My Husband's Entire Hockey Team Knew About His Mistress novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Forty Minutes

On Saturday morning Lena stood in the crease at Harbor Ice for the first time in six years.

Susanna had kept the pads.

They smelled of dust and old rubber, and the left glove was stiff from sitting in a closet.

Lena pulled the mask down over her face.

For a moment all she heard was her own breathing.

Then the first shot came.

She dropped to her pad and the puck hit her leg guard and rolled away.

The women along the boards cheered.

There were fourteen of them, goalies and skaters from three states, and the coach from the radio call stood at the blue line with a clipboard.

"Again," the coach said.

Lena saved the second one with her glove and the third one with her stick.

The fourth went by her left shoulder and hit the net.

"Rusty," a skater called, grinning.

"I'm twenty-nine," Lena said. "I'm allowed."

She stopped the next eleven.

By the end of the drill her thighs were shaking, and she was laughing inside the mask.

Beck sat in the top row of the stands in a plain grey hoodie, with his hands between his knees.

He had not said a word in an hour.

She had noticed it, and she had decided not to ask.

When she skated past the boards he lifted two fingers off his knee, and she lifted her glove.

That was all.

It was enough to make her want to cross the ice and kiss him in front of fourteen strangers.

The door at the far end banged open.

Three men in dark overcoats walked across the rubber mat with a woman in a grey suit.

Susanna came out of her office with her whistle swinging.

"Rink's closed to the public, gentlemen."

"Ms. Sadler?" the woman said. "Ms. Susanna Sadler, owner of Harbor Ice?"

"That's me."

"I'm serving this notice on behalf of the Dunning Group."

She held out an envelope.

Susanna did not take it.

"It's a cease-and-desist," the woman said. "The tryout is not sanctioned by the league. Every woman on this ice is in violation of her player agreement."

"Whose agreement?" the coach asked, walking over.

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