Calling the Shots

Chapter Six

I slept until 5:30 pm on Thursday. It had been a long night for both Sarah and I. We had two of our kids throwing up through out the night and another kid's Blood Pressure dropped so low we had to call the On Call for a bolus. Neither Sarah or I left the hospital until 8:30 this morning and we hadn't gotten to sleep at all during the night.

I felt very disoriented when my alarm blared at 5:30 pm jolting me awake. My head pounded and I slowly sat up rubbing my eyes. I decided to have a shower in hopes of waking myself up.

By 6:30 pm I had showered and eaten and was feeling much better. I made myself a coffee and decided what to wear to the game tonight. I was nervous to be going by myself but excited to watch a game and see Kevin again. Since I didn't have a Tampa Jersey to wear, I decided just to wear blue jeans, a plain white shirt with my white converse. Nothing to fancy because it was just a hockey game. I did put on some makeup and do my hair so it fell in nice curls down my back.

I ordered an Uber to come for 7:15 to pick me up. I knew it took time to get into NHL hockey games but not having to park was a huge bonus and time saver.

Kevin had emailed the ticket to me earlier in the day and I printed it off and put it in my purse. I had told Tyler I was going to watch TBL and Detroit play and he told me that would probably be a pretty good game. I was excited.

***

The Uber driver dropped me off at the entrance to the Area and I made my way inside, through security and got directions to my seat. I laughed when I finally clued in to where Kevin had gotten me a seat. Right behind the TBL bench. The rink was packed and buzzing with peoples voice's over the loud pump up music that was playing.

"Hello, there dear" I looked up and saw an older couple decked out in TBL attire sitting down on my right side, while the left chair beside me was still vacant.

"Hi" I smiled back at them

"First time to a game?" the older women asked me

I nodded "I'm very excited"

"We come to every home game" the older man said

"Wow! Number one fans"

"Yes! Our grandson is number 53"

"Oh that's awesome, so supportive" I told them and then the Announcer came on over the loud speaker and shouted out the TBL players as they skated onto the rink.

I watched carefully and when "Kevin Beckett" was announced so I knew which number to look out for on the ice. I saw he was number 25. I couldn't help but smile and clap loudly when he skated around the rink so gracefully before beginning the pregame warm up with the rest of the team.

When player 53 Callum Cropper came skating onto the ice, the couple beside me jumped up and whistled and cheered loudly. I clapped along grinning, I loved hockey fans and the atmosphere at a rink.

After the warm up and the pregame anthem, the starting players skated to center while the others joined the coaches on the bench. I noticed that Kevin was not on the starting line up and was sitting almost right in front of me talking to the coach. I wasn't expecting him to pay attention to me - he was in hockey mode and I knew that meant no distractions from living with Tyler for so long.

About half way through the first period it was still 0-0 but Kev had almost scored a few times, I couldn't help but solely focus on him. The Ref had just called an icing when I saw a black haired lady dressed in a TBL jersey, probably in her late 20's come and sit on my other side. I looked over and smiled at her but she didn't seem to notice because she was so focused on her phone so I turned my attention back to the game just in time to see Kevin win the face-off and take a quick shot on net and scoring! I jumped up clapping and cheering with the rest of the fans. I watched Kev skate back to the bench and look up at me and wink! I winked back grinning and gave him the thumbs up.