Chapter 26 Rodriguez
RODRIGUEZ
The locker room looks like it always does. I’ve been coming here for three years and it should feel normal, routine, just another practice day.
Except Juliette is somewhere in this building and that changes everything.
I’m lacing up my skates when Dex drops onto the bench next to me with all the subtlety of a freight train.
“So,” he says.
“So,” I echo, not looking up. If I make eye contact too soon he’ll smell blood in the water.
“The girlfriend.”
“Her name is Juliette.”
“I know her name. You’ve only mentioned it approximately eight thousand times in the past five months.” He’s grinning. “She’s pretty.”
Pretty feels like the wrong word. Pretty is flowers and sunsets. Juliette barefoot in my T-shirt this morning, cheeks flushed from sleep; that’s something bigger than pretty.
“I know.”
“Way-too-good-for-your-ugly-mug pretty.”
I finally glance up. “You done?”
“Never.” He slaps my shoulder pad. “How the hell did you pull that off?”
“Persistence,” I say. “And obviously she has terrible taste in men.”
Brody appears on my other side. Of course he does. They hunt in packs.
“Is she coming to Thursday’s game?” Brody asks.
“Yeah.”
“Family section?” He raises a brow. “Or you gonna keep her locked in the tunnel like a dirty secret?”
“I don’t know yet. Maybe helping Marnie on the bench.”
“Smart,” Dex says. “Ease her into it. The wives can be intense.”
“Your wife is the sweetest human alive,” I remind him.
“Yeah, until you touch her yogurt. Then it’s war crimes.” He shudders dramatically. “She cried for forty-five minutes because I ate the peach one.”
“That was her last peach,” Brody says.
“The fridge is communal!”
“Divorce papers are also communal if you keep that energy,” I mutter, but I’m smiling because this is normal.
This is the rhythm I know. The chirping, the comfortable violence of brothers.
It steadies the part of me that’s been vibrating like a live wire since she texted that she was actually coming over last night. .
Almardon walks past, already in full gear, and pauses. “Did she go hide in Marnie’s office?”
“She’s not hiding,” I say. “She’s working.”
“She’s hiding.” Almardon grins. “I saw her face this morning. Girl looked like she was about to have a panic attack.”
She’s actually did look like that.
“She’s just nervous,” I say, finishing with my skates. “She’s not used to dating someone in the public eye.”
“You’re not that public,” Dex says.
“I’m public enough.”
Almardon’s eyebrows go up. “On TikTok maybe.”
“Yeah, those tween girls really love him.” Brody laughs.
Barrett’s whistle echoes through the locker room. “On the ice in five! Let’s go!”
We file out. I can feel the ice before I even step on it, the cold air, the slight give under my blades, the way everything else falls away. This is home. This is where I make sense.
But today I keep glancing at the stands, looking for her.
Practice starts with standard drills. Skating lines, passing sequences, the kind of work that doesn’t require much thought. Which is good because my brain keeps wandering to Juliette in Marnie’s office, probably being interrogated.
“Rodriguez!” Barrett’s voice cuts through. “You planning on joining us today or are you going to keep staring at the empty stands?”
“Sorry, Coach.”
“Save the distraction for game day. Right now I need you focused.”
I force myself to pay attention, run the drills properly, hit my marks.
But I can’t stop thinking about her. About the way she looked this morning in my t-shirt. About the fact that she showed up at my apartment last night because she couldn’t sleep without me.
About how I’m falling for her so hard I can’t see straight.
“Line drill!” Barrett calls. “Rodriguez, you’re with Dex and Brody. Let’s see some chemistry.”
We line up. The puck drops.
Muscle memory takes over as I take the pass from Dex, skating up the boards just as Brody breaks toward the net. I should pass. That’s the smart play.
Instead I shoot. Top shelf. Past Luca’s glove.
The puck hits the back of the net and I immediately know I fucked up.
“RODRIGUEZ!” Barrett’s voice echoes. “What the hell was that?”
“Sorry, Coach.”
“You had Brody wide open! Why are you shooting?”
Because I’m distracted. Because my girlfriend is somewhere in this building and I want to impress her even though she’s not watching.
“My bad. Won’t happen again.”
“It better not.” Barrett glares. “Run it again. And this time use your brain.”
We reset, run it again. This time I make the pass. Brody scores. Barrett nods.
I glance at the stands again. Still empty.
Where is she?
We break for water and I’m about to skate to the bench when I see her.
Juliette, standing at the glass. She’s not trying to hide or be invisible. She’s just there, watching.
Almardon skates up beside me. “She came.”
“Yeah.”
“You going to go say hi or just stare at her like a creep?”
“I’m not staring like a creep.”
“You’re definitely staring like a creep.”
I skate over to where she’s standing. She sees me coming and smiles, and that smile hits me harder than any check I’ve taken.
“Hi,” I say through the glass.
“Hi.” Her voice is muffled but I can hear the warmth in it. “You’re really good.”
“I’m alright.”
“Romeo, you just made that goal look easy.”
“That’s because it was easy. Coach chewed me out for it.”
“Why?”
“Because I should have passed. I was showing off.” I lean against the boards. “For you.”
Her cheeks go pink. “You don’t need to show off for me.”
“I know. I want to anyway.”
Someone slams into the boards behind me. Dex, being obnoxious.
“Stop flirting with your girlfriend and get back to drills!” he yells.
Juliette is laughing now and the sound makes everything worth it.
“I should let you get back to practice,” she says.
“Stay. Please. I’ll skate better knowing you’re watching.”
“You’ll skate worse. Your coach already yelled at you once.”
“I’ll risk it.”
Barrett’s whistle cuts through the air. “RODRIGUEZ! STOP MAKING OUT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND AND GET YOUR ASS BACK ON THE ICE!”
