Keno sighs heavily. “I hate that she doesn’t like me.”
“I promise, it has nothing to do with you at all.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that. I know Eddy better than she knows herself. She’s upset with me, but she doesn’t know why yet.”
“If you know her better than she does, you should know why she’s upset. Then you can tell her.”
Laughing, I tug Keno onto the couch. We wrestle and struggle to figure out who’s going to lie on top of the other. I win, but I think it’s because he was laughing too hard to put up an actual challenge.
“Just ten minutes, then we’ll pack up and get out of here,” I say, hugging him tightly.
“Then we can go home and get back to cuddling. I feel like we’re putting some in the bank in case we miss a day.”
“We’re never going to miss a day. As it turns out, I’m an avid cuddler. Who knew?”
Keno snorts.
A knock at the door makes us both pick our heads up. As if we could see it from where we’re tucked into the couch. Sighing, I get up to answer it. We booked for an extra night, even though we had every intention of getting out of here today. We have a game tomorrow, so we’re heading home and hitting the gym this afternoon to work off some Christmas calories.
Anyway, that can’t be the cleaning people, or whatever. Looking around on my way, I don’t think my parents forgot anything.
After flipping open the deadbolt, I pull the door. Edna stands there. Her eyes are glassy. Miserable. She steps inside and hugs me.
I wrap my arms around her. Much better. You never leave someone you care about mad.
“Love you,” she whispers.
“Love you,” I repeat.
Her arms tighten and then she backs away. She looks over my shoulder, pauses, and then waves to Keno before turning and sprinting back to the car.
Keno comes to my side, and we watch her practically dive in. My mother waves from the passenger seat and my dad drives off for the second time.
“See? Already she’s figuring her shit out.”
He releases a heavy breath. “I hope so.”
Me too.
Our phone’sdingwith the same notification. Keno and I look at each other as he pulls out his phone. I lean in close to see what our assignment is today. It reads ‘Time to master making out.’
“We managed while drunk,” Keno says, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “Probably can figure it out sober.”
I snort as he takes my hand and leads me back to the couch. Make out with my man for the rest of the afternoon or pack? Make out, please!
CHAPTER 14
KENO
I’m not goingto say we stop trying, because we don’t. That would be stupid. But as the score hits five to three in favor of Arizona, with three minutes left in the game, I breathe a little easier. It’s not that Toronto can’t catch up. They can. They’re a good fucking team, so if someone is going to catch up, Toronto would do it.
However, once Toronto receives a penalty for tripping that results in our power play, I’m not sure they can. A power play isn’t a guarantee that we’re going to win. Not even with three minutes left and having the advantage of one more player on the ice than they have. I’m thankful we’re ahead since it makes us all nervous when our goalie is pulled to give us two more active players on the ice at the risk of leaving our net empty.
We change out players and take our positions around the red circle to the left of Toronto’s goal. The linesman drops the puck and Barron gains possession. He shoots it away in Etna’s direction as I hover close to the blue line, allowing Hilt to get into the action while I make sure I’m in a position to grab the puck if it’s pushed away.
Just as I’m about to say fuck it and head in, the puck does just what I was prepared for. I jerk in that direction, stopping thepuck from sliding all the way to the other end. Though I’m a little off balance, Julian is open, so I try to gain control of my position and immediately fling it toward him.
