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“I swear I came for hockey. And to meet Sutton. Wes just…” She looks over at him and grins. “Happened.”

Just hearing Sutton’s name makes my heart rate speed up, but I am acutely aware that her brother is sitting just on the other side of Lydia.

He’s currently explaining to Wes and Hudson why peanut butter cups are far superior to Oreos—something I wholeheartedly agree with—and I don’t think he heard her.

“Now if someone would do peanut butter Oreos in a milkshake,” Beckett says. “Then we’d have something real going on.”

Huh, I’d definitely eat that.

“Don’t mention Sutton and me,” I tell my sister softly.

“But—” Something in my gaze makes her nod quickly. “Got it. So the hockey really is bonkers.”

I roll my eyes, but I appreciate that she’s able and willing to pivot without questions. I’m sure she’ll text me later, but that’s fine. As long as Beckett isn’t able to overhear our conversation.

Or Wes, Hudson, or Teddy for that matter.

“It was seriously fun,” she tells me, her smile genuine. “And you seem to really like it.”

I smile. “I do. Now. It took a minute.”

“I haven’t seen you play that loose, have fun, and yet play so well in a long time.”

I know exactly what she’s talking about.

My last season with the Jazz was tense. Even before my ‘incident’, I was tense. Lydia was dating my teammate Jake, and I didn’t like it. And it wasn’t the teammate thing. She’d dated hockey players before. It was Jake. I didn’t like him. He wasn’t a good guy. But she was happy. Until she wasn’t.

Then my first season here in Rebel with the FPHL team was…also tense. It wasn’t where I wanted to be. It was definitely a step down from where I’d been, and I knew everyone was wondering why the Jazz let me go, and what I was doing in small-town Louisiana.

But now, I’m loving hockey again. I’m a part of a team of great guys. I’m having fun. I’m playing well. And for the first time in a long time, hockey is a happy part of my life. It’s not front and center. It’s not a curse. It’s not something I have to do to prove myself. It’s just this thing I really love to do with a bunch of people I really like.

And that includes Wes.

If Lydia and Wes date, I’ll be fine. I won’t worry. I won’t be tense.

Though I might pray for Wes a little.

People, especially men, often make the mistake of underestimating my sister. Myself included.

“I was expecting the singing and dancing,” Lydia says. “But actually being there in person and never knowing when it might happen, and then the teddy bear song—” She gives Wes and Hudson a smile.

Both men focus on her again, abruptly ignoring Beckett and his list of the pros and cons of adding lemon Oreos to a milkshake. “That was my favorite part,” Lydia says.

I roll my eyes.

The two big men elbow each other with grins. They’ve been getting complimented all night, and they’re eating it up.

I look over at Sutton again and this time catch her eye.

She doesn’t look away as quickly, and I give her a wink.

I hope that conveys that I know what she’s doing and why, and that I’m not upset.

She inclines her head toward the front door, and I nod, keeping Beckett in my peripheral vision. He’s protesting loudly about something Teddy said about mixing lemon and peanut butter—I do not want to know about that—and doesn’t seem to notice us.

A couple of minutes later, Sutton heads out the front door, and I start feeling itchy.

I want to be with her. At least hear her voice if I can’t touch her.