I was still tongue-tied and didn’t feel like causing a scene, but Jenny grabbed hold of my left hand and raised it up so they could see my ring.
“To this girl, right here!”
“Yeah, sure,” she snorted.
I was getting riled up, but before I could respond to her, there was another goal by the Tigers, and the bullhorns went off again, causing raucous noise to spread through the crowd.
Nate grabbed Jenny and kissed her, and Dustin high-fived his teammates, then ended up close to us on the ice, on the other side of the clear divider.
Dustin was stubbled, and even though they’d scored, intense focus was written on his expression. It was sexy as hell, and I was pretty sure my body temperature rose a full degree.
A player from the other team skated past him, almost clipping him while time out was still called, and he clenched his jaw while two of his teammates grabbed hold of Dustin to keep him from going after the other player.
Then, by pure, dumb luck, maybe the same luck that led him to find me teary-eyed that fateful night in Las Vegas, his eyes found mine through the clear divider, and he squinted at me like he was seeing a mirage.
A hot chill rolled through my whole body when the muscles in his neck flexed, making my heart flutter. Heat rushed over my skin and pooled in my legs.
“Hi,” I mouthed, a nervous smile tugging at my face, and I suddenly felt like I was back in second grade at recess time and saying hi to the first boy I’d ever had a crush on, praying he would like me back.
The focus on his face changed to the slightest smirk, the one that made panties melt around the world. I didn’t dare check the status of mine currently. Then, with the crowd yelling, he blew me a kiss.
I couldn’t help it. I melted too, and I decided I should have gotten that coyote costume, or any costume, to make it so that it wasn’t just me and him tonight becausethatwas what I didn’t know if I could handle. I was a doctor, yes, but I was also his puck bunny, whether I like it or not.
And Ididlike it, I decided right there.
“Holy crap,” the woman behind me said. “She wasn’t lying. You’re actually ...”
“Dustin likes to call me his puck bunny number one,” I winked. “Also known as his wife.”
The woman’s eyes went wide. “Oh, uh, okay. Sorry, I didn’t know ...”
Didn’t know, my left eye,I wanted to say, but thought better of it.
“Wow,” Jenny said, nudging me. “He’s never done a PDA foranyone. He’s really declared you his, hasn’t he?”
I smiled. He had, and I felt like we were truly husband and wife.
Hey, I’ve known more dysfunctional beginnings to relationships than what we were going through right now.
After the game, Jenny and Nate had an after-hours meetup inside the stadium, and I took the opportunity to try and surprise Dustin.
Except ... I wasn’t very good at convincing the security guard that I was really Dustin’s wife.
“I swear it’s true.”
“Look, honey, we get a lot of girls, with a lot of stories trying to get into this locker room.”
I pulled out my phone and pulled up a picture of Dustin and me.
“No really, see here? We’re together.”
He squinted at the photo. “Look, miss, it’s truly amazing what you can do with photoshop now. If you know Dustin LeBlanc, why didn’t you tell him you were coming so he could put your name on the list?”
I sighed and figured I might as well text Dustin. Though I was a little sad that the surprise element would be lost.
As I strolled into a back hallway, though, away from the main locker room entrance, I spotted Chip.
“Hey Chip! Hold that door.”
