BooksBarbecue
Back This Is Forever
Chapters (49)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Books By Natasha Madison
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. Epilogue One
  46. Epilogue Two
  47. ONLY ONE KISS SNEAK PEEK
  48. Books By Natasha Madison
  49. Acknowledgments

The sound of clapping makes me turn my head to see what is going on, and I see everyone getting up and the parents coming over to me. I look at Amy and see her smiling. “Thank you so much for doing this,” one of the dads says with tears in his eyes. “It’s not easy to get him on the ice, and then I try to bring him to the outdoor rinks, but it’s hard.” I shake his hand and thank all the parents for trusting me with their kids. When they finally leave, it’s time to get on the ice. I walk to my locker room where the other hockey coaches are. I’ll be on the ice with the kids the whole day, and I’ve hired people to direct the activities off the ice as well as three extra pairs of hands on the ice to run the drills I set up.

Once I get on the ice, the doors open and five kids join me. One loses his balance, but he gets up again, and when I look down, I see that Dylan is the first one who skates to me. “Okay, today we are going to do five drills over and over again.” I explain to the kids what they are going to do during the drills. Standing on the side, I watch as they do the first drill, and I have say Dylan is good. He can skate faster than all the other kids, and he uses both hands to help skate and speed up, which not all kids know to do. He can skate backward and do crossovers better than all of them.

“Dylan, how old are you?” I ask him when he finishes the fifth drill before everyone.

He looks up at me through the cage of his helmet. “Eight.”

“How long have you been playing hockey?” I ask him, and he shrugs.

“Not a lot,” he says, and I shake my head. Having nieces and nephews, I get that it can either be all the time or once or twice.

“What team do you play for?”

“I only played a little bit last time because I didn’t have any equipment.” I look at his skates, and you can tell they are well worn in. “Mom tried to get some skates, but there were none.” I shake my head, not thinking about how that might hold someone back.

“Well, looks like you have skates now,” I say with a smile while the other kids finish. Then I blow the whistle. “Okay, let’s do it again,” I say. Dylan skates to the first cone, and I drop a puck for him. “Try to do it with a puck,” I suggest.