Contents
Chapter 32
Overview
On the eve of Briar’s season opener against St. Anthony’s, Logan juggles hockey momentum and mounting family crisis. A hospital scare keeps Jeff away, forcing Logan to handle their incapacitated father, triggering a panic attack. He misses dinner with Grace and, shattered, accepts unexpected comfort from Grace’s father, exposing his deepest fear about the future.
Summary
Three days before the season opener versus St. Anthony’s, Logan notes the team finally improving in practice. With midterms limiting time with Grace, they plan dinner with her father. Logan then receives an urgent call from Jeff: Kylie is in the ER with a cut hand, and Jeff needs Logan to check on their father.
Logan drives to Munsen dreading what he’ll find. Inside the bungalow, he discovers his father facedown in vomit and urine, clutching a bourbon bottle. Suppressing the urge to leave, Logan checks for injuries, lies that Logan’s mother is out, and hauls his disoriented father to the shower, confronting the stench, the chaos, and the painful memories of his childhood.
As Logan washes and stabilizes his father, he realizes Jeff has been doing this alone for years, and panics over a future where caregiving will dominate his life after graduation. Physical symptoms—racing heart, shaking hands, tight chest—crest into what feels like a panic attack.
Hours late and with a dead phone, Logan drives to Grace’s father’s house only to learn Grace has returned to campus to study. When Mr. Ivers asks what’s wrong, Logan tries to deflect but unravels after being called “son.” Overwhelmed by fear and exhaustion, he breaks down, and Mr. Ivers embraces and comforts him.
Who Appears
- John LoganHockey player; handles a crisis with his alcoholic father, suffers a panic attack, misses dinner, and breaks down with Mr. Ivers’s support.
- Logan’s fatherFound passed out in vomit and urine clutching bourbon; disoriented and dependent as Logan cleans and stabilizes him.
- JeffLogan’s brother; at the ER with Kylie after her hand injury; asks Logan to check on their father.
- Mr. IversGrace’s father; confronts Logan’s distress, offers comfort and a steady, paternal embrace when Logan breaks down.
- Grace IversLogan’s girlfriend; waits but leaves to study when he’s hours late; unseen anchor in his turmoil.
- KylieJeff’s girlfriend; cuts her hand making dinner, needs stitches, keeping Jeff at the hospital.
- RamonaGrace’s former friend; rides with Grace to Hastings and back; her presence underscores recent tensions.