“And to keep an eye on this guy,” Robinson adds.
“I don’t need babysitters,” Addie says dryly to the room at large as I take my seat across from her and accept a menu from the hostess.
“Here’s the deal,” Luca replies. “You’re like our mom. We don’t like it when men pay over a hundred grand to go on a single date with our mom. It makes us suspicious. Especially since he’s also showing up to games wearing our mom’s name. So we’re going to be good kids who make sure the big bad hockey player isn’t trying to convince our mom that she has to do more than she agreed to do, given the price he paid and the ideas that he might have gotten.”
“I’m yourmom?” Addie repeats.
“It’s more accurate than sister,” Diego says.
“I thought we should call you our aunt,” Francisco chimes in. “I got voted down because we listen to you like we’d listen to our moms.”
“And we protect you like we protect our moms,” Brooks says.
I lift my hands. “Are you all serious? How long have we known each other?”
“Long enough that you should’ve told us you were messing around with her four years ago,” Brooks mutters.
Addie spins all the way in her seat to look at him.
Uh-oh.
Coach Addie has entered the chat. “And that’s none of your business.”
“It’s our business if he hurts you,” Brooks’s wife, Mackenzie, says. “Not because it’s bad for the team. But because we care.”
“We’d do this for Coach Dusty too, but he seems to like his dating life being a disaster,” Rory says.
Addie squeezes her eyes shut.
And then the funniest thing happens.
Her mouth twitches.
It’s the tiniest twitch. You have to watch closely to see it.
But I am, and I do.
“All right,” she says, her exasperation quickly morphing into amusement. “You can stay. But only if you all let me kick your asses inCroaking Creatures.”
“We weren’t leaving,” Luca says.
“I could let you duke that out with the Berger twins and half the Thrusters,” Addie replies. “Or you can all behave yourselves and load upCroaking Creatureson your phones.”
Most of the guys and their dates follow orders.
“I’ve known the Berger twins longer than you and I have been with the Fireballs,” Brooks says. “They’d take my side.”
“Duncan, whose side are the Berger twins on?”
“Whoever’s side is most fun,” I reply without hesitation. “If it’s equal fun, they default to hockey loyalty.”
“They’re afraid of my sister-in-law,” Brooks says.
“Everyone’s afraid of your sister-in-law.” Luca’s response is met with a chorus of agreement.
Even Addie briefly seems to acknowledge that as fact. “Is your sister-in-law here?”
“No.”
