Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
Hart
F our minutes. That was how long the LA Whales needed to keep Dallas from scoring, or the game would go into overtime. But the entire team, including Beck, was tired. In every move they made, I could see the three days they’d just spent on the road, playing back-to-back away games, catching up to them—in the way they were skating, in the way they were holding their defensive stances. Hell, I could even see it in their offense. They didn’t have their normal speed or agility. If Dallas wasn’t a weaker team—their athleticism incomparable to the Whales—the one-goal lead would be double, if not triple.
Beck had scored two out of the three goals tonight, and I knew—because I knew my brother better than anyone—he was going after a hat trick. The Whales were on a four-game winning streak, and Dallas had been shit-talking our team in the press and across social media. Our guys were fucking starving for this victory. I could feel it in the buzz of the locker room when I had gone in before the game .
At this point in the game, they had one thing to beat.
That was the clock.
“God, I’m on fucking edge right now,” Brady said. He stood next to me behind the second row of seats in our suite, where I was gripping the hard plastic back of Colson’s chair, watching the puck like it was my fucking job. “Do you think Beck has one more goal in him?”
“Look at him.” I nodded toward the ice. “He’s beat. But he won’t let that stop him. He’ll fight like hell to get the third.”
“All that traveling wears a body down,” Macon, the youngest Spade brother, said, sitting next to Colson. “When I go back and forth to Hawaii several times within the span of a few weeks, I feel like shit. I can’t even process living on the road, like these guys do, for three-quarters of the year.”
“It’s more than just living on the road,” Cooper, the middle Spade, announced. He had his arm on his girl’s shoulders while they stood toward the side of the suite, Rowan smiling at him as he spoke. “It’s working out and practicing, sleeping in strange beds, being off your normal schedule. It’s making sure you get in enough food and nutrients to fuel your body. Being a professional athlete is no fucking joke.”
“I couldn’t do it,” Rowan said. “And we basically live in a hotel—and I still couldn’t do it.”
“I hear you. I couldn’t either,” I said to her, reaching into my pocket to take out my vibrating cell.
Sadie
Miss you.
Me
What part of you is aching for me?
Sadie
My heart—first and foremost. My hands—they’re dying to touch you. My lips—they want to kiss you. And that spot you love to put your mouth on—it’s throbbing. For you.
Me
I wish I could put my mouth there right now, baby. I miss the taste of you.
Sadie
Is that the only part of you that misses me?
“That makes three of us who couldn’t,” Macon added. “I’m all for sports, but playing at that level requires a dedication I just don’t have.”
“You did it in high school,” Brady said to him, referring to when Macon had played soccer. “Had you accepted the offers from the colleges that wanted you to play for them, you’d probably be in Europe right now and an international superstar.”
Brooklyn, Macon’s girlfriend, wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m so glad you’re not—in Europe, that is.”
Macon kissed her and said to Brady, “What, and not help manage the family business? Come on. We both know I wasn’t meant to live in Europe—unless it’s in a hotel that I’m rebuilding. The hotel business is in my blood, it’s all I know.”
“I feel that about food … in a hard way,” Walker said quietly.
“Rhett, you played high school ball too,” Macon said to the older Cole brother, who was business partners with the Spades.
Rhett, sitting in the front row, turned around and replied, “Yeah, football.”
“No desire to play in college?” Colson asked him.
Rhett looked at Lainey, his girl who sat beside him, and said, “That’s a long story. But, no, I majored in partying and minored in getting the most fucked up I could every night. ”
Lainey held his chin as she gazed at him.
“I majored and minored in the same,” Ridge, his younger brother, said, laughing.
Me
No. Every part of me wants you. Fuck, I wish you were at this game.
Sadie
Me too.
I checked the game clock and looked at Eden, who was now chatting with Addison, Ridge’s girl. I then waited for Eden to make eye contact with me, and when we locked stares, I gave her a nod, letting her know that it was a good time to escape. She wouldn’t bother saying goodbye to Walker or Colson. She’d just slip out the door, unnoticed, and text me when she got home—that was the deal we’d made when we rode together on the way here.
Me
But you’re having a good time with Bryn at this work thing, yeah?
Sadie
Always.
Me
And tomorrow night, you’re mine?
Sadie
It depends.
Me
On what?
Sadie
How badly you want me.
Me
Are you going to make me beg, Sadie?
Sadie
Maybe.
“Sixty seconds,” Cooper called out, moving toward the front row, near Rhett.
I could feel each tick of the fucking clock in my chest.
When Beck and his teammates were tired, they unintentionally let their guards down. Aside from letting their opponent score, it was when the most injuries happened. Beck still had a long season to go, and I wanted him healthy for it.
