Chapter 27
Miller
It’s the championship game. The mother fucking championship game and I’m the one leading my team out.
“Just get out there, kick those motherfucker’s asses and bring home that goddamn trophy,” Coach yells as we huddle around the locker room waiting for our team to be announced. Coach focuses his gaze heavily on me. “I shouldn’t be saying this, but any chance you have to make Trent Daniels look like a fool. Take it, just keep it legal.”
We know this is going to be the hardest game of our lives, but there is no way that is going to stop us. Hell, we have skated in much worse circumstances.
We hear the LA team being introduced and the crowd roars for their team. We all put our hands in and begin our chant to drown out the noise of the crowd.
Our door is opened and an official tells us it’s time. We all grab our sticks and the boys fall in line behind me.
“Alright boys, this is it. I don’t need to remind you that there are scouts out here and tonight’s game will be a huge decider for them so no fuck ups tonight, alright?” Coach warns giving Tank and I a nod. “Jaxon, show me what you can really do, then we can talk about next season.”
“Yes, boss,” he says with all seriousness.
I lead them out of the hole, down the corridor and out into the open arena. I look up into the crowd and find the whole right side of the arena in Dragons colours then spot my girl and Sophie as they stand up and start screaming for us. “You see them, man?” I ask Tank who walks behind me.
“How can you miss them with those big ass foam fingers waving in the air?” he laughs.
The announcer calls us to the ice and our fans roar in support.
We drown them out, just like were trained to and get on with business, we stick to our half of the ice as we do a quick warmup and before we know it, the referee is blowing the whistle to get the championship game started. I stand dead centre of the ice facing a smirking Trent Daniels and I can’t wait to wipe that look off his face. Which is exactly what I do as I demand ownership of the puck and shoot right up the ice, surprising their deadbeat goalie and scoring within the first 8 seconds of the game.
The crowd is on their feet and I hear my name being chanted over and over again. “Fuck yeah,” Tank shouts, grabbing my head and smashing his head against mine. “This game is ours,” he says as the rest of the team come and clap me on the back. I glance up to find Dani on her feet with her camera pulled up to her face and I know without a doubt she’s got that moment recorded.
I come back to the centre with a smirk and stand before a scowling Trent. “Look who's fucking laughing now,” I smirk at him.
He doesn’t comment but his scowl deepens. Yeah, making him look like a fool is going to be easier than I thought.
Trent gets frustrated and attempts to slam me into the walls time and time again, narrowly missing me each time which only proves to frustrate him further and throw his game off. Though, unlucky for me, he clearly isn’t the talent in his team. The rest of his boys make up for what he lacks, but it’s nothing I haven’t pushed my boys to handle.
Trent is thrown in the sin bin ten minutes into the first period allowing the rest of us to get a proper game in. I push forward with Jaxon and Tank hot on my heels. I recognize one of Trent’s boys from last night coming at me with everything he’s got. I nod over at Jaxon who cuts across me while I pull back and dart to the left. Jaxon does what he is best at and body checks the dickhead into the wall, leaving their goaltender open wide for me. I shoot and score my second goal of the night.
The first and second period continues in a similar way with me and Tank, the dream team doing our thing, though I must admit it is fucking nice to have Jaxon keeping up with us again tonight. We might have to get a new name to have him included.
The game is close, with us just slightly ahead and I know we have to keep our momentum up. The opposition has been focusing on me, Tank and Jaxon, realizing that we are the best players and fuck, do they play dirty. They have had three of their skaters thrown in the sin bin so far, but I know my boys can win this and keep it clean in the process.
I grab a quick drink, take a deep breath and head back out for our third and final period. The whistle is blown and we get right on with it. I shoot the puck over to Bobby who forces his way up the ice, when two guys come at him he shoots it over to Tank. The puck is intercepted by the opposition and stolen to the other end of the ice.
Tank charges at the guy with me right on his heels, he does a little fancy footwork that has the guy fucking up his moves leaving the puck wide open for the taking. I get the puck out from under him and take it back up the other end. I look the goalie hard in the eyes, just so he knows I’m coming for him and shoot it hard into the back of the net. I loop around the back of the goal to avoid slamming into it when Trent springs out of nowhere, gloves already on the ice, grabs me by the back of my jersey and throws me hard up against the barriers causing my head to bounce back.
“This is my fucking game,” he snaps, getting right up in my face.
I give him a hard shove to get the fucker off me as my head spins. “Your game was over before it fucking began,” I taunt, knowing exactly what he is about to do but let it happen anyway. He rears back and throws a punch, though, with my helmet and padding, it really has no effect apart from sending me flying backward onto my ass. Yeah, it pisses me off, but I give him a smile instead as the referee throws him into the sin bin for the second time tonight.
I get up on my feet and search out Dani to find her looking down at me with wide eyes. I give her a slight nod letting her know I’m fine. I skate over to Coach, who demands to check my head over. “I’m good,” I tell him as I pull off my helmet.
