No one would be able to prove what was in his head, so we had no way to prove he’d done it on purpose, but as Evan was about to step onto the ice off one of the bumpers, Jason brushed past him and got his broom tangled in Evan’s legs, causing Ev to go down like a sack of potatoes.
I was halfway down the ice when I saw him fall and could have sworn I heard his head hit the ice from there.
“No fucking way,” I whispered as I stood, frozen, while Alan rushed forward and Michael ran from the coach’s area onto the ice.
The umpire called a stop to the game instantly.
Jason’s Skip stormed over and cornered Jason away from our team, looking furious.
I could not catch my breath.
True, it couldn’t be proved, but the asshole made it very obvious he had done it on purpose: he looked over his Skip’s shoulder, straight at me, and smirked. He’d done it because he hadn’t been able to distract Evan from the game enough with his sly comments about me. But he could take us both out of the game like this.
“Perry.” Robbie’s voice came through the fog to me. “Perry, my dude. Blink. Sign of life here, buddy.”
I did blink, managing to focus on him, and he smiled in relief. “Ev,” I said stupidly.
“He’s okay. Rattled, but okay. We have to regroup. Medical is taking him out because he hit his head, but he’s fine. And I got you guys.”
I nodded. “I have to…”
“Of course you do. Come on.” He took my arm and led me over to where Evan was getting up with Alan’s help.
“Ev?”
He didn’t even say anything, just took me in a tight hug and kissed my neck where his face landed. “I’m okay,” he whispered, then stayed with his arms around me until I finally hugged him back.
A cheer rippled through the crowd and got louder when Alan leaned in and kissed both our heads.
“Can we finish this game?” he asked quietly. “I want to bury these jerks.”
Evan nodded and let me go, but only to look into my face. “You got this, Pere. I promise you I’m okay. Do not let that asshole take you out of the game too.”
“N-no. Yeah. I got this.” My words sounded hollow. How was I going to focus without Evan there? Fucking asshole had known exactly how to get to us. To me.
“I’m going to sit with Jacob and Em, and Shaw and Darby. You are going to finish this game and trounce the fuckers.”
“Language,” Alan muttered.
Evan covered his mic with a hand. “I’ve been a very good boy, daddy,” he said without looking away from me. “I deserve a good bit of cussing right now.”
Alan chuckled and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him sideways against his chest to kiss his hair again. “Agreed. Now. Tell me how to get our boy back.”
“Perry?” Evan cupped my face. “You remember that night you quit your job? You said you had to focus on the new dream?”
I nodded.
“This is that dream. We are going to do this so, snap out of this funk and win this for me, yeah?” He leaned in so his mouth was close enough to my ear his lips brushed skin. “You are going to get the best fucking of your life tonight if you win this for me. And I’m not talking about you inside me either.” He kissed my cheek and slid far enough away I couldn’t reach him. “Who’s your daddy?” he asked, winked, then let the medical team guide him off the ice.
I blinked after him.
“What was that?” Alan asked.
“I think…” I covered my mic and whispered, “I think he just pimped you out to fuck me if we win.”
Alan paused, watching him for a heartbeat, then he shrugged. “I like this incentive actually. Come on.”
As we got ready to resume play, it irked me that Jason was allowed to keep playing while Evan was not. The sympathetic look we got from the umpire told us even they knew he’d trippedhim on purpose, despite the lack of proof. It hadn’t been an accident.
