I smile at her. “You too?”
Madeline nods. “Yup. Ryker and I couldn’t stand each other, which made working together unpleasant for a while.”
She explains that she was his skating coach assigned to work with him while he recovered from an injury last season. She thought he was grumpy and arrogant. He thought she was spoiled because she’s the team owner’s daughter.
“But as obnoxious as he was, I couldn’t deny how hot he was,” Madeline says.
I chuckle. “So that’s what hooked you, huh?”
She lets a smile break free. “That and the fact that he’s a big softie on the inside.”
Sophie playfully elbows Madeline. “He’s so soft for you. The way he calls you Maddy when everyone else calls you Madeline. So adorable.”
A pink flush paints Madeline’s cheeks as she smiles.
Sophie turns to me. “You know, I didn’t like Xander when I first met him either.”
I gasp. “No way. But you two are so sweet and lovey-dovey together.”
Sophie chuckles. “We are now, but the night we met, it was a different story. He thought I was a stripper.”
I choke on my cocktail. “What?”
She tells me that the night they first met was when she was working her first game as the Bashers team doctor. Xander came into the medical room to get treatment for an injury to his nose after being checked into the boards by Del, who was playing for a different team at the time.
“One of guys on the team jokingly told Xander that they got him a stripper for his birthday,” Sophie says. “And Xander thought that since I was young and attractive, I was the stripper.”
My jaw unhinges. “You’re kidding.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “Nope. I was so mad in the moment, but then I got to snap his nose back into place. That felt pretty good. And then later on, when he realized his mistake, he apologized to me. It was clear he felt so bad about it. And now look at us. Married.”
We all laugh.
“I couldn’t stand Theo when I first met him,” Maya says. “He got drunk and crashed my twenty-first birthday party. His first words to me were, ‘Holy fuck, you’ve got nice boobs.’”
I have to grip the table, I’m laughing so hard.
Ingrid bumps her shoulder. “I mean, can you blame my cousin? You do have nice boobs.”
Maya rolls her eyes and chuckles at her best friend.
“Not all of us fell in love at first sight like you and Del,” Maya teases.
Ingrid shakes her head. “I don’t believe in love at first sight.” The corner of her mouth quirks up, and her expression turns teasing. “I do believe in lust at first sight, though.”
Bella raises her glass. “Amen to that.”
Dakota makes a face. “Excuse me while I throw up at the thought of you lusting after my big brother,” she says to Ingrid, who just laughs.
“And then there’s Dakota, who has the most wholesome love story, next to yours, Ellie,” Sophie says.
I smile at Dakota. “Really?”
Her tan skin flushes as she grins. “Sam was Del’s best friend since college and had a crush on me, but he didn’t ask me out because he didn’t want to ruin his friendship with my brother. But after my last relationship ended in flames, I moved into his spare room. And all that time living together made it hard to just stay friends. I had a crush on him too for all those years. We just didn’t know we liked each other.”
I rest my hand on my chest. “That’s so freaking cute.”
“Not as cute as two childhood friends falling for each other,” she says.