Juliette’s eyes go wide. “Oh my god, he just—”
“Yeah.” I’m grinning. “Everyone knows. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. Your coach just yelled at you because of me.”
“My coach yells at everyone. It’s kind of his thing.” I tap my stick against the glass. “Stay. Watch. I promise I’ll focus.”
I skate back to center feeling lighter than I have since before we left for Toronto.
Practice continues and all I can think about is Juliette watching from the stands. It should make me nervous, but instead it makes me play better. Sharper. More focused.
I make the passes I’m supposed to make, hit my marks, run the plays exactly how Barrett wants them.
But I also catch Luca in goal getting increasingly agitated.
It starts small. Muttering to himself after letting in a goal, slamming his stick on the crossbar after a save he should have made. Nothing unusual. Luca’s always been intense.
But today it feels different. Darker.
“You good, man?” I ask during a water break.
He doesn’t look at me. “Great.”
“You sure? You seem—”
“I said I’m great.” He skates away before I can push further.
Almardon slides up next to me. “He’s getting worse.”
“I know.”
“Someone needs to talk to him.”
“He won’t talk to anyone.”
“Then someone needs to make him talk.” Almardon’s watching Luca. “He’s going to snap, Rodriguez. And when he does, it’s going to be bad.”
I follow his gaze. Luca’s at the other end, circling his crease over and over, his movements jerky and aggressive. Even from here I can see his jaw working.
“What do you want me to do?” I ask.
“I don’t know. But we need to figure something out before next week. We can’t go into a game with our starting goalie on the edge of a breakdown.”
Barrett’s whistle blows again. “Line drills! Let’s go!”
We get back to work but I can’t shake the feeling that Almardon’s right. Something’s going to give with Luca. And when it does, it’s going to take all of us down with him.
During the next drill, I watch Luca more closely. He makes a routine save and immediately slams his blocker against the post. Once, twice, three times. Hard enough that the sound echoes. Barrett doesn’t say anything but I see him and Anderson exchange a look.
I skate one last lap, catching Juliette’s eye through the glass. She waves before heading toward the medical offices, and I head to the locker room feeling like I just won something.
Practice ends at noon and my legs are jelly, but the good kind, the kind that means I left everything on the ice. I’m halfway out of my shoulder pads, dripping sweat onto the rubber mat, when my phone lights up.
JuJu
You were flying out there today. Also, you were 100% showing off and we both know it.
Guilty. Did it at least look cool?
JuJu
It looked like you were trying to impress a certain someone
Mission accomplished then. You smiled every time I looked up.
What are you doing now?
JuJu
Helping Marnie with a hamstring assessment. Apparently dating you means I’m part of the team now.
You are part of the team.
JuJu
I teach skating lessons. I’m not part of YOUR team.
You’re part of my life. Same thing.
JuJu
You’re very smooth, you know that?
I try.
JuJu
It’s working.
Good. Come over tonight?
JuJu
I’m already planning on it. I left half my stuff at your place.
Leave the other half too. Move in.
JuJu
Romeo.
Too soon?
JuJu
Way too soon.
But you’re thinking about it.
JuJu
I’m not thinking about it.
You’re definitely thinking about it.
JuJu
Shut up and go shower. You smell like hockey.
You like how I smell.
JuJu
I really don’t.
I can practically hear her laughing through the phone.
I shower and change and I’m about to head out when Almardon catches me in the hallway.
“You see him today?” he asks, voice low.
I don’t have to ask who. “Yeah.”
“He’s been talking to himself in the locker room. Like full conversations. And yesterday I caught him punching the wall in the bathroom.”
I exhale through my teeth. “Jesus.”
Zach rubs the back of his neck. “I tried talking to him last week. He told me to worry about my own five-hole and walked out.”
Silence stretches between us. The distant clang of someone dropping weights in the gym echoes down the corridor.
“I think we need to go to Roman,” he finally says. “Like, actually loop him in. Not just ‘Luca’s in a mood.’”
I nod slowly. The idea of benching our starter—or worse, forcing him into help he doesn’t want—feels like betrayal. But watching him unravel in real time feels worse.
“What if Roman says mandatory eval?” I ask.
“Then I gear up and we figure it out,” Zach says, simple, steady. “That’s the job. Doesn’t mean I like it.”
I picture Luca’s face when the team psychologist calls him in. The betrayal in his eyes. The way he’ll ice-baths his emotions until they’re brittle enough to snap.
“I’ll talk to Cap tomorrow after film,” I say. “Just me and him. No ambush.”
Zach nods, relief flickering across his face. “Thanks, man.”
He heads down the hall and I stand there for a moment, feeling the weight of it. Luca breaking down. Almardon ready to step up. The season about to kick into high gear and our starting goalie barely holding it together.
Dex appears, already changed. “You see Almardon? We’re hitting up that new sports bar tonight. Thought he could come out with us.”
“He’ll bail again,” Brody walks up. “Probably claim another early morning thing.”
“That’s the third time this month,” Dex complains. “What could he possibly be doing at 6 AM on a Saturday?”
“Probably going home to his secret family in Vancouver,” I joke.
Brody laughs. “The wife and three kids theory gets stronger every time he dodges us.”
“I’m telling you, he’s got a whole other life we don’t know about.”
My phone buzzes again.
JuJu
You still here?
Yeah. Just finished talking to Almardon.
JuJu
Everything okay?
Yeah. Just team stuff.
JuJu
Want to talk about it?
I stare at the message. Like she’s not just my girlfriend but someone I can actually talk to about this stuff.
Tonight. When you get home.
JuJu
Home?
It could be. If you’ll let it.
JuJu
We’ll see.
I’ll take “we’ll see.”