Sydney sniffled. “My brother is the best.” She tried to jump into another hug, but Ryder held her back with a laugh.
“Don’t you have a video to edit?”
She nodded vigorously. “I’ll add in some clips of Frankie yelling at you, of you looking her way with that lovesick puppy expression. Lord knows I have a lot of that. Okay, bye.”
The others trailed after them until it was just me and the woman I needed to kiss. She wound her arms around my waist and looked up at me. “That game… that was last year.”
“I know.” I brushed my lips against her temple.
“I wish I had.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
FRANKIE
The call came exactly two weeks to the day after Teddy’s video went viral on social media. I was in the middle of practice, working on the power play, so I missed it.
“Who the hell’s calling from Colorado Springs?” I glanced at my phone as I slid onto a stool at Elmo’s next to Shai. Unsurprisingly, she’d been the most thrilled about Teddy and me going public with our relationship. Said it made the team“way more interesting.”
Really, she was just all about the drama.
“Maybe the Air Force Academy wants you to show their cadets how to toughen up.” She pretended to punch me, her grin slicing across her face.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re such a weirdo.”
I’d never had a friend like her. A little crazy, a lot supportive. There’d been no judgment when it came to me sleeping with one of my players. In fact, she said it made her like me more because I wasn’t the rule-follower she’d assumed I was.
And when I yelled at the boys… that was just a bonus in her book.
We were waiting on a few of the guys to show up after they'd showered, so I used the time to return the call. It rang. And rang. No answer.
Then, the voicemail came on.
“You’ve reached Sherea Munoz. Please leave a message, and I’ll get back to you.”
Sherea Munoz.
Sherea. Fucking. Munoz.
“Oh, my God.” I set my phone on the bar, dazed.
It wasthatcall. The one people wait their entire lives to get.
“What?” Shai nudged me. “What is it?”
“I… I don’t know.” Why the hell was the head coach of the USA Women’s Hockey Team calling me?
Antony leaned against the bar, and I didn’t even hear what Shai ordered, though I caught the wink she sent the kid.
Holy shit. USA Hockey.
We knew when the guys arrived—loud laughter stormed through the door. Men. They never cared who they disturbed. But I couldn’t muster up the usual annoyance I’d had for them, not with my head spinning from all the possibilities.
We were just a year out from the next Winter Olympics—fifty weeks, to be exact. I had nearly lost my entire career, and I was still reeling.
A drink was placed in front of me. I threw it back without hesitation. Gross. Gin. The tonic couldn’t mask the taste, but I waved for another anyway.
It didn’t dull the nerves, the sharp edge gnawing at me.