“I can barely watch,” Walker admitted as he stood beside me. “My nerves are shot for him.”
I nodded. “Same.” I took a quick glance behind me, and Eden was already gone. When my gaze returned to the clock, I voiced, “Thirty seconds.”
“You’ve got this, Beck,” Colson chanted.
Beck and both of his wings were positioned at the goal, sliding the puck between them, waiting for an opening, a way in, even if the angle was difficult. They just needed a small goddamn hole.
In the meantime, they had an audience full of people who could barely breathe, the ones in our suite included. And I could hear every reaction from the crowd—the quiet murmuring as we waited for the offense to make their move, the gasps each time the puck was passed. A sea of blue and white and silver—the Whales colors—all waiting to scream over the win.
“Fifteen seconds,” Macon called out.
“I need a drink,” Brady proclaimed as the clock stopped due to a penalty. “This is fucking stressful. ”
As he headed toward the bar on the side of the suite, I said, “Make me one too.”
He returned a few seconds later and handed me tequila—not as a shot or even in a tall glass. This was the whole bottle.
“Drink up,” he ordered, holding a bottle of whiskey that he clinked against my tequila.
I was taking in a mouthful when the announcer came through the speakers, letting us know one of the defensemen had gotten a two-minute penalty for roughing. That meant they’d be short a man, giving us the advantage.
The crowd fucking roared.
“Now, let’s watch Beck score,” Brady said.
The clock started back up, our entire suite counting down, “Nine, eight, seven.”
I joined in, “Six, five, four, three, two?—”
Beck, still in the middle of his two wings, reared his arms back before his stick connected with the edge of the puck, sending it soaring. It went a few yards across the ice before it lifted into the air, hooking around to the right, like a fucking boomerang. The goalie was staying low, thinking the puck was going to drop, and he wanted every hole covered on the bottom of the net.
But the puck didn’t stay low.
It maintained its height due to the speed in which it was flying, plowing right through the top-right pocket of the net, the buzzer going off at the same time the goal lights illuminated.
Four to two.
Final score.
We’d won, and Beck had gotten himself that goddamn hat trick.
The crowd erupted, and so did everyone in our suite, screaming Beck’s name as the whole team celebrated on the ice .
“Jesus,” Cooper hollered, “now, that’s one way to end an evening.”
“That’s not an end to this evening,” I countered. “This is just the beginning, you guys.”
I grabbed Walker’s arm and shook it. And just as I released my brother, Brady clicked his bottle against mine again, and I joined him by guzzling another shot of tequila.
I winced as the hard liquor went down. “It’s nice to have you home, my man.”
Brady smiled. “It’s nice to be home.”
I gave the bottle to Colson so he could have some while the group got up from their seats and made their way toward the front of the suite.
“Listen up,” I said. “We’re going to head downstairs, where there are three SUVs waiting for us. Beck is going to meet us—he has a press conference he must attend and a meeting with his coach, and then he has to shower up. Is everyone ready to go?”
“Fuck yes,” Brady growled.
“I can’t wait to celebrate Beck tonight,” Macon declared.
“Me too.” I opened the door to the suite, ready to lead everyone to the bank of elevators.
I was only a few steps past the doorway when Walker gripped my shoulder and voiced, “I’m ready to get my drink on.”
“You didn’t do that during the game?”
“Those beers were an appetizer,” he said. “Vodka is going to be my main course.”
I chuckled. “Fair enough. You’ve earned that.”
As we reached the elevators, Colson asked, “Where the hell is Eden?”
“She took off,” I told him, glancing from him to Walker so they could both hear me. “She slipped out before the game was over. She didn’t want to party. You know, it’s not her scene.”
Walker shook his head. “That’s so like her—and I fucking hate it. I want her here.”
“I know,” I agreed.
“Maybe one day, we’ll be able to convince her to join us,” Colson offered.
“Maybe.”
But as my brothers and I gazed at each other, we knew that probably wouldn’t ever be the case.
I stood between the two, holding the doors open while everyone filed in. When I was the only one left, I chose the one less full and hit the button for the ground floor.
“You haven’t told me the plan for tonight,” Brady said, his arm dangling around Lily’s shoulders as the lift began to descend. “What do you have up your sleeve?”
“Please tell me it’s not a strip club,” Lily groaned.
I laughed at her statement and typed a quick reply to Sadie.
Me
For you, I would fucking beg. And the second you walked through my door, I would get on my knees. That’s how badly I want you.
I slid the phone away and said to the couple, “There’s only one place I’d take you.”
Brady gave Lily a grin, and then he nodded at me. “Musik.”