"He can cross-check my heart any day."
They all take turns shouting at Dom, giggling the entire time.
The hockey mask girl is nodding solemnly. "I would let him put me in the penalty box for life. No appeals."
Cat leans over to me, eyebrow raised. "I think Dom has a big of a fan club."
“You think?”
Zoe glances over at them with the serene confidence of awoman who knows exactly who's going home with number seventeen tonight. She gives them a little wave.
The redhead gasps so hard she chokes on her beer.
"Oh my god," she wheezes to her friends. "Oh my god, that's his wife. She's so pretty. Do you think she'd sign my jersey?"
"You're wearing his jersey."
"AND?"
Zoe is still riled up even after the rest of the stadium settles.
"That's my man! That's my beautiful, talented, incredibly sexy man!"
"We know, Zoe. The entire arena knows. People in Canada know." Zara might be the only one bored to tears here.
"They can always use a reminder." Zoe beams, on cloud nine.
On the ice, Dom does a little victory lap, stick raised, and when he passes our section, he blows a kiss directly at the box. Zoe pretends to catch it and presses it to her heart.
I used to think that kind of love was fiction. The loud, messy, unashamed kind. The kind that doesn't care who's watching.
Now I'm living in the middle of it.
"Okay, but can we talk about those stretches?" Zara gestures toward the ice, where some of the players are warming up on the bench. "What is happening there? Is that legal? Should I be covering my eyes?"
"It's hockey," Nick says, appearing beside her with enough food to feed a small army. "Everything's legal."
"That can't be anatomically correct."
"They're professionals."
Tristan returns with Hale, who's now clutching a soft pretzel roughly the size of his head and wearing an additional foam finger that definitely wasn't part of the original outfit.
"You weren't even gone for five minutes." I eye the foam finger.
"He made a compelling argument." Tristan settles back beside me, draping his arm across my shoulders. "Something about needing to support Uncle Dom more."
"And you just caved?"
"Have you seen his face? I'd buy him a car if he asked right."
Hale is already back at the glass, foam finger waving frantically as Dom takes another shift on the ice. Aaron has migrated over to help him see better, lifting him up so he has the perfect view.
I lean into Tristan's side and let myself breathe.
This is my life now.
Not the glasshouse prison with its marble floors and cold silence. Not the cameras and guards and constant surveillance. But this noisy box full of people who showed up for us when it mattered most. A son who's learning what it means to have a father who actually loves him. A man beside me who saw all my broken pieces and decided they were worth keeping.
