I stared at him. “Don’t even play with me right now, Cross. I’m in a fragile state, but I will always have the strength to kick your ass.”
“I mean it,” he said, chuckling softly. His eyes danced with amusement and I felt myself gravitating toward it. “And this time it doesn’t sound like the dead-end we found back at the arena. This time it sounds legit. Authentic.”
The unit leapt to life around us. Someone laughed too loudly, another person shouted for their mother. A monitor alarm chirped, then went quiet. All of it felt far away.
“You’re kidding. Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“I never joke about hockey history,” Landon said, solemn as a vow. Then he grinned again. “Okay, that’s a lie. But I’m not joking about this. Promise.”
I should’ve been happy. I’d been hunting that helmet for years, scrolling auction sites at three in the morning, following collector forums, setting alerts that never pinged. This was the thing. The impossible thing.
“That’s… great,” I said, and even to my own ears it sounded wrong.
Landon’s smile faltered. “Great? That’s it?”
“I just— I wasn’t expecting you to show up here in the middle of a double. On trauma. I’m sorry. I’m happy, I swear. I’m also just dead on my feet.”
He glanced around, finally clocking the controlled mayhem. “Yeah, this place is intense.”
“Understatement of the year.”
Parker cleared her throat pointedly from the desk.
“I need to get back to work,” I said with a sigh. “We can talk later.”
Landon’s brows drew together. “It’s not me, is it?”
I looked at him. Perfect posture. Zero bags under his eyes. The kind of man who could nap between periods and wake up ready to stop pucks at ninety miles an hour.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and meant it, even though it wasn’t really an apology for him. “I’m just… exhausted. My schedule’s a mess, but that’s on me.”
He softened then, some of the ego draining away. “Okay. Okay. My timing sucks.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Parker called my name this time, but I ignored it for half a second longer.
“And also,” I added, because the words had been sitting on my tongue for a while, heavy and insistent, “while you’re here, I’m going to say something.”
Landon’s mouth twitched. “That sounds ominous.”
“You should try being less of a dick sometimes.”
His eyebrows shot up and he took a step back for good measure. “Wow.”
“Don’t,” I said, already tired of his expression. “Don’t act all surprised, as if you have no idea what I’m talking about.”
“I am surprised,” he said. “I’m a delight.”
I stared at him, exhaling slowly through my nose.
He shifted, clearing his throat. “Okay, I can be… a dick. I know.”
“You’re talented,” I said. “You’re disciplined. You work your ass off. All true. But you walk around thinking you’re better than everyone else and that’s… not cool.”
“But I am better than everyone else.”
I didn’t return his smile.
