Chapter 33 Talbot
TALBOT
“Damn, these are good seats.”
The Boston Harbor Hawks are killing the Mammoths, as to be expected. They’ve yet to win a game this season.
I wouldn’t even care if they were losing—I mean, I would care, but shit, I’m sitting in the owner’s suite. I’m half surprised they even let me in here.
All the WAGs are dressed to the nines in white pants and matching white jackets with the Harbor Hawks logo and their husbands’ or boyfriends’ numbers blazed on them.
There’s a huge spread of free drinks, and I didn’t have to pay for any of it. I didn’t even need a ticket—I just pointed to Misty, and they waved me on through.
A guy could get used to this.
I feed Misty a bite of lobster poutine because they are high-rolling here. “The cheese curds are pretty low-quality for the owner’s suite.”
“It’s fried cheese. Who cares?” Misty lets me feed her another bite.
“People need to have standards.”
She snuggles in closer to me on the couch. Yeah, a literal couch.
“I’m starting to see the perks of being your boyfriend.”
“My boyfriend?” Misty coughs, grabbing her cocktail made by the literal bartender assigned to the suite.
It’s a far cry from sneaking cold chicken nuggets in my sister’s stuffed animals so that we didn’t have to buy food at a hockey game when we were younger.
“Don’t you mean fake boyfriend?”
“Don’t say it was against your will.” I graze my teeth against her ear and feel her shiver against me. “Your entire family walked in on us doing the nasty Santa, Gumdrop, and yet you would totally let me finger you here in front of everyone.”
My hand slides up her thigh.
“Don’t you dare!” She slaps at my hand. Her face is beet red.
I can’t help but kiss her nose, relax into the steady weight of her against me.
Mason scores a goal, and his teammates jump all over him, cheering.
The jumbotron cameras switch to the owner’s box to show the proud family.
Misty hides her face against me when she realizes she’s on the screen. “This is why I don’t sit here.”
I laugh into her hair and kiss her.
Yeah, I know what Hudson said. I know I need to be focusing on the job, the mission above all else, but it’s not like I can off Austen at a hockey game. So why not have a drink, enjoy the atmosphere?
The players line up for face-off, then they’re racing down the ice, fighting for the puck. One of the Mammoths knocks Mason in the face with a stick.
The Harbor Hawks all jump the guy, and the crowd roars.
Nothing like a hockey game in Boston.
The crowd jeers as the other team’s forward gets sent to the penalty box for high-sticking.
The Harbor Hawks are on the power play now, racing the puck towards the goal.
“I see why he dated you.” I nod to Austen as he chases after the puck. He looks like he’s a hair’s breadth behind the play.
“What do you mean, you see what?” Misty frowns, looking at the ice.
“It’s obvious, right?” I point to number 55. “Larkner should be the captain. Look at how he calls the plays, calms his goalie down. But Ryan made Austen captain for you because he was in love with you. Allegedly,” I snicker.
Her eyes go wide in horror. “You can’t mean… that’s not—” She holds her stomach like she’s going to hurl.
“Seriously, Gumdrop,”—I cup her face, searching her eyes—“you didn’t clock that? For a while, I thought that’s why you decided to, you know—” I slice my hand across my throat. “Because you wanted payback for the humiliation.”
“He said he was in love with me.”
“Uh… shit.”
Down on the ice, Austen has refused to make a pass, taken a shot on goal, and missed. The Boston fans boo.
“He was clearly just using you for his own profit,” I add as Misty’s eyes start to tear up. “Once he got what he wanted, he didn’t need you anymore, right?”
“It wasn’t clear to me.” She jumps up and hurries through the suite to the door leading to the short hallway with the private restrooms.
After wiping my mouth and taking a long swig of my beer, I take a longing look at the game and go after her.
Misty is slumped on the floor, crying.
“Gumdrop.” I slide down next to her, tentatively reach out to pet her hair. “You can’t be crying over him. He’s not worth it.”
“I was so happy when Austen finally started noticing me, when he was flirting with me. I thought it meant all the dieting and the yoga videos I was doing were working, that I was finally the type of girl a guy like him would want.”
She sniffles and wipes at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater.
“Sienna had made me buy new clothes and was trying to set me up on dates with randos, but I couldn’t get past a first date with any of them.
Then we went to this hockey game, and Austen just, like, noticed me in the crowd.
It was like the ending of those old movies I always loved, where the guy finally realizes the girl for him has been right in front of him this whole time and…
wait.” She stares off into the distance.
“It was the Direwolves’ home game, the last game of the season when the old Harbor Hawks captain retired.
Oh my god.” She sucks in air. “Oh my god, you’re right.
Austen never cared about me. He said—” She gulps a cry.
“He told me that he didn’t want me dating another man, that we were meant to be together, that he was what I was waiting for his entire life.
Ryan made him captain a few months later. ”
Her head drops into her hands.
“My mom was so happy when I got with Austen. She kept telling me she was so proud of me, she was so happy. She’s never been that happy for me. Not when I got honor roll, or fixed the fridge so we wouldn’t have to hire a repairman, or was valedictorian in my master’s program.”
Tears roll down Misty’s face.
“I think maybe she was just glad that finally, for once, we had something in common, that she felt like we could relate on the same plane, that I wasn’t a complete weirdo.
Because I couldn’t be that much of a disappointment if a man like Austen loved me.
Gosh, I’m so stupid. And then fucking Ryan gives him the captain position as a consolation prize because I’m so worthless that Austen had to be given a pity prize just to be with me. ”
I hesitate a moment then gather her in my arms, kiss her tearstained cheeks.
“He doesn’t deserve your heart. And you’re not stupid for thinking an NHL captain would want to marry you.
Those guys? Any of them would be lucky to have you as their wife.
But you’re too good for any of them. You deserve to be, like, I don’t know, a billionaire’s wife.
Jet-set around. Have anything your heart desires. ”
“I don’t want a billionaire. I just want a normal man who has at least a part-time job and takes off his shoes before he comes inside and likes my cooking.”
“You need to raise your standards, Gumdrop. Austen wasn’t doing you a favor by dating you. You were the one doing him a favor. And I’m going to kill him for hurting you.”
“Stop trying to get me to let you—” She makes a hand sign.
“That’s the sign for anal, and I’m not doing that with Austen, thanks.”
“No, it’s not!” she shrieks.
I kiss her. “I will with you, though.”
“Like, here? Right now?”
“Nah, Gumdrop, I have something better planned.” I swing her to her feet, twirl her around, and kiss her. I herd her in front of me, and we swing by the bar, where I grab more drinks and some shots.
Austen has been pulled off the ice and is sitting in the box with the other players. Ryan has his neutral professional expression on, but Sienna’s dad looks pissed.
Good. Austen deserves it for fucking up that last play.
I hand her a shot. “Here’s to Austen’s untimely but deserved demise.”
“I need to be careful with these.” Misty takes my shot and downs it. “I might actually kill him myself.”
“That’s my girl.” I slip my hand to rest on her lower back then, eyes still on the game, slide it under the band of her skirt and let my fingers slowly spread her.
Misty’s rigid next to me, cheeks flushed as I slip my hand out to lick the taste of her off my fingers.
I hand her another shot, and we toast with it.
She can’t stop staring at me as she knocks it back.