zeroed in on Frankie immediately.
Her fiery red hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and she donned a light blue pantsuit that matched a shade of blue on the Harbour’s jersey.
She looked gorgeous and confident, even though Jules knew that inside she was likely fighting a war with herself, the weight on her shoulders surely unlike anything she’d ever felt before.
Jules watched Frankie look around the arena, her eyes wide as she took it all in, basking in a moment she would never again experience; her debut as a coach in the biggest hockey league in the world.
A few seconds later, almost like Frankie had been searching for Jules in the crowd, a wide grin slid onto her face when their eyes met and everything around Jules, all of the noise, the people, the buzz of the atmosphere and enormity occasion, disappeared making her feel like the only person in the whole rink.
When Frankie looked at her, Jules felt like she mattered, like she was more than just a hockey player’s sister. When Frankie looked at her, she felt like a wanted woman. She felt seen.
And Frankie had said as much to her on their first night together in the restaurant – that she saw her.
But given where they were, who Frankie was and what this night meant, Jules knew that she shouldn’t feel as important as the smile on Frankie’s face made her feel, but she did.
The world around her rushed back in as Frankie reluctantly tore her gaze away and turned to speak to one of the other coaches, the line-up cards in their hands covering their mouths to keep their conversation discreet.
When the puck dropped for the start of the first period, the game was fast and it was furious.
The physicality was on another level and Jules wasn’t sure if it was because it was the first game of the season for both teams or because the home team had something to prove against a young and hungry franchise that was just getting started.
Either way, bodies were flying into the boards with an angry crunch and the sound of the cut and glide of skate blades across the ice somehow managed to rise above the roar of the sold out crowd.
Towards the end of the first period with the puck in front him, Cam skated out of the Harbour’s zone on a breakaway attempt.
He crossed through the neutral zone and into the home team’s side of the rink but a forechecking stick caught the edge of his skate and he went down, sliding across the now choppy surface.
An arm flew up into the air as a whistle blew to signal a penalty, the first of the game, and as the guilty defender ran his mouth at the ref while on his journey to the penalty box, Jules swiftly fixed her eyes on the Harbour’s bench where Frankie had already gotten to work, talking to her players with commanding authority.
The first penalty of the game meant the first power play for both the team and for Frankie who, as the power play coach, had been working towards this moment with the players for weeks.
Two minutes wasn’t a long time but when you were holding your breath and watching in nervous anticipation like Jules was, the power play felt like it lasted for hours.
There was so much more riding on it than just a goal.
People had already decided where they stood regarding Frankie as a coach and if the team didn’t produce on its first power play, she would receive the brunt of abuse from hockey fans simply because of her gender and Jules didn’t want that for her. Frankie didn’t deserve it.
Luckily, a few seconds before the power play was set to expire, a defender on the Harbour – a second round draft pick who had made a name for himself in junior hockey and in pre-season – found himself on the left side of the net with a gap in the defence.
One of his teammates secured the puck at the face off dot and passed it to him.
Jules watched it happen in slow motion as the clock counted down, the way the rookie caught the puck with his stick as the goalie pushed across the net to cover it and just as it looked like he was going to shoot it in, Cameron appeared on the other side of the net.
The rookie quickly passed it to him. It slid across the ice between the feet of the defenders standing in front of the net and with no time for anyone else to react, the puck flew into the back of the net off of Cam’s perfectly angled blade.
“Yes!" Jules shouted, jumping out of her seat and clapping her hands above her head in celebration. “LET’S GO!”
Cam pointed at the rookie who had passed him the puck as the team huddled together on the far side of the ice to celebrate and Jules grinned, allowing her eyes to shift to the Harbour bench where the team erupted in jubilation and Neil, the team’s head coach, had thrown his arms around Frankie.
Not only had her brother scored the first goal in Halifax Harbour history, but Frankie had delivered on the team’s first ever power play and whatever happened next, no one could take that away from either of them.
“Wow,” Jules said to herself as she sat back down, pure adrenaline coursing through her body now.
It was moments like this that reminded her of why she loved the sport so much and why, despite everything that had happened in her life up until this point, she could never truly step away from it.
She watched her brother and his linemates skate down the bench to fist bump the rest of their teammates and when she looked at Frankie again, she found the pair of eyes she’d come to admire so much gazing back at her, filled with a look of pure elation that said so much more than words ever could.