6 Months Later
JANE
My heart hammered against my ribcage as I watched with eagle eyes for my man to emerge onto the ice. I saw his number before I recognized his face—hidden behind a helmet, as it was.
He skated a loop of the rink, scanning the throng of spectators packed from wall to wall in the Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, and when he spotted me, he touched his chest and pointed at me.
My heart leapt, and I could feel my cheeks heating as the people around me turned to stare, many of them hiding grins.
Usually, I hated being the center of attention, but right now, I didn’t mind it, because no one expected me to say anything and it was sweet that he was willing to risk his stoic reputation for me.
The moment passed quickly and he started running drills with Jesse and Nick.
Hazel nudged me with her elbow. “I can’t believe how cute you two are.”
Now my face was on fire.
“We love each other,” I said.
“I know.” She sighed wistfully. “I want that one day. Not with my brother obviously. Ew. But I want someone who looks at me the way he looks at you.”
Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, and I distracted myself before I melted into a puddle of goo by looking around the audience and weighing the ratio of Detroit supporters to Chicago supporters.
It was heavily in Detroit’s favor, with a wall of red along two thirds of the seating and small clusters of blue around us and interspersed between.
“Do you think they’ll make it?” Hazel asked.
This was the last game before play-offs, and it was the Chaos’s last chance to get through. They’d already done better than anyone had expected and they were in the best shape the team had been in for years.
“They’ve got it in them,” I said, not wanting to jinx them with any other response.
“Excuse me?”
I turned. Maribel was seated behind me, and she’d leaned down close to my ear so I could hear her.
She looked unimpressed. “They are taking us all the way, and I won’t hear anything other than complete certainty that they’re making this happen.”
Grinning, I replied, “Sorry, Mari.”
“You should be.” She cupped her hands over her youngest’s ears. “Little ears are listening and they need to believe in their daddy one hundred percent.”
I smiled at her daughter. “Your daddy is going to be a machine out there.”
Maribel nodded. “That’s more like it.”
She returned her focus to her kids and Hazel leaned closer.
“She’s intense sometimes,” Hazel whispered.
“She isn’t wrong, though,” I said, checking to make sure Maribel hadn’t overheard us. “Positive thinking, all the way.”
On the ice, Mitch Davenport made his way to the goal and started warming up. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing, and the team was almost unrecognizable from that first preseason game.
After a while, the players were called in and then sent back out for the game to begin. The Chaos’s starting lineup included Austin, Jesse, Nick, Matt, Gauthier, and Mitch. Jesse won the puck drop and they were off.
Unfortunately, Detroit smashed right through the forward line, seizing control of the puck and racing with it toward Mitch and the goal.
To my absolute horror, the Detroit center shot the puck right past Mitch and into the corner of the net.
I gasped. This was bad. Conceding a goal so early in the period would put a dent in the Chaos’s confidence, and despite how well they’d been playing, their confidence was still shaky to begin with.
Applause from the Detroit supporters thundered through the stadium, so hard it made the seats rattle.
“Don’t worry,” I heard Maribel say behind me. “Your daddy has got this.”
I wished I had the same faith that she did.
Fortunately, rather than fall apart as I’d feared they might, the Chaos banded together to ensure there were no gaps in the defense for Detroit to slip through again. The first period ended one-nil.
In the second period, both teams went out hard and fast, as if their entire seasons depended on it, because really… they did.
There were several shots on goal at both ends of the ice, but the goalies were in form, blocking everything that came at them.
Near the end of the second period, Drew used a bit of the brute force he was known for to take the puck from an opposition wing and passed it across to Elliott, who sent it up to Nick.
Detroit had, to their detriment, left Nick relatively unguarded. He bolted up the side of the rink, weaving around the defenseman who tried to intercept him, and headed directly toward the goalie.
I stood, my heart in my throat, waiting to see if he’d managed to get past him. Nick didn’t slow or stop, though. He just kept on going, pulling up at the very last minute to flick the puck to Austin, who slid it over the line.
I screamed, jumping up and down and waving my arms above my head. “Go, Austin, go! Yes!”
Jesse and Nick crowded him, slinging their arms around him from either side before separating to resume their positions.
