“I will be.” He strode jauntily down the hallway, and I watched him disappear around a corner.

I was still standing there, staring longingly down the empty hall, when Jock came up beside me. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Shouldn’t you be home with your kids?”

“I’ve been watching tape. Tons and tons and tons of tape. Anything to get a slight advantage.”

Of course he was. My brother took his hockey seriously. If need be, he’d carry this team on his shoulders and take full responsibility if they lost while giving credit to everyone but him if they won.

He gave me a brotherly pat on the arm. “Later. I have kids to go home to. I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing you for dinner tonight?”

“No, not me. Is Axel coming over?”

“No, the coach removed all those restrictions since we’ve been playing nice. I’m working more closely with the rookie goalie.”

“Roman?”

“Yeah, him.” My brother didn’t sound too thrilled even though he was getting a reprieve from Axel.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s hyper, talks too much, and is a know-it-all. Most of the time I want to kill him. He has zero respect for the veterans on the team. On the other hand, he’s got mad skills, and he’s definitely a future superstar.”

“Are you being forced to mentor him?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure he’s going to be next year’s backup, and I’m going to be retired or looking for a new team.”

Such was the life of a pro athlete. One day you were on top of the world and the next you were nobody. Getting older in pro sports was a curse, but no one had invented a cure for aging, so things were as they were.

“You’d have a chance to spend more time with your kids if you weren’t playing hockey.”

“Yeah. That’s a plus. Just not sure what I’ll do with myself. I haven’t really planned for life after hockey even though I’ve seen it coming for a while now. I guess denial isn’t working so well for me these past few months when it comes to my life.”

“You’ll figure it out. Mr. Parker might have a spot for you within management if you want to stay in Seattle.”

“I need to. I can’t move the kids, especially Teagan. She’s taking her mother’s absence really hard.”

That was partially because her mother made sure she did. Looking back, I realized that Bria had treated her oldest daughter like a girlfriend, not a child. She’d shared secrets with her, gone shopping with her, and God only knew what else. I was afraid to find out.

“Bria isn’t a good influence on Teagan.”

“I know, but what can I do? The woman is her mother. They talk every day. Bria is fighting for joint custody, and I’m resisting.”

“But what about all the stuff we have on her? What about her threats? Her craziness?”

“I don’t have concrete proof for most of it. It’s all he said/she said, and during nasty divorces, those kinds of claims are so common most judges won’t pay much attention.”