“I don’t give a shit, I’m taking a look whether you like it or not, he got you pretty hard there,” he tells me. “Looks like you’ll have a nasty bump back here but you’ll be right.”
“Good,” I say “Let’s get this done.”
The last 15 minutes are excruciating and for my own good, I probably should have sat down for a while, but there is no way I’m sitting out for the last minutes of the championship game.
Tank notices I’m lacking slightly and does what he can to be right on my defence but luckily my slightly lacking is still better than these fuckers.
Together Tank and I own the ice, giving it our absolute all for our last college game. For Dani and Sophie, for our boys and for Mia.
The other team gets a few more goals which we immediately make up for with a few more of our own, always making sure we stay ahead.
The final few seconds countdown and by now we are just playing with them, we can tell the other team gave up two minutes ago when we scored another two goals just 30 seconds apart and they realized it just wasn’t physically possible to beat us.
The buzzer sounds and we throw our gloves down. Fuck yeah, we did it. I look up to Dani who blows me a kiss with a huge grin on her face. I skate over to Tank who pulls me in, slapping me hard on the back. The rest of our boys decide to join us, throwing us both down to the ice in the process and jumping on top. The crowd around us cheer and chant our names as we are announced the National Champions.
Fuck yeah. National Champions.
The red carpet is laid out for us and a ceremony is held on ice as we are presented with our trophy. We all celebrate and cheer and pretty much go fucking nuts while all the photographers try to do their thing.
After what feels like forever we are finally freed to go and celebrate as a team. We make our way back down the long ass corridor and into our locker room where we all break into chants and whoops while giving high fives and back slaps over and over again.
We fucking did it.
I somehow hear a commotion from down the hallway that sounds particularly like Dani and Sophie screaming at the top of their lungs.
I poke my head out the door to find our girls being held back by security. “Baby,” I grin, then focus my attention on the security guard. “Let them pass,” I tell him.
He immediately drops his arms to let them pass and Dani sprints full on ahead and jumps right up into my arms. “Congratulations, superstar,” she yells as Sophie bypasses me and heads straight into the locker room to, I assume, do exactly the same thing we are. Dani crushes her lips down on mine as I walk us back into the locker room. “Fuck, you did so good. You kicked their asses,” she laughs.
I can’t help but grin back at her. “I love you,” I tell her as all the boys start grinning and making comments about being pussy whipped.
“I love you, too,” she says then turns her glare on my boys. “Shut up, fuckers,” she scolds as they laugh. Then looks back at me. “What happens now?”
“Well, there will be another press conference and probably a shit load of interviews and meetings after that. Then we can do whatever we want, it’s up to you.” I tell her then lean into her ear. “As long as I get to fuck you at the end of the night I really don’t give a shit what we do.”
She grins up at me. “How long will all that take?”
I look over at coach with a questing eyebrow. “I can imagine you seniors will have a few meetings with scouts following the press conference so I’d assume your ass is stuck here for at least another 3 hours,” Coach explains.
“Fuck. Sorry babe,” I cringe.
“That’s ok. You do what you need to do. Sophie and I will head back to the hotel and get ourselves all dolled up, then you guys can come back and take us out and don’t worry, I plan on finishing this night with you deep inside me,” she tells me.
“You’ve got yourself a deal.”
“Ok, Superstar,” she says, unwinding her legs from my waist. “I’ll see you when you’re done.”
I give her a long, lingering kiss and send her on her way.
Best. Day. Ever.
Two hours later we finish up in the press conference when Coach Harris pulls Tank and I aside. “Follow me, boys,” he tells us in a tone that suggests we shut up and do what we’re told.
We follow him down a hallway and into an empty meeting room. He motions for us to take a seat which is exactly what we do. “What’s up, Coach?” Tank asks.
“You’ll see,” he says with pride in his eyes. “Just don’t sign anything straight away. You’ve got three of these meetings tonight,” he mentions as the door is opened and two men in suits walk in, one being the scout for the Chicago Raiders that Tank and I met a few months ago after one of our games.
“Gentlemen,” he starts as he takes a seat before us. “You did an amazing job tonight.”
“Thanks,” we say in unison.
“I know you must be tired so let’s cut right to the chase. We want to offer you each a four-year contract,” he starts as he slides a contract in front of us. We both grab them and ask a string of questions as we flick through the pages. After another 10 minutes, they get up and make way for the scouts from Colorado, followed by the men from L.A, each offering a four-year contract.
Once they make their exit, leaving us with more questions than when we started. I look over at Tank and Coach. “Fuck,” I say, breaking into a wide grin.
“I knew you boys could do it,” Coach says with pride. “The fucking NHL.”
Tank’s grin nearly rips his face is half. “Did you see how many zeros followed those dollar signs?” he laughs, running a hand through his hair.
“Sure did, man,” I say. “Now let’s get out of here. I promised my woman a night out.”