I really didn’t care.
CHAPTER 42
PEYTON
I had no idea if we were going to make it into the playoffs. If we did, it would be by the skin of our teeth. Losing Leif and, for a little while, losing Avery had been hard for the team, and there was only so much we could play through that.
With our record, we’d probably be comfortably in third place ormaybehave the first wild card spot in a less competitive division. The Metropolitan division was, however, the most competitive in the League. Our third-place team had more points than did the first-place Pacific team, and Central’s third-place team was tied with our second wild card. This wasnotan easy division.
There was still time, though. Unless one of the teams ahead of us fell apart—and it did happen sometimes—we’d have to play balls-to-the-wall for the remaining weeks of the regular season to secure a wild card spot.
As I watched Avery stripping off his gear and smiling and chirping with the guys after tonight’s game, though, I didn’t care if we made it into the postseason. The Whiskey Rebels’ season had been nothing short of miraculous given what we’d been up against all year. The team had lost theircaptain, and then we’d watched as our new captain had crashed and burned, but we’d kept going. Kept playing. Kept holding our own out there even when we brought all the wrong emotions on to the ice.
And Avery…
The man I’d met at training camp had been broken and lost.
The man who’d skated out to the roar of the crowd tonight had been the hockey player I’d admired, the captain this team had believed in, and the man I’d fallen in love with.
Definitely not what I’d expected when I’d signed that contract with Pittsburgh less than a year ago.
As we finished up showering and getting dressed, the wives and kids came down from their box. Several wanted to congratulate Avery on his return, so I hung back, assuring him we didn’t have to leave until he was good and ready.
The locker room was getting a little crowded, though, so I told him I’d wait for him in the hallway, and to take his time.
Out here… much better. Quieter. Not so many moving bodies. I leaned against the painted cinderblock wall and released a long breath. Tonight had been incredible. Whatever fears Avery had about losing a step, I was pretty sure they were gone.
I knew from experience with my mom that addiction was a lifelong battle. And I knew Avery’s grief wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. But tonight, I had even more hope than I’d had before that he could and would move forward. He was strong as hell, and he was willing to both put in the work to get betterandto make peace with the pain that would likely follow him for the rest of his life. I couldn’t help but admire how strong and committed he was.
Falling in love with him? That felt like it had been inevitable all along despite our rocky start.
Footsteps coming out of the locker room pulled my focus back into the present, and I looked up to see Rachel with her new baby in a sling. She was coming right toward me, too.
“Oh. Hey.” I smiled at her.
She smiled back, and when she stopped in front of me, she shyly asked, “Can I hug you, Peyton?”
I blinked. “Um. I… Yeah. Yeah, sure.”
It was a little challenging with her son between us, but she wrapped her arms around my neck and I carefully returned the embrace.
“Thank you,” she murmured in my ear. “For everything you did for Calds.”
I drew back and looked at her.
She smiled, a hint of tears in her eyes. “I don’t know if we would’ve lost him like we lost—” She swallowed, then swiped at her eyes. “What I do know is that with the way things were going, we would’ve lost him one way or another.” Her smile returned. “You saved him, and you brought him back to us.”
I had to fight back the lump in my throat. “He did all the work.”
She was already shaking her head. “He did the therapy and all of that. But he told me how it all happened. There’s no telling how far down he would’ve gone if you hadn’t stepped in.”
That lump got a lot thicker, but I managed, “I saw someone go that far down once before. Twice, actually. I couldn’t…” I shook my head as I cleared my throat. “I couldn’t watch him go there too.”
“I’m glad someone was looking out for him.” Her smilegrew. “And the way everythingelseworked out between you, well…”
That chased away the threat of tears, and I laughed, knowing damn well I was blushing. “I can’t complain about that. Don’t know if it sounds like a great love story, but…” I half-shrugged.
She snickered. “Eh, by the time you need to tell your kids how you met, you’ll have figured out how to tell the story.”
