“Here, let me help,” Emma murmured, tapping Tyler’s hand. Blood soaked the front of his powder blue jersey. She pulled it back down over his pads with one hand and held a thick stack of gauze against his nostrils. “I’m sorry.”
Tyler’s eyes were already swelling. A tear slipped out over her cheek and she drew a deep breath, trying to keep her hand steady. She’d always hated hockey fights, but this one was personal.
“He’s yourteammate, Sean,” she snapped in her brother’s direction. Sean opened his mouth but Kelty grabbed his face and yanked it back to face her.
“Shut your mouth. Do you hear me? You will not say a damn word. Not tonight.”
Emma loved that woman. She turned back to Tyler. "Are you okay?"
"Been through worse," he grunted, suppressing a wince as her hand shifted.
The gauze was already soaked through. “Here, hold this a second.”
Tyler lifted his bloody fingers and did as she asked. She reached for more gauze in the first-aid kit and made another stack. After switching it out, she grabbed antiseptic spray and a bandage for the gash on his left eyebrow. Her fingers trembled as she dabbed it clean, sprayed it, then pressed it together and applied the bandage.
“I think the bleeding is slowing. Did you break anything?” Emma struggled to keep her voice steady as she cleaned the blood from his swollen knuckles.
“He didn’t break anything,” Sean muttered across the bench.
“Not. A damn. Word.” Kelty put a bit of force into her next application of gauze, and Sean grunted.
Emma pushed closer to the bench between Tyler’s legs so Country could grab a few water bottles.
“Second period’s starting in three.” Fly pushed his hair back from his forehead and repositioned his helmet.
“Hope they enjoy their power play,” Emma muttered, shaking her head at the pile of bloody gauze on the bench.
Country slapped a hand on Fly’s shoulder. “Let’s go, Gramps. Five minutes, then Tyler will be—”
“Tylerwon’tbe.” Emma spun and knocked against Tyler’s knees. “He can barely see.”
“But—”
“Blame your captain!” Emma pointed accusingly at Sean. “You’ll have to sub in Curtis and have him serve the five minutes. And I assume Sean got a misconduct?” Boyd nodded, adjusting one of his goalie pads.
“I just need a minute to make sure the bleeding—” Tyler started, then saw Emma’s face. She bent over and started gathering the used gauze.Rage cleaning.
“C’est tiguidou.” Andre laughed and waved him off. “Get cleaned up. We’ll take this.”
Tyler nodded and pushed up from the bench. Emma wasn’t going to embarrass him by asking if he needed help washing up, even though she wanted to. Hockey players didn’t react kindly to being babied, even when they acted like toddlers.
She bundled the mound of gauze in her hands. “I’ll wait for you up top.”
* * *
Tyler insisted he didn’t need to go to Urgent Care. Since his nose didn’t look crooked, Emma gave up on that point and typed the address he gave her into the GPS. She didn’t trust him to give her good directions.
He lay back in the passenger seat with his eyes closed. “It’s not as bad as it looks.” Tyler sounded like he had a raging head cold.
“Would you seriously have gone back on the ice?”
He shrugged. Of course he would have. She remembered a tournament where Carter ended up needing stitches along his hairline after playing two overtime periods past a fight.
She offered to carry his gear inside, but he wouldn’t let her. Instead, she took his keys and walked up the steps to open the door. Brett wasn’t home from the game yet. She doubted anyone had gone to One Place, but they all still had to clean up. Tyler, since he’d left the game early, was ready to go when the buzzer went off.
Tyler dropped his gear next to the boot rack and stretched out on the couch.
“Do you have an ice pack?” Emma asked, searching the freezer.
