“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Jessica told her honestly. Aiden was hardly getting himself in trouble by hanging out in the press box.
“Right, yeah,” Kenzie said, though she didn’t sound convinced.
There were still several minutes until the game started, so Jessica took the opportunity to inspect the arena. From the outside, Munn looked like a spaceship—low slung and grey—but inside, it was surprisingly spacious. The rafters were laden with banners, the walls carefully detailing the history of the program and every coach and player who had come through here. It wasn’t the most modern, although the addition they’d made last year to the south entrance of the arena certainly updated it. Jessica could feel the history, and she understood why her brother-in-law, and now Jack and Aiden, had wanted to play here.
All at once, the arena darkened, and the sound system blasted to life as a hype video started playing on the jumbotron. The student section went wild with cheers, the band striking up a low but heavy bass beat as the soundtrack to player introductions. There was much fanfare, and when Jack’s name was announced as the Spartans’ starting goaltender, she’ll admit—she cheered with the rest of them.
This was Jessica’s first opportunity to watch Jack play and, at least in the first period, she wasn’t disappointed. Despite his big body, he moved fluidly, faster than anyone his size had a right to, and seemed to have a radar for where the puck would be at anygiven moment. The Spartans were playing Princeton, and while the Tigers managed a couple of good looks, there wasn’t a single instance during the first twenty minutes where Jack was truly tested.
And now Jessica wondered why she’d never taken to hockey like Berkley and Logan had.
It was fast and brutal, lethal and graceful, poetry on ice that could bloom into an all-out war at any moment.
At the end of the first period, Jessica turned to Kenzie, dazed. “That was…”
Kenzie smirked. “I know. Bet you’re glad you came.”
She really was.
By the time the final seconds ticked off the game clock—in a four to nothing victory for MSU—Jessica had found herself a new obsession. She was actually looking forward to getting home and telling Berkley all about it, demanding her sister teach her everything she needed to know immediately.
Or maybe she’d call Logan. Berkley was, after all, pregnant and had recently gone back to school; she had a lot on her plate. Her big brother, on the other hand, was free as a bird, and Jessica hadn’t talked to him in a while, anyway.
In the end, she texted them both.
Attached to Logan’s last text was a photo of him posing shirtless in front of a mirrored gym wall. Jessica squeezed her eyes shut and typed her response, giggling when she saw Berkley’s text come through right before hers.
Jessica chuckled at her phone. Despite being so much younger than Logan and Berkley, Jessica loved how close the three of them were.
And, okay…Logan wasn’t lying. Her big brother worked out almost as much as Brent, and it showed. They just loved to tease him.
She was jarred from her thoughts by Kenzie tugging on her arm, pulling her up the stairs and onto the concourse.
“Where are we going?” Jessica asked.
“To meet Aiden’s family.”
“Why exactly is this a two person job?”
“Because I’m a little bitch who needs my best friend with me.”
Jessica could hardly argue with that.
Around the corner of the concourse, on the opposite side from the student section, Kenzie pulled up short about ten feet away from a group of people that included Aiden.
Aiden lifted a girl off her feet—tall and skinny, with his same dark hair, though she couldn’t have been more than twelve—and spun her around. The girl shouted, “Den!” and Jessica knew this must be his sister. Which meant the woman and man were his mother and stepfather.
“Do I just walk up and introduce myself?” Kenzie whispered.
“Why are you whispering?”
“I don’t want them to hear me.”
Jessica stepped in front of Kenzie and settled her hands on her shoulders. “First of all, this place is packed with people and we’re standing ten feet away. They can’t possibly hear you. Second, you’re Mackenzie Jean. Little sister of badass Brent Jean—”
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Kenzie interrupted with a snort.
“—and business owner. You are a boss bitch. You’re smart, funny, unfailingly loyal, incredibly kind, and one of the mostbeautiful people I know, inside and out. His family is going to adore you.”
