“It should be,” Brinley says, her eyes not glued to the puck but to a player. “I mean, Jaxon said that they’re the easiest team of the season.”
“He did, did he?” I tease, and she rolls her eyes.
“In the presence of my brother and four other players on this team? Yes, yes, he did.” She shakes her head, but her eyes don’t leave him.
“We don’t have anything to worry about yet,” Tate argues. “The score is still zero-zero, and the guys are just warming up. You know, taking it easy.”
“I hope so,” I whisper, as my eyes find a player of my own and not the one I should be watching.
Declan’s intense on the ice. I’ve heard over the years how amazing he is at hockey. Still, it’s usually from girls who were trying to get in his pants, so I didn’t take it too seriously. But they were right.
He’s faster than every guy on the ice. It’s like his blade barely touches with each stride. I’m mesmerized by the way his body moves. By how comfortable he looks on the ice. I’ve grown up around hockey, but I didn’t really have a choice. It was Cam’s life, and in turn, it became my life. But tonight, I think I finally understand it.
It’s exhilarating, not knowing what’s going to happen. In a split second, everything could change. The puck moves so fast my eyes barely have time to register which player it’s with before it’s moved on to another.
I watch the glass shake every few minutes as another player is shoved up against it in a fight for the puck. It’s like our team communicates telepathically, knowing what move they should make and when.
No matter how often the other team gets down by our goal, we have five guys ready to fight them off and get the puck back. And when that fails, Cam is ready to stop them from getting a goal. Stopping shot after shot.
I used to go to Cam’s games all the time, but I never really paid attention to them. And when I did, I watched Cam, who’s amazing, but doesn’t leave his goal often. So, watching other players is eye-opening to how exhilarating the game is.
Jaxon and Declan glide toward the opposing goal, almost perfectly in sync. Declan passes the puck to Jaxon, trying to keep the goalie on his toes. The Dalton U goalie watches Jaxon intensely but doesn’t forget about Declan on his right side. The other players quickly approach to protect their goalie and keep this puck from entering their net.
But they aren’t quick enough. Jaxon shoots the puck, but it flies off the goalpost. Their goalie dives to stop the puck, and as he flies toward the right side of the goal, the puck flies toward Declan for the rebound.
Their goalie can’t recover from the jump fast enough.
Without hesitation, Declan whips the puck toward the net. Right before the buzzer goes off, there’s an unmistakableswishas the puck hits the back of the net.
Declan skates off, and the guys skate over to him. The previously silent and anxious arena erupts in screams as our team takes the lead.
Brinley pulls me off the bleachers, jumping up and down as she shakes my shoulders. She may be more excited about that goal than Declan is. When she turns away to celebrate with Tate, my eyes find Declan on the ice. I bite my lip to hide my growing smile, but he doesn’t. He lets me see the cheeky grin that’s made me question everything recently. But it slowly disintegrates, and I realize his eyes are no longer on me but behind me.
He doesn’t look back at me as he skates off the ice. I turn around, searching for what upset Declan, and as I do, everything makes sense. His dad doesn’t look happy. Like his son scoring the first goal of the night means nothing. I wish I could go tell him how amazing his son is. How proud he should be. But I know nothing I say will matter if he can’t even credit him for that amazing goal.
His dad won’t change.
Itold myself I’d never go to another party, but here I am. Not only has Declan started to change my mind about hockey players, but his sister has also somehow changed my mind regarding parties.
“I’m happy you came to the game tonight.” Cam smiles, throwing an arm around me. He has a drink in his hand, which is rare for him because I haven’t seen him drink in years. But I guess after a win like tonight, anyone would want to celebrate with some alcohol.
Or if you’re Zeke, you would have someone helping you blow off that steam… or just blowing you. But from the number of girls surrounding him tonight, I have a feeling he’ll have no problem with that.
“I am, too,” I reply. “Thanks for dragging me out.”
“What are best friends for?” Brinley questions, grabbing Cam’s cup and downing half.
“Your brother doesn't find out about this,” Cam says. “I can’t have him know I allowed his kid sister to drink.”
“Didn’t give you much of a choice,” she mumbles. “Speaking of my brother, I haven’t seen him.”
I haven’t, either. Not that I was looking… okay, I was totally looking. It was the first thing I did when I got here. I saw Brooks and Zeke in the kitchen and Jeremy, Fletcher, and Jaxon in the living room, but Declan was nowhere to be found.
“Well,” Cam begins, “he’ll show up eventually. It’s his place.”
“That it is.” Brin grins. “Which is why I’m getting my own drink. You want one?”
“I’m all good,” I respond. Going to a party was a big step for me; drinking at one is for a different day.
