8. Adrianna
Adrianna
"Hell no." I look at my best friend, who is standing at my door with a huge smile telling me we are going to the Mustangs game tonight. "I am busy, I can't go to a game."
"Busy doing what?" She raises an eyebrow at me and then pushes into my apartment and down the hall.
"Washing my hair." I follow her into my bedroom. "What are you doing?"
"Getting you clothes to wear. You can't go out in that." She waves her hands at me and I glance down at my pajamas.
"I just want you to know I was getting ready to watch a movie and order takeout." I catch the sweater and jeans she throws at me.
"What movie?" She stops short of grabbing my shoes and spins around to face me.
"Wizard of Oz." I smile at her and give her an answer I know will keep her home with me even though I was totally planning on watching something else.
"Nope, not happening. Come on, which shoes." She spins back around and I look at the clothes she got me.
"The blue ones." I sigh, strip out of my clothes, and change into what she grabs. She stands in front of me, holding my blue heels.
"Are you sure you want to wear these to a hockey game?" she asks, lifting the shoes toward me.
"Yes." Frustrated, I grab the shoes from her. "I don't even want to go."
"Stay until at least halftime." She stops and scrunches her eyebrows together. "No, that isn't right." She waves her hand at me. "We will stay until the break and if you want to go, we will go."
"Fine." I stomp back down the hall and grab my purse. Thankful I washed my hair last night and it still has some life to it.
We step up to the ticket counter, and Penelope gives me her classic "I'm sorry" look. "What?" I look at her, and she turns to the attendant.
"We have tickets waiting for us from Luka Rizzoli. Adrianna and Penelope." I want to smack her. Here in front of everyone, not caring who gets it on film.
"Pen! What the hell?" I whisper to her and smile at the attendant as he picks up the phone.
"Sorry, Jake said he would have Luka leave them here. They should be here." Pen says as the attendant hangs up the phone and looks at us.
"Someone will be down for you shortly. Please stand over there." He points to a side door and I want to die. I don't want to be here and now we are going to get in trouble for trying to get in without tickets.
"We should have just bought some. Now we dropped his name and we are going to get in trouble." Before I can tell my friend off anymore, my phone rings. Luka's name lights up across it and I roll my eyes. Great, he is mad enough to call me.
"I am so sorry, Luka. Please don't send anyone out here. We will buy tickets." I look at Pen. "Or better yet, we will go home and watch the game on TV and my friend will count it as one of my games." I push her and hear Luka laughing.
"What are you talking about?" He says in between chuckles. "I was just calling because I wanted to hear your voice."
I freeze. "What?"
"I missed hearing your voice. I missed it before the last game and I needed to call you. We won that game, so now if I feel the need to hear your voice before a game, I have to call you, or we might lose."
"Oh, well, good luck. I will be watching from my apartment." I turn to leave.
"Please don't go," Luka whispers into the phone when a tiny girl with brown hair walks out the door we are standing by.
"Adrianna?" She looks from Pen to me. "Oh, you have to be Adrianna.
" She points to me. "You are so out of his league.
No wonder he is worried." She starts laughing, and for some reason, I instantly like her.
"Is that him?" She points to my phone and all I can do is nod.
I have no clue who she is even talking about, but I allow her to take my phone anyway.
"Rizzoli, get your head in the gear; you have a game to win.
" She is silent for a minute. "I promise, Luka.
" She says and hands the phone back to me. I lift it to my ear.
"Gattina?"
"Don't call me that," I whisper to him.
"Follow Maddie and please stay."
Maddie smiles at me and starts talking to Penelope.
"Okay. Good luck."
"See you soon."
I hang up and Maddie starts clapping her hands.
"Okay, I am Madison or Maddie; I am the social media manager for the team and your escort for the night.
" She stops and starts giggling. "That didn't sound right.
Come on, follow me." We walk with her through the doors and up the stairs.
"This is the office part of the arena. I need to grab something for you.
" She steps in front of her office door, and we go inside.
She hands me a package. I slowly open it.
Sitting on top of beautiful red paper is a note.
I stop the tears that want to well up in my eyes. No way, one little note is going to make me cry. Penelope rips it from my hands as I pull back the red paper. I slowly pull out a red and grey Mustang jersey with Luka's name and number on the back.
"He wants me to wear this?"
Madison nods at me, and I pull it out the rest of the way.
I know what it means when an athlete asks you to wear their jersey.
It's different than if I would go buy it myself.
When my brother's old girlfriend was mad he wouldn't let her wear one of his actual jerseys, my brother said he would only ever give his jersey to the woman he was going to marry.
Needless to say, they broke up the next week.
