He started to walk past us, and Simon put a hand up against his chest. “You’re not playing tonight. You shouldn’t even be here. If Coach sees the two of you—”

“I wouldn’t get in my way, Simon. If Coach finds out you’ve been lying to him and you knew all along, pretty sure you two will have your titles stripped.”

“You’ll have a lot more to lose if you come clean now. Get out of that uniform and let August finish this game.” Ryan approached with a more civilized tone.

I moved around the two men to face my brother. “Troy, I’m sorry, but you can’t just come in here unannounced and slip into a game in the third—”

“I’m finishing them, August. Thanks for starting for me but I’m ending it. This is the team that almost ruined my career, I know what I’m doing tonight. I can play like I did—”

“What about next game? When you don’t have all that retaliation and heat playing for you?” Simon argued.

“Yeah, Troy and you haven’t been to practice—” I started.

“You haven’t been to practice in over a year and you did just fine. You’re not better than me, August. You play for fun, there’s no pressure. Imagine making this your living and every fucking night is a nightmare because you have seconds to get something right while people are coming at you. You get to work in your pretty office with people jumping at your every command, well I don’t live that way. I try not to get creamed out there while I fight with everything I have to get a fucking goal.”

The two captains exchanged an uncomfortable glare and stepped aside.

I turned to both of them. “Can I have a minute?”

Simon released a breath. “We’re back on in ten, I need a Hartman out there in eight. You two figure out which one it’s going to be.”

I nodded and they both stepped out of the room.

Troy avoided eye contact.

I sat to unlace for good measure. This wasn’t his game to finish. But I knew my twin, and eight minutes wasn’t enough to convince him of that.

“Spend some quality time with Dad over the weekend?”

“This isn’t about anything Dad lectured me about. Or the fact that he thought taking me to the local rink during off hours was going to do anything for my self-esteem. I’m ready. I needed a break, I got hit hard with that loss, but I’m ready.”

I nodded. “I know it’s not easy, Troy. I know you fight to keep up with the others. I know you’re scared every time you get out there that you’re not good enough. It’s hard living with that kind of doubt and I’m not surprised it wore you down.”