Pucking Around

Early the next morning, Rachel boards the team plane as Jake sends her excited texts. She nearly trips in the airplane aisle, but Ilmari catches her, and she sits with him again. He insists on putting her bag away for her, and she smells his cologne, which she likes. She asks to see Ilmari’s back tattoo, but he objects to disrobing on the plane. She looks over at Jake and Caleb, feeling fond and oddly excited by the prospect of living with them both. She demands that Ilmari tell her about himself.

Ilmari thinks about the previous night’s game, and how he had to make too many saves because the Rays defense is not yet playing cohesively. His groin pull has also been aggravated. Rachel tries to draw him into conversation, but he responds only briefly. She encourages him to engage more fully with his teammates and insists that he chat with her, claiming that it is too uncomfortable to sit in silence on every flight. When he can’t think of a good question to ask, she threatens to move. Instinctively, he presses his hand down on her lap, which embarrasses him. She invites him to ask anything, and, seeing an opportunity to get help, he asks her about the “most effective way to treat a groin pull” (219).