“Yeah,” Dylan says and gets into position. My father comes over and holds the puck in the middle of center ice, and Michael and Dylan both look at him.

He drops the puck, and Dylan is the first on it. He almost runs past Michael, who is skating behind him, and I look as Evan just smiles at him. “Let’s see what you got, kid,” Evan says, skating backward, and he looks at me and then I just nod at him. He tries to take the puck away from Dylan, but he turns his body and then goes around him, and all he can do is watch him skate to the goal and tip it in. The whole bench breaks out in laughter.

“I did it,” Dylan says, skating to me. “I did it.”

“You did, buddy,” I say, holding up my gloved hand. “Okay now, let’s go teach some kids,” I say, and we get off ice one and walk over to ice two and three. We separate, and when it’s lunchtime, we all gather upstairs for lunch. I look for Dylan, who is sitting with Michael, and they are laughing at something. “How great is this?” I say to the guys who look around.

“You are doing a good thing here,” my father says. “All these kids not having the chance to get on the ice, and you are paying for them to do all of this.” I shrug.

“There are a couple that if they are given a free ride would just be out of this world,” Matthew says.

“I have an idea for the Horton Foundation.” Max says of the foundation that he started long ago. He works with the child’s oncology department because his sister is a doctor there. Her stepson is a survivor, and she helped treat him.

“Yeah,” Evan says. “I’d pitch in money to help kids.”

“You guys are all copycats,” I tell them, taking a bite of my chicken.

“But with all that said, it’s a good thing.”

“Your kid,” Viktor says now, and I look over at him. He was quiet at first, and he took some time to come around. But after he went through his recovery and got with Zoe, he really blossomed and opened up. It was good to see. “He’s got hands; he’s got speed. If he had just a touch more height, he could even be three levels ahead. But it will come.”

“His hands are insane,” Evan says. “I was with him and the other kids his age. The kid didn’t even look up when he is doing the drill, but he just stared straight and let the puck feel the stick.”