I let out a laugh, lighter this time. “That’s dangerous. I’ll get attached.”
“Good,” she said. “So will they.”
We had just started heading back toward the main doors when a voice cut through the cool night air.
“What the hell, Harper? Seriously?”
Lilly’s eyes flicked toward the side parking lot, and I followed her gaze.
There stood Ben, sweaty from the game, still in half his gear, hair sticking up in every possible direction, and next to him, a tall girl in knee-high boots and a bright rednot-Ben’sjersey.
“Who is that?” I whispered.
Lilly shrugged, lips twitching.
“You’re wearing Phillips’ jersey?” Ben looked personally offended. “He’s ourrival, Harper. That’s like showing up to my funeral in a Bruins hoodie.”
Harper rolled her eyes. “Relax, Ben. It’s just a shirt, and last I checked, we weren’t together.”
“That isn’t the point. It’s that I invited you and you showed up wearingthat,” he said dramatically, yanking off his knee pads and holding them like props in a bad soap opera.
I clapped a hand over my mouth to muffle my gasp.
Ben finally caught sight of us. His expression froze. “Oh God. How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough,” Lilly said dryly.
Ben groaned and dropped his forehead into his hands. “Kill me.”
Harper looked like she wanted to disappear.
I tilted my head at him. “If you want her to wear your jersey, maybe try being the guy worth rooting for.”
Ben gawked at me. Lilly snorted.
And before he could recover with some dumb retort, Lilly looped her arm through mine and tugged me toward the doors. We left him standing there, red-faced and speechless.
“Was that mean?” I asked, biting my lip.
Lilly grinned. “No. That was perfect.”
The sound of the crowd swelled as Lilly and I stepped through the doors, the arena lights washing over us again. The buzz of leftover adrenaline hung thick in the air. Beer, sweat, popcorn, and the remnants of a big win. My brain jittered trying to hold it all, every voice, every flicker of motion in the crowd, and the sudden shift from the quiet parking lot to full sensory overload. I tried to focus on the rhythm of my boots on the concrete floor. On the way, Lilly’s arm was still casually linked through mine like she wasn’t almost a complete stranger still.
She slowed when she saw Nick and Sean, standing just off to the side of the rest of the family, half-shielded by a column. Nick leaned back, one hand curled around a bottle of water, the other running through his hair like he was trying to calm downafter something. Sean had a hand on his shoulder, in that older-brother way. “…you know she’s it for you,” Sean said, his voice low but firm.
Nick didn’t speak. Sean bumped his shoulder. “You don’t let someone like that walk away.” He winked, then, “Remember when you said that same thing to me about Lilly?”
My breath caught in my throat. Nick nodded once, slowly. Lilly gently let go of my arm, giving me a second to pull in air again.
I didn’t know what Nick said next, or if he said anything at all. But when his eyes lifted and found mine across the lobby, everything else fell away.
The noise dulled. The crowd blurred. My brain stilled for just a beat. He smiled. And it was different than before. It wasn’t guarded. It wasn’t teasing. It was like he was letting me see him fully.
And in that moment, I knew exactly what Sean meant. You don’t let someone like that walk away.
Ten
Nick
