The first game of the tournament had already been played, but Lucy and I opted to skip it so we had more time for dinner. That might have been a waste since our tickets covered all the games, but we really were just here to support the guys. As much as we enjoyed watching their games, it was more about cheering them on than a genuine love for the sport. And their game gave us plenty of opportunity to stand up and scream. I didn’t think any of the games I’d been to before had prepared me for the craziness of the semi-final game that night. The skating was faster, the hits were harder, and the shots seemed to move like lightning. I’d never seen anything like it before in my entire life. Watching Luka win that game and make it to the championship, knowing how much it meant to him, was just flat-out incredible.
Since Lucy had me covered, Luka had given his tickets to his parents. His aunt and uncle had flown into Chicago to babysit his brothers and sisters, so his parents hadn’t made it into town until right before Luka’s first game on Thursday night. They’d spent Friday morning with Luka, and then they had taken both of us out to dinner Friday night. They’d invited me to join them during the day as they went sightseeing, but I had a big project due next week so I’d had to say no. The trip to see Luka play didn’t work well with my class schedule and everything that I had coming up soon, but it didn’t matter because I had to be here for him. But it did mean that I couldn’t do everything I wanted while I was here.
It had taken a little while for his parents to warm up to me, and I worried that they were offended by my refusal to join them during the day. With my dating history, I’d never really had to worry about a guy’s parents liking me, because by the time the opportunity to meet them had come around, I’d been ready to end the relationship. But with Luka, I really wanted them to like me. Luckily, I’d felt like they had accepted me by the end of the dinner. It had been fun to listen to his father talk in his rumbling voice, his thick accent rolling over me. He was a boisterous man who loved hockey almost as much as he loved his son.
His mom had watched us together with soft eyes that smiled when she’d seen how we acted together. It had been much easier to get her approval, but I thought that was partly because Luka had talked to her about me. She just wanted her boy to be happy, and I did my best to make sure that he was.
Today was finally the big day for Luka’s team. They were playing in the championship game in his last time on the ice as a college hockey player. When I’d asked him why he wasn’t going to play hockey professionally after college, he’d laughed pretty hard before explaining how competitive it was. He had a couple friends from Chicago who might make it to the NHL, but they had delayed college so they could play hockey full time in the junior leagues in the hopes that they’d get picked up by a team. Luka was younger than a lot of his teammates, and apparently, it was because hockey was different than some other sports in that it wasn’t unusual for talented players to wait a couple of years before going to college.
Luka was just happy that the sport he loved had paid for school and that he’d gotten to play another four years at this level. Once he graduated from college, he hoped that, wherever he lived, he could play in a men’s league, but this was it for him when it came to competitive hockey.
Luka was busy with his team today as they got ready for the game, so I hung out with his parents until it was time to go to the rink. I hadn’t really ice skated much as a kid, but Luka’s dad talked me into going on the ice with him during the public open skate. I held on to the wall for dear life, afraid that I was going to fall, while he showed me where Luka had gotten some of his skating skills. Eventually, he skated over to take my hand and helped me around the rink, and I had so much fun skating around with him.
We had an early dinner, and his mom regaled me with stories about Luka growing up. His first hockey game. How much he hated math in high school until his calculus teacher had told him that he was good at it. How he liked to embarrass his siblings but they adored him so much. She even told me about the time he’d crashed his car into the shallow end of the lake by their house when he was supposed to have been at home and he had to call his dad to come tow him out of the water in the middle of the night.
When we got to the rink, I left his parents to meet Lucy at our seats. She’d spent her day with Alex’s parents, sightseeing, and trying to stay calm since he was playing in net today.
“I swear to God, Alex’s mom has nerves of steel,” she told me as I sat down.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’m a complete mess, freaked out about this game. And she kept telling me to calm down all day!” Lucy complained. “How the hell am I supposed to just relax and have fun when Alex is about to play the most important game ever?”