Chapter 63
TALLY
“Ican’t come into the locker room with you.”
“I mean, there is no real rule.” Phillip keeps our fingers laced.
“Do you really want me to see your teammates’ junk? I could find out if Quinn really does have freckles everywhere.”
Phillip narrows his eyes while I grin up at him.
The media goes wild, flash after flash going off.
“You know that’ll be some kind of headline later tonight.”
“We can do better.” He wraps his arm around my waist and dips me backwards as he kisses me senseless.
“I see you’re taking a page from my book these days,” Connor says dryly as he passes. “Your coach is watching, by the way.”
I glance over to see my dad standing with Lexi and the other coaches.
“You’re going to be amazing tonight.” I smooth my hand over his lapels.
“Bringing home the cup for you,” he promises.
He kisses my nose, my chin, and then my lips before he disappears into the locker room.
“Everything okay with Madden?” Dad asks.
The only downside of living with my dad is that he knows when and where I spend my nights, so I slept in my own bed last night. Not that we didn’t have post-dinner, pre-me-going-home sex, but at least he had a solid eight hours of sleep. “He’s in a good headspace.”
“This is his best season, by far,” Dad says.
“He had a lot of motivation to play well,” I agree.
I see what Phillip means now when he says he’s not just playing for his team and himself anymore.
It was the same for Connor when he married Dred and they adopted the twins, who are starting university next year at Tilton.
He suddenly had a reason to play better.
He wanted to make the people he loves proud, and Phillip is the same.
I kiss my dad on the cheek and leave him to strategize, while I join the Babes, my Tilton friends, and my mom and siblings in the family box. The little ones are here, too. Callie is attached to Victor at the hip, and Everly is wearing a Grace jersey, but she has a Ryker cuff on her wrist.
“Everything okay?” Mom squeezes my arm.
“Everything is great. I’m glad you all could make it tonight.”
“It’s a big deal for your father, and for you,” she says. “We all wanted to be here to support you.”
“I want this for them.” I’m nervous but excited.
Winning the Cup this season would feel particularly gratifying, especially with how much focus there was on my relationship with Phillip.
We’re still a highlight, but the negativity has finally shifted.
Pictures of us with our Terror friends and their families keep popping up, and now the question is who’s getting married next and when will there be more babies.
Mom surveys the group. Ties and Victor are chatting, Fenna has been pulled in with Callie and Everly, and the littles are gathered around Brody, who doesn’t seem the least bit bothered by all the attention. He’s been coaching special needs hockey since he was in his early teens, so it tracks.
“They’re like a family, aren’t they?” Mom muses.
“Yeah, they really are,” I agree. “They’re like a bunch of older siblings.”
“It makes sense. You were always taking care of everyone, and you found friends who take care of each other.”
Hemi and Shilpa call us over and we join the rest of the group as the game gets underway.
They’re all playing hard, but the Seattle Storm went to seven games in both series before this one.
They’re tired, and the Terror had some downtime to recharge before the final series.
Time off can go either way. Sometimes it causes a team to lose momentum, but in this case, it rejuvenated the Terror and added enough fuel to their tanks to make them a formidable opponent.
In the first period, Grace and my boyfriend score a goal together.
Seattle tries to even the score, but defense is playing tight, and Romero and Palaniappa are working hard to make Ryker’s job easier.
Bright scores a goal at the end of the first and we keep that lead through the end of the second period.
In the third, Stiles scores with Phillip as the assist. Seattle finally puts themselves on the board with ten minutes left in the game.
They try for another goal, but Phillip gains control of the puck and scores again for Toronto.
The last ten minutes of the game are intense, with lots of hard hits into the boards, but the Storm can’t recover, and the Terror bring home the Cup.
It’s a glorious win.
A perfectly epic end to an epic season.
And a beautiful start to the next chapter in our lives.