“Fuck off, asshole!” He struggles, aiming to keep the puck from me, but I’ve got him where I want him.
The refs watch us like hawks. I need to make this quick and keep it clean.
“Listen to me carefully, because I’m only saying it once.” I jab my glove against his chest. “I would never lie about Maya. Family is supposed to protect each other and you failed at that when it counted. If you’re still friends with that dick, we’re gonna have a problem.”
“You need to start making sense, Blake.”
His brows furrow. I don’t have an ounce of patience left in me.
“Don’t give me that look. Johnny Werner. The asshole who cheated on Maya and made her feel like shit about it. If that wasn’t enough to make you want to kill him, a few months agothe psycho thought it was funny to break into her apartment as a joke.”
He freezes, forgetting about the puck. “What the fuck? He didwhat?”
“Come on, there’s no way you didn’t know something was off.”
“No,” he spits.
I grit my teeth to keep my temper in check. “It doesn’t matter. She has me now. I’m not going anywhere, so if you ever disrespect her the way you have by staying friends with shitheads like Werner, know that I will make you pay for it just as much as anyone else that’s hurt her.”
“Oh, shit.” He goes slack, gaping at me. “You’re in love with her.”
“Damn right I am.” While he’s distracted, I flick the puck away from him to the blur of blue and green on my left.
His expression darkens, searching the crowd. “I’m gonna fucking kill him.”
Finally, we’re on the same page.
“First, I’m beating your ass.”
Smirking, I rush off to assist Theo as he flies down the ice with the puck.
TWENTY-EIGHT
MAYA
“Fight! Yeah, let’s go,”someone yells in the crowd near us.
“Maya, wait!” Reagan grabs hold of me to stop me from racing out of my seat the minute the gloves come off.
We’re all on our feet with the rest of the arena—me, her, Hana, and Corinne. Phones are out and people eat up my brother and my boyfriend colliding. I clutch the front of the jersey I’m wearing.
Maybe it would’ve been better to tell Ryan about us.
Within moments, both teams spill onto the ice. The brawl between Heston and Elmwood turns the ice into complete chaos. It takes the referees several long minutes to get the fighting under control, then they take an eternity debating with the players. Ryan gets in the ref’s face and Easton yanks him back.
At last, the referee announces, “Numbers twenty-nine from Elmwood and twenty-four from Heston, penalties for misconduct. Ten minutes in the penalty box.”
“There, see? It’s all good.” Reagan encourages me to sit down, patting my leg. “I thought you grew up around this watching Ryan play all the time?”
I sigh. “It’s still my brother and my boyfriend attacking each other. I didn’t want them fighting. They’re seriously lucky theyonly got penalties instead of getting kicked out of the game. Usually the college league is really strict about the no fighting policy.”
“I can’t lie. It’s hot.” Reagan shivers with a smirk. “All that pent up emotion exploding. Really gets a girl going, y’know?”
The breath that huffs out of me is tinged with wry amusement. “Yeah, I do know.”
She’s not wrong at all. Beneath the uncertainty, there’s a current of warmth pulsing between my legs from seeing Easton go wild like that. I bite my lip, seeking him out as he takes off his helmet and shakes out his thick messy brown hair on his way off the ice.
The rest of the period plays out with Easton and Ryan glaring at each other from their respective penalty boxes, separated only by a wall of plexiglass. When the teams break before the last period, I rise to my feet again and text Easton, unsure if he’ll check his phone. I stare at the screen until the three dots pop up.