The goal seemed to give the Chaos new life, and they held out for the rest of the game without allowing any more goals through.
Unfortunately, they didn’t score again either, so when the regular game time ended, the score was one-all.
“They’re going into overtime,” Hazel hissed, as if I didn’t already know that. “Do you think they’ll keep Austin on?”
“They’d be silly not to.”
We watched the team gather around the coaches. They had a brief talk and then most of the team left the ice. I studied the players who remained. Austin, Nick, Jesse, and Mitch.
Five minutes were added to the clock. Detroit positioned themselves opposite the Chaos. It looked like they had opted to use their center, a wing, a defenseman, and the goalie.
Play started. It moved more slowly with fewer players on ice, each one trying to cover all the ground they could. Our guys started off strong, dominating the play, and for two brief minutes, I thought the Chaos had it in the bag.
But then Detroit’s defenseman managed to get between them and send the puck flying back toward Mitch. The Detroit center was hovering in exactly the right place to snatch it up and take a shot at goal. Austin, Nick, and Jesse didn’t have time to get back and help Mitch in defense.
Mitch blocked the first shot with his glove, but the center immediately scooped a backup and flicked it into the air over Mitch’s shoulder and into the corner of the net.
The whistle sounded. The overtime ended.
The Chaos had lost.
Still, they’d played well, and no one had expected them to make it this far.
I was proud of them.
The players who’d been on the bench spilled onto the ice and the team embraced and clapped each other on the shoulders and did those dudebro side hug things.
No one appeared distraught over the loss, even though I was sure they were disappointed not to come out on top.
They’d known going in that it was a long shot.
Everything was when it came to them. But they’d given all they had and that was worth celebrating.
Detroit shouted their success to the ceiling and their fans did the same. Once they had gotten over the thrill of the win, the teams lined up to shake hands. It was hard to tell from a distance, but there didn’t seem to be any bad blood between them.
The players returned to their respective changing rooms, and people from the audience began to rise from their seats and make their way to the exits. Once the area around us was clear, we picked our way down the stairs and around the rink to wait outside the changing rooms.
“Do you think they’ll be upset?” Hazel asked me.
I tilted my head as I thought about it. “I doubt it. A year ago, doing this well would have been a dream. I think they’ll appreciate how far they’ve come.”
We moved closer to the wall, getting out of the way so the last few spectators could pass us as they left. The team stayed in the changing room for longer than usual and I wondered if Coach Dunn was giving them some sort of pep talk or postseason briefing.
When they emerged, Austin came over to me and pulled me into his arms.
I hugged him tight and stretched onto my toes to kiss him. “You did so well.”
“I’m… happy with it,” he said, as if thinking it through as he spoke. “Obviously, it would be better if we’d won, but we put on a good show. I don’t think anyone could accuse us of not coming to play.”
“No way in hell.” I smiled up at him to soften the words, relieved to find a sparkle in his electric blue gaze.
He took hockey-related things so seriously that I worried sometimes about what would happen when games—or seasons—didn’t go his way.
It was good to see that the loss hadn’t gotten him down.
He grimaced. “I guess I owe Alec two thousand dollars.”
I laughed. We both knew that it wouldn’t put a dent in his bank account, only his pride.
Hazel gently shoulder-barged me aside and threw her arms around Austin. “Proud of you, big brother.”
“Thanks, Haze.” He glanced toward the room where the press was assembled. “I’ve been tapped for the interview, so I’d better go. See you out here soon?”
“We’ll be waiting.”
He flashed his teeth in a grin. “By the way, I like the way my name looks on you.”
Heat flashed through me, but I ignored Hazel’s knowing look. God, I loved that man.
As he headed toward the room, Hazel and I followed behind and listened in as he repeated a similar sentiment as what he’d said to us to the press. He told them he was disappointed about the loss but thought the team could hold their heads high and be proud of how far they’d come.
I challenged anyone to disagree.
When the press interviews were finished, we drove together to the hotel we were staying in. Hazel and I had booked a separate room because partners and families hadn’t been allowed to stay with the players prior to the game in case we distracted them.
Tonight, however, Austin and I would be sharing a suite, and I couldn’t wait to show him just how proud I was of everything he’d achieved.