5. Chapter Five
The energy is surging through my body, being spurred on by the roar of the crowd as my teammates and I head out onto the ice to warm up. This is my favorite part of the game. Being on the ice, soaking in the crowd’s energy and getting amped up for the win. And tonight’s win is going to be the sweetest one yet.
My best friend Kayce, a center, goes out in front of me and I follow him through the tunnel to the ice. Tonight’s crowd is big, it looks like every seat is filled. We are playing our rival team, the fucking Ice Men, so the pressure is on for us to not fuck up. Coach has made that clear. There is no room for a loss tonight.
I skate over to where Coach is giving out directions for warm ups.
“Karlsen. Come here,” he calls to me before letting me go out to warm up with the team .
“Yeah, Coach?”
“You got your head on right? I’m not going to have any issues tonight am I?” He levels me with a stare. My behavior at the last game against the Ice Men wasn’t the best.
I’ve also been distracted as hell for the last month trying to find the girl, C, who left me alone in my bed. Which, when I only have a letter, isn’t easy.
“No issues. I got this.”
He slaps my shoulder, “You can’t listen to ‘em kid. Let it roll off your back, alright? Whatever they say, it doesn’t matter.”
I nod, skating off to join the team.
Gliding across the ice is what I was made for. I never once in my life second guessed my career options. I’ve known since I was a toddler that I’d play professional hockey one day.
I was in lower secondary when my parents realized that my love for hockey wasn’t going away. As much as they wanted me to be a skier, there was something about flying across the ice that thrilled me.
As soon as I turned twelve, I was offered a scholarship for a boarding school in Stockholm. This school trains many olympic athletes, as there was a massive focus on sports of all kinds. It took a while to convince my parents to let me go, but they finally agreed, and that is where I got my big break. My name was splashed all over the headlines in Stockholm. I was drafted into the NHL after my last year to the Ice Men.
Which makes playing against them that much worse. I didn’t leave San Francisco on good terms. And the normal shit talking is magnified on the ice. They took some low blows the last time we played together, and I didn’t react well.
Five years ago, I was traded to Houston and if I have it my way, I’ll never leave. The coaching staff is the best I’ve ever worked with. And the team is truly like a family. There is no real competition between us, everyone roots for the other.
We all joke around with each other during warm ups, and pump each other up for the rest of the game until it’s time to go back into the locker room for Coach’s pep talk.
When the music starts in the rink, we all shuffle out to the tunnel for the starting line up announcements and the anthem. I take in the crowd around us as the lights dance around the rink.
I look up at the jumbotron and I swear I see a ghost, the beauty who graced me in my dreams and left me alone by the time the sun rose. But it can’t be her, can it? She didn’t know who I was that night. And if she followed hockey at all, she’d know who the fuck I am. The excitement that rushed through my body is gone now, replaced with logic.
I shake it off. The chances that she’s here, breathing the same air as me are slim. And I need to focus .
Coach sends us out on the ice for the opening puck drop.
Kayce goes to the center dot to take the faceoff. He’s one of the best centers in the league right now and wins most of them. But San Francisco has something to prove tonight and they’re going to fight for it.
The whistle blows, the puck hits the ice, and in an instant sticks start slapping. As usual, Kayce gets the puck and is off to the other end of the ice. He passes the puck to Joaquin Santos, our right wing, who is automatically covered by two Ice Men players.
He tries to get the puck back to Kayce but instead he has nowhere to go and just does his best to get it to one of us. The other center speeds through the players and steals the puck heading right to me.
But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him get through. I race toward him, stealing the puck and sending it flying down the ice to JJ. My muscles pump with adrenaline, pushing me to do better, be better .
We do this dance through two periods and toward the end of the second I’m fucking exhausted. San Francisco is playing hard, and dirty, pushing us to our limits.
Not for the first time tonight one of their players is flying at me and before I can think about where the puck is going I just slap the shit out of it, trying to send it down the ice.
Only that was a big fucking mistake. It clears the glass and heads straight into the crowd. The referee doesn’t miss a beat in calling the penalty. Only all the attention isn’t on him, it’s on the stands. I look to the jumbotron to see a fan slumped over in her seat with blood on her forehead.
Fucking fuck. I hit a fan. We all just stand there, watching, waiting for the usher to come and check her out. Most likely calling in the medical staff. Her long dark hair covers most of her face but I can see the blood peeking out from between her strands. In no time the EMTs rush her out of the stands and probably take her to medical. There’s only a few minutes left in the game and I hope like hell I can go over there to make sure she’s okay after the buzzer sounds.