"It doesn't match your shoes." Penelope points from the jersey to my shoes.
"It's okay." I slide the jersey over my head and pull my hair free.
"Are you sure?" She knows how I feel about my shoes matching. My mom was a stickler about everything matching and looking perfect all the time. She would throw my shoes in the garbage if I came down and they didn't match my outfit.
I take a deep breath and let it out. "Yep. I think it's perfect." I slide the box close, take my note back from Penelope, and put it in my back pocket.
"Let me show you to your seats." Madison smiles at me and leads us towards the rink. As soon as we are close to the seats, the noise is almost overwhelming.
"Wow!" Penelope grabs my arm and jumps up and down. "This is amazing! We need to come to all the home games!"
"Don't push it, Pen." I say at the same time Madison says, "That can be arranged."
We keep walking closer and closer to the glass. A familiar voice yells our names.
"Penelope, Adrianna, you made it!" I look a few rows down and Augie is waving to us. I see 2 rows of people turn their heads and look at us.
Oh, hell no.
I turn to walk back up the stairs when Madison's soothing voice stops me.
She grabs my hand and squeezes. "They are some of the best people I know.
You will love watching the game from here.
But here is my personal number. If it gets to be too much, you can call me, and I will come save you. " She presses a card into my hand.
"Addy! You came!" Layla's voice carries over the crowd, and suddenly, she is running up the stairs toward me. "We match." She spins around and points her thumbs to the Rizzoli name on the back.
"We do, Sweet Girl."
"Come on, let's go down so you can see Zio and Jake warm up." She pulls my hand as Madison leans over and whispers,
"That's the best part."
She follows us down the stairs and introduces me to all of the Rizzoli clan.
They pull Penelope and me into their group like they have known us their whole lives.
The team came out of the tunnel, and Madison was right; warmups were amazing.
Seeing Luka in all his padding makes him look larger than life.
After warming up and before heading back off the ice, Luka turns around and skates toward the glass.
He must do it all the time because Layla and Gio run down to the glass and press their tiny hands to it.
Luka drops his gloves and presses his hands against the glass, lining it up with theirs.
"That is the cutest thing I have ever seen," Penelope whispers in my ear and I nod my head in agreement.
"Zio wants you, Addy," Layla yells up at me and my cheeks grow red.
"Rizzoli, off the ice, Now." Someone yells from the side of the rink and Luka tips his head back and then looks at me. He points to me and then makes a spinning motion with his finger. I look at him confused.
Cross's laugh comes from beside me and it makes me jump. I am not used to having large men standing around me, and it's a bit intimidating.
"He wants you to turn around, Addy." Cross smiles at me, which makes me relax a little.
"Oh." I laugh and look at Luka. Spinning around so he can see his name on my back.
When I finally get back around, the look he has in his eyes makes my stomach drop.
He is looking at me like he wants to make me his dinner.
For the first time in a long time, I don't think that is a bad idea.
Someone yells for him again and he skates off the ice.
I wince as Grady slams someone else into the glass.
"He really likes to do that, doesn't he?
" I ask Lacey. She and Gio have been trying to teach me all about hockey.
I have learned there is no halftime and that Grady is someone called an enforcer.
The other team has the puck again and is flying down the ice toward Luka.
I hold my breath as a player pulls his stick back and sends the puck flying toward the net.
Luka grabs it, in what I learned is called a mitt, and stops the team from scoring.
He stands to give the puck to the referee when a player from the other team slides into him.
"What the hell," Liam yells. Before I registered what happened, Grady and Jake are piling on top of the guy that slammed into Luka. Gloves and sticks are flying. I can hear Grady yell something that sounds like, "Don't touch my fucking Goalie." Luka is laughing as he sprays water into his mask.
"He doesn't look hurt." I look from the ice back to a pissed-off Liam.
"No, but Goalies are off-limits. Thankfully, my Pops and Ma are out of town, or that guy would have to watch his back when he left here."
I look at Grady, smiling as he enters the penalty box.
"Your Pops would go after him?" Penelope looks at Liam.
Callum starts laughing and looks at us, "No, our Ma would."
Penelope grabs her knees as she tries to catch her breath, laughing so hard. The game ends, and the score is 2-1, with a Mustang win.
"Thanks for letting us hang out with you guys tonight. I hope to see you all again." I kiss Layla and Gio on the tops of their heads and wave to everyone else. Penelope and I turn to leave, but Liam stops us.
"Not so fast, Addy. Luka will want to see you come on." He takes Mia's hand and leads us down the last couple of steps and over to a side hallway. I really don't want to go, but when the head of the mafia tells you to do something, you do it.