Page 80 of Six Wishes

EPILOGUE

Three months after that

Chloe

Van has a home game tonight. I always attend his home games, jersey with his name on it and everything. Tonight, I have a guest. My cousin, Hunter, is in town, and she jumped at the opportunity to join me.

“Go, Van!!” she slams both hands on the plexiglass, nose just about stuck to it as well. We could’ve sat up in the suite reserved for families of the players, but she didn’t think it would give her the full experience. She wanted to be in the thick of things.

“Oh, come on!” she slaps the glass again, then turns to me with a pissed off look on her face. “Did you see that call? What the hell was that?”

“Total bullshit,” I agree with her.

By the end of the third period, I have to use the bathroom, and by the time I make it back, I am a complete ball of nerves.

“What’s the matter with you?” Hunter watches me suspiciously. I am saved from answering when a couple of players slam into the wall and startle her. Fists are flying, and there’s a squirt of blood splattered on the clear glass right in front of me.

“Oh God,” I press a hand to my mouth. There’s a good chance I am going to puke my guts out. I close my eyes and pretend it is not there, but when I open them so that I can look for Van, the blood is still there, and now I think I saw a tooth flying out of the opponent’s fighter’s mouth.

“Seriously,” Hunter’s voice is right in my ear now. I don’t even know when she got into my space like that. “Are you okay?”

“I thought I was,” I admit. “But now that I saw all this blood, I’m a little queasy.”

“Since when are you scared of a little bit of blood?” Hunter scolds me.

She’s right, I’ve never been scared of blood. I even watched her dad gutting a whole deer once. But this is different. And I want Van to be the first to know.

“How much longer till the game is over?” I look up for the score board. “Do you think they’ll win?”

“They fuckin’ better,” I knew that would distract Hunter from my problems. She is a hardcore Sliders fan, ready to literally slay anyone who’d dare to say anything bad about them.

“How did Zach let you out of his sight anyway?” My life has been so chaotic for the past six months or so, our conversations have been sporadic, and I’m sure we only managed to scratch the surface of everything happening in her life.

“He had a business dinner, said he couldn’t miss it. Whatever.” She sounds put off by it, and I wonder if I got the wrong impression about their relationship.

“So you did want him to come here instead then?”

“I don’t care,” she shrugs, but her eyes tell a different story. She cares. She definitely cares.

The crowd starts making lots of noise, and some of the players in the pen are hugging each other. I look at the time. Not enough time for the opponent team to score, and the Sliders are ahead enough to feel safe in their early celebrations.

“Oh my gosh,” Hunter grabs my arm and squeezes hard. “They’re going to win, Chlo!”

I tug my arm away from her so that I can bend down and grab the sign I made for Van. My plan was to put it against the glass at the end of the game, and I am running out of time.

Loud noise against the glass brings my eyes up, grateful that I remembered to avoid the smudge of blood still on it. I am surprised to see Van standing right there, a huge grin on his face, wet hair plastered to his head from what I can see under his helmet. He is banging his hockey stick on the glass trying to get my attention.

“I love you,” he mouths at me, and I put a finger up, signaling for him to wait as I get the rubber band off my rolled-up sign.

When I put it against the glass, I have enough clearance to look at Van over the bright white piece of soft cardboard. The confusion on his face when he is trying to figure out what my message is makes me laugh. I wait patiently and finally see when he’s connected the dots and he understands my message.

The crowd goes wild around us, and I realize that the game is over. However, the camera is on us, and everyone’s eyes are on us. The commentator even gets in on the show, as he is doing his best to decipher my message to Van.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer’s deep voice greets, “let’s take a moment and watch Chloe Montgomery, lovely girlfriend of the Sliders’ number one defenseman, Van Boyd.” The crowd is cheering, with Hunter being our biggest supporter in the entire arena. She is jumping up and down, staring at the screen where my poster is on display.

Van’s hand goes to his heart, and he mouths from beyond the glass, “Really?”

“Yes!” I smile big and pray to God that this is a good thing.

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