I step around the crowd, noting how she’s wincing at how loud the music is.
I spot Beckett, my teammate and one of the guys who lives here, just a dozen feet away, setting up a pyramid of beer cans on a big table with endless bottles of liquor.
When I walk up to him, he grins.
“St. Nick! My man! About time you made it,” he says. He tosses a beer can at me, and I catch it with my free hand.
Poppy’s brow furrows as she looks at me. “He calls you St. Nick?” she hollers over the music.
“Yeah. Hockey nickname. Half the guys on the team call me that.”
Beckett turns to Poppy and grins. “And this must be the missus.”
I laugh. Poppy blushes.
“The guys on the team told me you were paired up, and I didn’t believe it,” Beckett says. “But now that I see it with my own eyes, I’m a believer.”
“This is my girlfriend, Poppy. Poppy, this is my teammate, Beckett.”
He shakes her hand. “Good to meet you, Poppy. Gotta say, I’ve got mad respect for you. You tamed the beast. I never thought I’d see this guy settle down.”
Poppy lets out a flustered chuckle. “Thanks, I guess?”
Beckett just laughs.
“Hey, can you turn down the music, man? My girl doesn’t like it deafening,” I say.
“Yeah, sure.” Beckett pulls out his phone and turns down the volume on the speaker system. I notice Poppy’s shoulders ease instantly.
She smiles up at me, then turns to Beckett. “Sorry to be a pain,” she says.
Beckett holds up a hand, an easy grin on his face. “No worries. I get it. Happy wife, happy life.” He pats my shoulder and winks at me before walking off.
“He’s a character,” Poppy says.
“He is. And one hell of a defenseman. He’s a beast on the ice.”
She looks over at Beckett, who’s now in the middle of a push-up contest across the room with some guy wearing a T-Rex costume.
Her eyes widen. “That’s something I never thought I’d see. A dinosaur doing pushups.”
“You always see something unexpected at Beckett’s house parties. He and his roommates are wild.”
I crack open the beer can Beckett gave me, and together, Poppy and I watch the showdown. The people crowded around them count out the pushups in unison. Beckett and the dinosaur start to slow down, until a few seconds later, when the dinosaur falls to the ground. Beckett does one more pushup before falling to the ground. The crowd cheers for Beckett while he grins. He stands up and helps the guy in the dinosaur costume stand up, too. They’re both laughing as they high-five.
“Wow. Beckett’s in really good shape,” Poppy says.
“Yup. I’ve never won a push-up contest against that guy. Really pisses me off.”
Poppy chuckles and pats my hand.
“You want something to drink?” I ask her.
“Yeah, but I don’t think there’s anything that’s not alcohol.” She glances at the drink table. “It’s okay, I’m good.”
I walk over to the table and grab a can of Sprite, which is sitting in a cooler on the floor. People have been grabbing them to drink as a chaser, but I have a better idea. I pour the can into a red solo cup, then I grab a jar of maraschino cherries and dump a few into the cup along with a small splash of the juice.
“Shirley Temple okay?” I say as I hand Poppy the glass.
