Skating to the bench, he went to send a grin to Claire, like he always did, but when he looked up and saw Reese staring back at him, it stunned him. He blinked twice and she just sat there, staring at him with the saddest brown eyes ever. She was wearing makeup this time, had even done her hair, and was wearing his jersey. She looked beautiful, like always, and it left him in a daze that he didn’t need to be in right now. Mentally smacking himself, he took in a quick breath and looked away, because if he kept staring at her, he was going to climb over that glass, pull her into his arms, and never let go. He couldn’t do that. He had a game to win. But as he skated to the middle for the puck drop, he couldn’t help but glance back at where she was sitting. She was still watching him, and he didn’t know what to think of that. Was she there to fix things?
When the puck dropped and he completely missed it, losing it to the Wings, he decided that he had to push her out of his mind or he was going to lose this game. Getting his head on straight, he chased after the puck but thankfully, Shea was there, stopping the Wing player and sending the puck up to Erik. Phillip turned, rushing with him to the goal, Karson on the other side. Erik passed the puck back, and Shea sent it up to Phillip. He then deked around a player and might have had the goal but, to be sure, he sent it to Karson and he sent it to the back of the goal with ease. It was a gorgeous play but the high of scoring was short-lived because the Wings came back, hard, scoring two goals back to back.
Not letting their confidence falter, the Assassins pushed back with Patty scoring another goal and tying it up at the end of the first. The second period was hard hitting, with a lot of chances, but no one scored. When the third period came, Phillip was sitting on the bench, hoping like hell they could pull out the win. The Wings were playing a tough game, out shooting them by six shots on goal, but Phillip believed in his team. Watching as Lucas, Matty, and JT skated fast down the ice to the goal, he held his breath as JT shot, hitting the goalie’s blocker pad but receiving one hell of a rebound, which Lucas was able to get and he sent the puck sailing to the back of the net with only two minutes left in the period.
The crowd lost it, hell, the bench lost it, everyone cheering for Lucas as he hugged his line tightly, congratulating everyone. That goal was going to be the game winner as long as they held them. When Phillip was tapped on the shoulder, he jumped over the board, Erik and Karson at his side as they skated to position, waiting for the defensemen to bring the puck up. Watching the clock because he knew that they were going to pull their goalie for the extra man on the ice, Phillip poke checked the puck away but unfortunately, a Wings player was there to get it and shot the puck. Tate blocked it with ease.
“EMPTY NET!” Shea yelled, blocking a forward before taking the puck.
Glancing at the clock, Phillip saw that they had sixty seconds to hold the lead. Shea tried to send it to Karson but a Wing took it, sending it to the goal but, like the ninja goalie he was, Tate batted it away and it came right to Phillip. He had a clear path to the goal, no one was in the way, but if he took off towards the goal, he knew they would stop him. So not wasting time, Phillip turned and took a slap shot, sending the puck right into the empty net.
Throwing his hands up as his teammates attacked him, the horn went off repeatedly and with that goal, the Wings’ fate was sealed.
The Assassins had won.
Feeling jovial, Phillip pushed through the door that lead to the parking lot, excited to see Claire and go to dinner, but nervous about seeing Reese. Should he invite her? Ignore her? What? Give her a chance to talk? Maybe she wouldn’t even be there but, when he reached the spot where they always met up, she stood there, tight, dark jeans clinging to her legs with black boots up to her knees. He wished his body didn’t react to her the way it did when he was mad, but it did, begging for her body and imagining her standing only in those boots and nothing else. Shaking the image away, he continued for them. Claire was talking about something but, once he reached them, she stopped and wrapped her arms around him.
“What a game!”
Phillip’s eyes were locked with Reese’s as he hugged Claire tightly. “It was awesome.”
“Great goal.”
“It was an empty netter,” he scoffed as she backed away.
“So? You didn’t even think about what you were doing. You just shot, and it was magical. I’m proud of you.”