We’d had a few games where we’d been coming together, seeing openings, and reading each other well, then for whatever reason, that partnership fell apart.

I called a meeting of our line after practice. We met at the Place, a bar that was a Seattle institution. The Place had been in Seattle way longer than any of us had been alive.

We ordered lunch and beers, and I gave them time to eat before we had a serious talk. Steele beat me to it.

“Axel, this isn’t just a friendly lunch. What’s going on?” Steele said.

“Us, we’re what’s going on. We’re playing like crap as a line.”

“No shit,” Ziggy snorted. He was a damn good player, but the man was a partier who never settled down long enough to take anything seriously. He’d been put on notice after the finals last year by team management. The only improvement he’d made in his behavior was to keep it less public, but he wasn’t doing less partying.

“Yeah, we are,” Kaden said miserably. He’d been down lately, not his usual self.

“We have to get beyond this somehow.” Easton rubbed his chin thoughtfully and stared off into space. No one had any answers. Neither did I.

“We could talk to Coach about it,” Steele suggested. “Maybe one of the coaches would be willing to stay after practice and help us work on stuff.”

“Coop would do it.” Ziggy was suddenly all serious, a side I’d never seen from him except on the ice. “He’d stay and help us.”

Cooper Black was a legend, not just in Seattle but in the entire league. He was one of the best centers the game had ever seen. He retired last season after the Sockeyes won the Cup and accepted a job as assistant coach. He was a taskmaster and detail-oriented. Just what we needed right now, because something was wrong, and we weren’t getting it.

“I’ll ask him,” I volunteered. Coop had been one of my idols growing up. I was still in awe of him and slightly intimidated. If anyone could help us, he could.

~~Geneva~~

That evening, Axel knocked on our door for his weekly dinner. Teagan scrambled to beat her siblings to the door. A few seconds later, I heard an excited, ear-piercing squeal followed by high-pitched jabbering.

Jock and I shared curious stares. Axel walked into the kitchen with Teagan on his tail. He held up a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers with a sheepish grin.

“For you, Geneva.” He held the flowers toward me. In my shocked state, all I did was stare with a wide-open mouth. No one had ever given me flowers before. When I didn’t relieve him of his colorful burden, he shoved them toward me. I had to grab them or drop them. I grabbed them.

Teagan was bouncing with excitement. “I’ll get a vase.” She rummaged through a bottom cupboard and produced a cheap vase, one of the glass kind you get from a florist.