Back to Where We Started From (Miracle)

Chapter 101

"God, that blows. I hope he's able to play."

"Yeah, me too. What time is your flight?"

"We leave in a couple hours. Are you excited for Lake Placid?"

"I definitely wouldn't mind going back to the Los Angeles weather with you, but I'm sure the games will be tons of fun. I promise I'll be on the first flight back," she swore.

"You better," Jim chortled. "Tell the boys we said good luck. We'll be cheering them on."

"Will do. I'll see you soon."

Julia hung up the phone and grabbed her room key, heading downstairs in hopes of finding some breakfast. She found some of the boys downstairs, looking sullen as they picked at their breakfast. She remembered the score of the game the night before and attributed their attitudes to that. She grabbed a cup of coffee and took an open seat beside Magic.

"Good morning," she said softly. A few half-hearted greetings came in response.

"Did you hear?" Magic asked her quietly, pushing some eggs around his plate with his fork.

"About the game? Yeah," she said with a sympathetic expression.

"And Jack?" Robbie followed up, looking up at her sheepishly. She nodded, taking a sip of the mediocre hotel coffee.

"Yeah, I saw him last night. Sorry about the game," she told him, keeping her voice low.

"Yeah, me too," Magic sighed, stabbing his eggs with his fork. She didn't say anything, taking a big drink of her coffee.

Julia looked across the room to see Herb and Craig in deep conversation. Both of them were frowning, and she had an uneasy feeling that they were talking about Jack.

"Earth to Jules?" Rizzo called, waving a hand in front of her face. She jumped, looking over at him in shock.

"Sorry, I didn't see you sit down."

"I asked how the party was," Rizzo repeated.

"It was fine. Kinda boring," she shrugged. Rizzo raised an eyebrow at her, one corner of his mouth pulling up in a smirk.

"Is that the bull you told Jack to keep him from losing his mind that you left?"

"It's not bull," she insisted with an eyeroll. "Okay, maybe a little bit, but who cares? Parties are considerably less fun when everyone is under strict instruction to not serve me any booze."

"Oh, that makes sense," he chuckled. "How was he last night?"

"Not happy at first. I know he's worried about everything. Did you talk to him this morning?"

"A little bit, but Doc came to check on him and I was too hungry to wait for him."

"Fair," she sighed. She grabbed a newspaper off the table, picking it up to see a bold headline:

Soviet icemen deflate USA's amateurs 10-3

She slowly set the copy of The Daily News back down, with the headline facedown. She was sure the boys had already seen it, but it didn't need to be on display.

"Not so fun being in the papers. I get why you don't like it now," Rizzo gave a lone laugh. Before Julia could respond, Herb was walking over.

"Morning, Julie. How was the party?" He asked her.

"Stuffy and boring. I had to kiss my boss's ass," she said with a huff. Magic frowned beside her.

"You have a boss?" He questioned. Julia nodded.