Page 16 of Delay of Game

“All right.” Netty shrugged. “No offense taken. But you should, like. Chill. Maybe do yoga with Mäkelä or something.”

“Yoga with Mack,” Zach said, a snort escaping his nose. “Great way to sprain an MCL.”

“What’s this about your MCL?” Nate asked, skating by, a worried frown creasing his forehead.

“Netty thinks I should start doing yoga.”

Nate blinked. “You?Why?”

“He needs to chill out,” Netty said.

“I’m not flexible,” Zach pointed out. “Like, at all.”

“You learn.”

Nate, face still flushed from exertion, said, “Leave him alone, Netty.”

“I go, I go.” He held up his hands in surrender.

Zach exhaled, long and slow. He felt weirdly tense almost all the time now, like his body was twisted up in knots about how much he needed this season to go well, how much he needed to distance himself from what he had been only three years ago.

Yoga. Hah.

Still. Maybe Netty did have a point.

Chapter Four

October

Nate always liked the preseason games, even though they didn’t count. It was a chance to get back into the swing of things and especially to see which rookies were really pushing for the roster spots and what they could do.

He particularly loved the surprises, like when Bee had stormed onto the team straight out of camp. When the Cons had drafted her, there’d been a lot of talk about how it was a publicity stunt for a team perennially at the bottom of the standings, but it was with Bee’s help that the Cons had finally turned their fortunes around. They’d made the playoffs two seasons in a row now after missing them for the five seasons before that, and Nate was stupid pumped to see what they could do this year.

Or when Mike suddenly went from a guy who either sat in the press box or played third pair minutes and spent most of his time in the penalty box to a legit puck-moving defenseman who could quarterback a power play or eat minutes on the penalty kill, and it was mostly because of his boyfriend, who was now an assistant coach in New Jersey.

Hockey was so fucking weird that way, and Nate loved it.

Even though the games were close in distance, they were far enough from Philly that the Cons had an overnight between the first game in Boston and the second one in Buffalo. Management was all about conserving costs and doing the right thing for the environment these days.

The Beacons had been a perennial playoff team for over a decade now, but during the offseason they’d lost Tyler Hamilton, their longtime 1C, and Kristian Rajala, their equally longtime goalie. They’d had their Cups, but by now, those wins were a long time ago. Hockey years were like dog years that way. With the mortgaging of the future they’d done and some poor drafting, the cupboards were pretty bare. So Nate wasn’t surprised when the Cons’ rookies and bubble roster curb-stomped them.

He and Zach sat that game out, even though they were in the press box watching and would travel for the rest of the games with the team.

“Gags has been on a tear, huh?” Zach asked.

Together, they watched the redheaded rookie shrug off a slightly-too-late hit from a Beacons forward and throw his gloves off. Before the linesman could get in the way, he was trading punches with the other guy, who had to be at least half a foot taller and twice his weight. Considering the size disparity, Nate thought Gags wasn’t doing too badly.

Fighting was a funny thing in hockey. Nate had never actually gotten into one himself. Even though he was a big guy and people tried it all the time, he just never really felt the need to go. He’d been called a pussy, a little bitch, and worse. More than once. Nate just shrugged it off; he didn’t have anything to prove.

He frowned. “We should have Mike talk to him. I don’t want him to feel like he’s got to fight to be noticed.”

“I can do it,” Zach said. “I’ve got his number already.”

Nate was distracted by the fight again. The linesman had gotten in between the players, finally, and split it up. Gags spat some blood onto the ice and made a rude gesture at the Beacon and Nate sighed. “Yep. An extra two for unsportsmanlike.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“Don’t be, like, too mean about it, okay? I don’t wanna discourage him. I try to do a compliment and then what I’m concerned about and then a compliment.” Zach started laughing, all of a sudden, and Nate could feel his ears turning red. “What? What’s so funny?”