Page 74 of The Chase

I shrugged. “I think it’s from her brother. I just followed the recipe. It’s not like it’s hard.”

“Says you!” Keiana argued.

I shrugged. Cooking wasn’t that hard, as long as you could follow directions. Keiana looked at TJ. “Are you guys going to make the playoffs this year?” she asked.

He ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. “We’re trying. I have high hopes, but you never know.”

“Defense has been good since Cully and Riley paired up. I’m pulling for you,” she said.

TJ gave her an amused look. “You two know a scary amount about hockey.”

Keiana laughed. “We spent a lot of time watching the hockey team in high school. Also, we’re diehard Bulldogs fans!”

I nodded. “This is true.”

TJ laughed and kissed my temple again. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Keiana cleared her plate and put it in the sink. “Okay, kids. I gotta jet, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

She was out of the house before I could mention that wasn’t much. I didn’t wonder about that, because I spent the rest of the evening in bed with my boyfriend, anyway.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

TJ

My eyes darted back and forth between Noah and the lumbering San Jose Vipers forward he was facing off against. He won the face-off and flicked the puck my way. I sped down the ice, taking the puck up past the blue line, and passed it back to Benny. He stick-handled it out of the way of the San Jose defenseman and flicked it back to Noah. Noah took the shot, but it went off the post. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even groan because I scrambled to get the rebound before the goalie covered it with his glove. Muscle memory took over, and I jabbed it with my stick, and then the arena went dead silent.

The lamp behind the goaltender lit up.

HOLY FUCK.

That actually went in.

Noah hugged me on the ice, and I skated down the bench, high-fiving my teammates, before opening the gate to join them. Noah fist-pumped me while I gulped down a sports drink and tried to catch my breath.

“Come on, boys!” our captain cheered from behind the bench.

I watched with bated breath, chewing on my mouth guard while Hallsy had possession of the puck. The San Jose netminder had a weak five-hole, and Hallsy was trying to capitalize on that.

I groaned with the rest of my team when his shot hit the post and the opposing defenseman slapped it down the ice. I shared a nervous look with Noah. If we held them off for a few more minutes, we could win the game. The home fans were cheering on San Jose, but if we focused on the game in front of us, we could still win.

The crowd booed when Hallsy won the face-off and attempted to set up another play. He took the shot, and it landed top right shelf.

“Did that go in?” Noah asked me.

The lamp behind the goalie lit up red, and then our whole bench was standing up and cheering on our guys. There was his answer—3-1 us with fifty seconds left on the clock.

Coach tapped me on the helmet, and I hopped over the bench for the change-up. I took the face-off, but I went too quickly, and the ref kicked me out. Benny replaced me and won, trying to set something else up. We couldn’t let them get another scoring chance.

We ended up battling with San Jose until the siren sounded. 3-1 FINAL.

I danced into the visitors’ locker room. “That’s how we do it, boys!” I cheered as Riley turned on the stereo for our victory game song.

Noah shook his head at me as he stripped his jersey off. Winning always amped me up. And made me horny. Too bad my girl was thousands of miles away.

After talking to the media and getting a shower, I was tying my tie at my cubby, waiting for Noah to do the same. He was too busy texting on his phone and taking his sweet time.

“Bro, come on!” I whined.