I’ve never hit a fan in the head before and I’m so pissed at myself for not controlling the puck better.
I take my spot in the penalty box and watch the penalty kill. Andrews takes the ice to pick up the slack after my mistake.
My leg bounces the whole time, nervous about the repercussions of hitting someone. I’ve never had a Delay of Game penalty, but I’ve seen guys get in major trouble. When my time is up I jump onto the ice and rush down to the offensive zone with forty five seconds left on the clock .
Kayce, Joaquin and I manage to get the first goal of the night on the board. And I’m so relieved. Maybe Coach won’t chew my ass out too much during intermission.
We file off the ice when the buzzer goes off and head back to the locker room. I catch Coach on the way through the tunnel.
“I need to go to medical.”
“I know you do. You have five minutes.”
I nod and hobble on my skate guards over to medical near the locker rooms.
There is nothing in this world that could have prepared me for what I was walking into.
It’s her.
“How is she?” I ask the medical staff.
Seeing her sitting there, not really with it, probably from my hit. I feel so guilty. I felt guilty for hitting a fan, but knowing that I hit her makes it so much worse.
“Probably concussion. Ambo is on the way.” He finishes wrapping her head to stop the blood from trickling down her face.
I crouch in front of her once he’s done, pulling her hands in mine. “Skatten Min, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
She stares at me blankly, as if she doesn’t recognize me.
“Oh my God. I knew it was you! I mean I had narrowed it down and figured it was one of you, but holy shit. It actually was you.” A blonde woman from the corner speaks, one I hadn’t seen until now but I recognize as her friend from the club.
“I’m sorry?”
“She didn’t know who you were. That’s not why we’re here. She’s not some crazy stalker. I promise. She didn’t even want to know who you were. She made me swear not to-”
The woman’s rambling is cut off by the EMTs coming in. Thank God because I couldn’t have taken one more ramble.
The EMT interrupts and speaks to her friend, “We’re taking her to North Regional. Are you following?”
“Yes, I am!”
She jumps up to follow but I stop her. “Take my number. Text me. I’ll be there after the game.”
Pulling out her phone she hands it to me. I type my number in quickly before she pulls it back and rushes out after the EMT.
I can only hope she actually texts me. I don’t want to mess this up again. I actually found her. The mysterious C who flipped my world upside down and left me head over heels for a stranger.
After the press conferences about our win, I shower as fast as I can so I can run over to the hospital to meet Joy and Calliope. I will be forever grateful to her talkative friend who spills every ounce of information she’s ever received in a thousand different text messages instead of just one like a normal person.
I had over twenty texts when I got back to the locker room.
But I’m not even mad because I know more about this woman than I did before the game started.
The front desk nurse directs me to where Calliope is. I walk in right as the doctor is speaking so I stand quietly by the curtain.
“...concussion. You will probably have a hard time remembering all of the events closest to the incident. As far as the memory loss and the concussion goes though it shouldn’t have any lasting effects on the pregnancy. It looks as though you're in the very early stages. You should confirm and follow up with your obstetrics team.”
“Pregnant?” I choke out. My eyes widen in shock as I take her in, and as the doctor’s words truly sink in.
Both heads turn to look at me, Joy with a big smile, and the doctor with an alarmed look.
“Who are you?” The doctor looks ready to press some red button that will call security on me. But his face slowly turns to recognition .
“Her boyfriend,” Joy answers.
Calliope’s eyes widen in shock, as do mine, not that they could get any wider after the pregnancy announcement. Because as far as I’m aware I didn’t even know who she was four hours ago.
I don’t argue though, because it’s exactly the opportunity I want. So I walk over to the side of her bed, and take her hands in mine.
“Are you Viktor Karlsen?” The doctor stares in disbelief.
“Yes, Sir I am.”
“That was some game tonight. Congratulations. I only caught bits and pieces here and there but you boys played hard.”
“Thank you, Sir. It was a sweet victory for sure.” I shake his hand that’s reached out to me.
“Well, I will be back shortly to do another check and the nurse will be in with some nausea medication for you.” He gives a quick nod and is out the door at the same time the nurse comes in.
For the first time I have a minute to soak in the fact that he said my girl was pregnant. And now there are a million questions running through my mind. Is it mine? Has she been with anyone else? How does this affect any relationship we might have?