Sawyer smiles again and heads for his locker. I go back to getting geared up, but I can’t stop thinking about how funny this whole interaction has been. Of course, I already know who all three of them are. I’ve been living and breathing hockey for the last several years, and the Aces just won the Cup, so I’ve been following their every move.

If I was one of them, I’d be strutting around here like I was hot shit—and I probably wouldn’t have been so warm to a rookie—but they all seem way more grounded than I would’ve guessed. They’re just normal guys who happen to be NHL champions.

The rest of the team streams in one by one over the next few minutes, and when everyone’s finished introducing themselves to me and getting ready, we hit the ice together. I’m last in line, but that’s probably a good thing because I’m off in space, drinking in all the details of the arena and trying to get myself to believe this is really happening, that I’m really here and part of the team now.

The weight of my Aces jersey against my shoulders and the sight of my number—43—proves it, but I’ve been working so hard toward this moment that standing on the ice in a line with the rest of the team in their home arena feels surreal. My nerves are starting to set in, because it’s showtime, and the rest of the guys are gonna be watching and scrutinizing everything I do.

Dunaway waits for us at the center of the ice, his arms crossed over his chest, so we circle around him.

He looks at each of us in turn, nodding approvingly, then clears his throat. “Alright, listen up. I know we’re riding high after a Cup win last season,” he starts, and whoops from some of the guys cut him off until he glares at them. “But that doesn’t mean we can get cocky. The whole league is going to be gunning for us now, so we need to go into this season thinking of ourselves as the underdogs. We’ve gotta be just as scrappy and hungry for it this time as we were before to prove that we deserve to win two Cups in a row.”

“Hell yeah,” Theo says, and I join the guys clattering their sticks against the ice to show their support.

“Glad we’re on the same page. Now let’s get that Aces magic going,” Dunaway says and holds his hand out in front of him. We all pile our hands on top of his. “One, two, three,” Dunaway counts down.