Brian – Release Tour and Giveaway

The whistle blows, and the game is on. I’ll give Alexis this, she stays more or less on the side where I am, so the challenge is at least on a level playing field, so to speak. The first round, I focus on the girls who are the whole reason we’re here, tagging a few and making an exaggerated motion of just missing a few more. By round three, there are a lot of minnows in the middle with us sharks and the remaining runners, including Alexis, are getting winded as much from shrieks of laughter as from dashing back.

Round four is when I decide to make my move. Alexis has to work extra hard, dodging around the minnows in the neutral zone as well as other sharks, but I don’t strike when she’s distracted. I wait until our eyes meet, and then the game is on. She’s quick, I knew that from watching her skate, but I’m no slouch. She zigs and zags, trying to juke around me, but in the end, my grab for her is successful. I only meant to snag her by the arm, but my hand finds her waist instead, and her momentum reels her to my side. Both of us are breathless as our gazes meet, and I’m not one hundred percent sure it’s from running.

“I win, I win, I win,” shrieks a tiny girl with pigtails as she jumps up and down, as excited as if she’d scored her first goal. Sadly, her triumph pulls Alexis out of our moment. She steps back, stumbles a bit, then smiles briefly at me as she rejoins the other minnows, giving high-fives to the excited girls. 

* * *

After stopping for juice boxes and snacks, we take the girls onto the ice, some of them for the first time, for skating lessons. The kids who need them get the help of big plastic things that look like the fun version of a grown-up walker, known as Skate Helpers. These also happen to have the Quakes’ logo emblazoned on the front.

I’m already on the ice playing around with passing and blocking with Linc and the Tsunami boys when Alexis joins us a few minutes later. She sees the Skate Helpers and smiles.

“Holy s**t, I wish they’d had these around when I was learning to skate,” she says, admiring the simple design.

“The cool thing is if you stack two of them on top of each other, like the way you stack chairs, adults can use them too.” My demonstration goes into the forbidden “date” zone through no fault of my own. I stacked two up, she went to give it a try, and our hands brushed against each other. The weirdest thing is she left her hand there. Only for a split second, but still, that was better than her jerking away. Team Brian scores again! 

We only have them out on the ice for a little less than twenty minutes. Tired legs are the number one cause of a stupid injury that might result in the girls vowing to never skate again, nonetheless play hockey. Therefore, we definitely want to avoid that. Afterward, we all go back outside, most of them grateful for the warmth of the sun after being in the chilly indoor arena. There are more juice boxes, and the day ends with everyone making shiny gold cardboard crowns and personalizing them with glitter, feathers, or fake jewels. Of everyone, I think the kids from the Tsunami get the most glitter on them, but they’re grinning from ear to ear.

I stare at Alexis, her crown set at a jaunty angle, with Grrrl Power written in sparkles, as well as a few feathers and beads attached. She’s chatting away with the Tsunami boys, and it’s all I can do to quell a rumble of jealousy that threatens to boil over.

As if she’s noticing me for the first time, she appraises my crown as she approaches. “I figured you for the ‘Hockey God’ type of guy instead of ‘Coach of future stars.’ You continue to surprise me.”

“In a good way, I hope?”

She shrugs. “Yet to be determined.” Then she nods to Juliette, who is now a development scout. “I thought the only women the Quakes allowed on their ice were the slutty ice crew?”

I prickle at the comment. “Hey, first off, we now have the only woman NHL coach. And second, one of our on-air announcers got her start on the ice crew. And it’s not all about the outfits.”

“You mean the sports bra and tight-fitting pants while they’re skating around trying to clean up the ice? That outfit?”

“First, it’s a co-ed group. Second, they do a lot more than that. They represent the Quakes at non-profit events, and make sure the fans have a good time at the game as well as—” I stop when I notice she’s grinning at me rather than arguing. “I get it, you were just needling me to get a rise.

She gives me that million-watt smile that she spends like the rare currency it is. “Sibling 101. I’m an expert at it.”

Thank goodness I’m wearing my sweater that’s long enough to show just how good she is at getting a rise out of a very specific part of me.

“So, I know of a great—”

“No.”

“But you don’t even know what I was going to say?” Why do I keep striking out with this girl?

“It doesn’t matter. Great restaurant, great movie, great view, whatever it was you were going to suggest, the answer is no. Honestly, it’s not you.  I’m just not interested in dating anyone right now.”

“Really? Because you were eyeing the Tsunami players pretty wistfully,” I snarl, then immediately regret it. Because I’m not a jealous a–hole, but she doesn’t even know me well enough to keep rejecting me, so what the hell?

“No, it’s not—God, they’re barely out of college, what kind of person do you think I am? Ugh, never mind.” Then her expression softens, and the tiniest glimmer of hope bursts in my heart as she puts a hand on my shoulder. “Thanks for the day, I really did enjoy it, but I gotta go.”

Curious, drawn, and a whole lot of confused, my heart doubles down as I watch her walk out of my life. For the first time, I’m not okay with just moving on to someone new.