29. Corrigan
“ Holy shit this game is action packed!” Layken says next to me as we watch the end of the second period. Thanks to the amazing comradery between the Stars and the Red Tails, this game has been free of any major fights and really, only a handful of penalties. When the bell rings for the end of the period, both teams leave the ice.
“What’s that?” I ask her as I watch Bodhi skate off the ice.
Man, does he look good in that uniform or what?
Before the game I got a text from Bodhi explaining that he had an interesting conversation with my father. For a moment I worried that perhaps this was going to be a tense night until he told me he had my dad laughing so hard he cried. That coupled with the fact that my dad gave me a huge hug when he saw Layken and me in our usual spots behind the bench told me whatever they talked about, we were going to be perfectly fine.
“Uh huh…I get it.” Layken laughs. “You can’t keep your eyes off your little sex toy down there.”
“Can you blame me though?” I ask with a lovesick sigh. “He’s just so fucking hot in that uniform.”
“Tell me about it.” I turn my head to catch her eye but she’s watching someone on the ice too, which makes me smile.
We’re up four to three at the end of the second period. Layken and I take part in the usual chants and cheers with the rest of the crowd, watching Lumin, the shooting star, do her thing not too far from where we’re seated and then before I know it, she’s coming this way.
“Hey Lumin! Lookin’ good out there babe!” I shout when she gets close enough. She brings her yellow furry hands to her chest and then makes a heart shape with her fingers and then pretends to sprinkle me with her stardust magic.
“Aww, thank you!”
But she doesn’t stop there.
She wraps her hand around mine and escorts me out of the seat.
“Where are we going, Lumin?”
She doesn’t answer me of course but I feel Ella squeeze my hand so I completely trust her as she brings me down to the ice. The guard opens a section of the wall so I can be on the ice where Lumin hands me off to Remi Redtail. She follows us to the center of the ice and when I look back at her, now that we’re out of earshot from anyone, I hear Remi say, “Trust me, Corri. You got this.”
Remi Redtail gives me a hug and a high five and then begins to chase Lumin around the ice—much to the crowd’s entertainment. Lumin outskates Remi by a mile and he falls to his stomach chasing after her. The crowd cheers for Lumin who twirls happily and shakes her sparkly wand.
A moment later we’re joined by Zeke Miller, goalie for the Red Tails who heads straight to the net and a member of Anaheim’s front office activities team. Her name is Marlee. With a microphone in one hand and a hockey stick in the other, Marlee hands the stick to me and then explains to the crowd what they’re about to see.
“Alright whoooooo’s ready for a little half rink hockey?”
While the crowd cheers, I happen to look down at the stick in my hands, a message written in gold sharpie along the black tape reads
Don’t miss. It’s for the kids. I believe in you – Bodhi.
“What in the world?” I mumble but shake my head in amusement.
“With us tonight we have none other than Miss Corrigan Hicks! For those of you who might not be familiar, she is the daughter of our favorite Anaheim Stars head coach, let’s give it up for Corrigan!”
The crowd cheers again and I take a moment to give them a wave and a smile as Marlee continues.
“Corrigan has no idea what we’re doing here tonight or why we pulled her out to the ice, so allow me to explain. Last night, the Anaheim Stars, together with the Chicago Red Tails, helped raise over eight million dollars for the Pacific Children’s Hospital. The Anaheim Stars family gives our sincere thank you to the Red Tails for their help and generosity in raising these much needed and very important funds. But the members of the Red Tails team decided eight million dollars is not enough and they’d like to challenge Corrigan here to raise a little more.
What the…?
Marlee turns to me. “So, Corrigan, you have one puck and you have a stick in your hands.” She gestures to the net where Zeke Miller stands. “If you can shoot the puck from right here and get it into the net, the Chicago Red Tails have agreed to pay a combined one million dollars out of their own pockets to bring your total to nine million dollars raised.”
“Whaaaaat?”
My jaw drops and I cover my mouth with my hands in complete shock.
“That’s crazy!”
“Do you think you’re up for the challenge?”
Remi waves his feathers to get the crowd to cheer and Lumin claps her hands excitedly, twirling on my behalf.
I nod to Marlee. “Hell yeah, I’ll give it a try!”
