The Captain's Forbidden Mate
Skates, ice, a puck, and eleven other men who trusted me to lead them through a game of sixty minutes of simplicity.
"You good, Captain?" Marsh, my line member, wandered into the stall next to me, assessing me more than I liked to be assessed at a time like this.
"I'm good."
"You've been a ghost for the last month."
"Family matters. This is the last weekend I was gone." I thumped him on the shoulder, cutting off whatever else he wanted to say on the matter. "Let's just win tonight."