“Yeah, let’s be friends.”
Chapter Eleven
Landon
The locker room buzzes with pre-game energy. I pull on my jersey, the Cyclones logo settling against my chest, and the adrenaline already coursing through my veins. This is what I live for: the roar of the crowd, the crack of the puck against the boards, the perfect pass that leads to a goal.
“Hey, Kane,” Tate calls out from across the room. “Stay focused out there.”
I nod and meet his eyes for a second longer than necessary before turning back to my locker. Since that night at the bar, there’s been a sexual tension between us I’m trying my best to ignore. He’s made it clear he wants me to back off, and I will. But fuck, it’s harder than I expected.
Levi crowds in next to me, already fully geared up except for his helmet and practically bouncing on the spot. “Are you ready for this?” he asks, a grin on his face. “This is it, bro. Our first game as Cyclones.”
“Don’t get yourself thrown in the box first period,” I warn him. Levi and Jagger’s rivalry is legendary, built on years of playing against each other in college and now in the NHL. “We need you for the rest of the game.”
“Please, I can take him down and still have time for a nap,” Levi boasts, which is probably the most Levi thing he could say.
I stand up and grab my helmet, rolling my shoulders. This is our debut with the Stormhaven Cyclones, and everything we’ve been working toward since the trade is about to happen.
“Are you good?” Levi asks.
“Fine,” I lie.
The team files toward the ice, then one by one, skates out to the roar of the crowd. The energy lifts with each player who takes the ice. Levi and I hang back, as we’re the last ones.
The announcer’s voice booms through the arena, building momentum. Each name gets a roar from the crowd, then there’s a pause.
“And now . . . the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . . number 19, LANDON KANE!”
The crowd absolutely loses its mind. The noise is deafening. A wall of sound hits me as I skate out onto the ice. The arena is packed.
Right as the sound dies down, the announcer’s voice comes again.
“And his twin brother... number 91, LEVI KANE! THE KANE TRAIN, ladies and gentlemen. Let ’em hear you, Stormhaven!”
The arena drums beat, lights sweep across the ice in patterns, and Levi skates out behind me, his stick held high, showing off to the crowd.
“It’s preseason action and we’re turning up the heat early. First test of the year for the Ridgeland Ridgebacks, a brand-new franchise making their debut in the NHL.”
In the stands directly behind the Ridgebacks’ bench, I spot Leila in a Ridgebacks jersey with all three of her husbands’ numbers down her upper arm and no doubt across the back.
Next to her sits Abby. My stomach tightens at the sight of her. Leila mentioned Abby would be here. It means—fuck—Abby is going to be watching me play in a Cyclones jersey for the first time, and based on how completely she cut us off, I bet she hasn’t watched me play at all over our five years apart. And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her since we decided to be friends.
I smirk at the shirt she is wearing. Printed across the front is: “I’m going fishing.” Our eyes meet across the ice, and I’m hit with the same jolt I felt the first time I saw her. Neither of us looks away.
“The Ridgebacks will start things off with... number 9, KNOX MERCER. Number 1, RIVEN KRUGER. And number 27, JAGGER HOLT.”
The crowd erupts in boos and cheers in unison, drowning out the following player announcements. There’s something different about this game. The Ridgebacks are brand new to the league, so we’re supposed to dominate them tonight. And with me being a new trade, the pressure to perform well sits on my shoulders.
“Keep your eyes up when number 91 and number 27 share the ice. They are old college rivals, and there is never a dull moment between those two.”
The announcer’s not wrong. Levi and Jagger make eye contact across the ice, and I can practically see them twitching to throw their gloves off.
Leila made them both promise that the only place their rivalry is to exist is on the ice. She will tolerate zero off-ice bullshit. It’s the only way she could handle being married to one and having the other as a brother.
Levi understands; he respects Leila too much not to follow her rule. Jagger does too. Besides, if he didn’t, Leila would have his head on a platter.
So when they are on the ice together, all the pent-up aggression, the rivalry, comes out. It’s on the ice and only on the ice. But it means the game is going to get physical between them, and the crowd knows it.