Lumin and Remi lead the crowd in a slow clap for me as I position myself behind the puck and steady my stick in my hands. Glancing down once more at Bodhi’s sweet handwritten message on the stick tape, I rear back my arms and slap the stick to the ice shoving the puck forward. The crowd is on their feet cheering as we watch the puck slide across the ice in anticipation. Zeke hunkers down ready to block the shot but knowing this is for the money, I don’t see why he would ever block my shot.
My shot that is actually heading straight ahead!
My shot that is now only a few feet from the net!
Don’t stop!
Don’t stop!
Don’t stop!
Zeke spreads his legs at the last minute and the puck slides right through and into the net!
“HOLY SHIT!”
The crowd goes wild and tears of gratitude fill my eyes and spill down my cheeks. Lumin gives me a huge hug and then leads me down to the goalie to say my thank you to Zeke Miller. Except when Zeke takes his helmet off, it’s not Zeke at all.
“Bodhi?”
He beams back at me and skates forward, scooping me up in his arms and spinning me with his arms wrapped tightly around my body.
“Congratulations, babe! I knew you could do it!”
“This is so crazy! Nine million dollars!”
“Fuckin’ right. It’s for a great cause. How could we say no?”
“I know you did this, Bodhi Roche.”
He shrugs, still smiling at me. “I’d do anything for you, Corrigan. I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you too.”
“I have something for you.”
“For me?”
“Yeah. Maybe Lumin can help me out.”
What?
I turn and find Lumin holding a flat square box in her hands wrapped in a yellow bow.
“Bodhi! What is this?”
“Open it babe.”
I pull open the lid of the box and inside is a beautiful shining gold necklace with an elegant star diamond pendant.
“It’s not a ring,” Bodhi explains. “But it’s still my commitment to you. Because before I ask you to marry me, and believe me, I will absofuckinglutley ask you to marry me one day, I want to date you.”
God, I can’t wipe this giddy smile off my face.
“You want to date me?”
He nods. “Hell, yeah I do. I want to take you out on the town. I want to eat at Mario’s with you. I want to take you to that ramen place, and to Harold’s for all the hot dogs. I want to travel with you and spend days and nights with you and treat you like the precious queen that you are. So, will you say yes? Will you date me?”
I shake my head in disbelief. “Bodhi Roche, it would make me the happiest woman on the planet to date you! Yes! Of course!”
He wraps me in a hug again, lifting me up and pressing his lips to mine. “Now lift the velvet backing from the box.”
“Wait, what?”
“You heard me,” he laughs. “Lift it out.”
Lumin still holding onto the box, I carefully lift the backing out of the gift box and find a folded piece of paper. I pull the paper from the box and unfold it and squeal when I see what it is.
“HOLY FUCKING SHIT!”
“Wait, wait, wait, ladies and gentlemen, I do believe we might have another amazing announcement,” Marlee states into the microphone. Bodhi skates me over to her where I show her the handwritten check for another million dollars for the Pacific Children’s Hospital from the pockets of the Anaheim Stars.
It’s ANOTHER MILLION DOLLARS FROM OUR STAAAAAARS!” I shout to the crowd who erupts in excitement. Once the announcement is made, both teams make their way onto the ice to start the last period of the game, but not before they all swing by to give me their congratulations and I my thank yous to all of them. Bodhi takes me off the ice and into the tunnel along with Remi, Lumin, and Marlee.
“Holy shit! I did not expect any of this! How did you make this happen?” I ask Bodhi.
He merely shrugs like it was easier than stepping into his underwear. “Nothing is impossible when you’re in love.”
“You got all these guys to donate more of their own money?”
“Hell yeah. I wasn’t going to let you go with eight million when I knew we could make it an even ten.”
“How?”
“Because I’m the boy who lived.”
My brows furrow. “You’re Harry Potter?”
He laughs. “No. I’m the boy who lived…to tell the tale of how I won over the coach. The coach who also happens to be your father.”
I throw my head back in laughter.
“Oh, my God! I love you so much, you crazy goof!”
“And I love you.” He kisses me again and then gestures to the Red Tails uniform he’s wearing and says, “I need to get out of this fucking red piece of shit. It makes me itchy. And then we’re going to win this game and then we’re going out to celebrate and I’m going to kiss the fuck out of you in front of all the press and tell the whole world that you belong to me.”
“I can’t wait.” I kiss his cheek and then smack his ass, not that he can feel it with all the padding he’s wearing. “Go get ’em Roche. Show them how it’s done.”
Want to know what happens right after the Stars win their game?