Page 116 of The Boyfriend Goal

Max stares at me like I just told him I’m going to skate with my laces untied. “This is your big plan?”

“Yup,” I say, resolute as I pass a stuffed frog chair in the children’s section of An Open Book, having just told my two closest friends about my meeting with the captain in, oh, thirty minutes’ time.

I’m incredibly calm though, and also determined. Like a play unfolding on the ice, I can see what I need to do and what I need to say to make this happen. The moves I have to make. The way I need to skate.

All that’s left is the execution.

Max blows out a better you than me breath, “Then I have a question for you.”

Before he can ask it though, Asher comes over and drops a metric ton of copies of Where the Wild Things Are onto the pile in my arms.

Oof. It’s getting heavier. “Dude. Can you not hold these?”

“Dude. Are you not strong enough?”

Fighting words. I hoist the books higher. “I can carry them all, dickhead.”

“Language,” Max chides. “You’re in the children’s section.”

“No one’s here yet,” I point out since it’s early and the store just opened.

“But you’re a good guy, Bryant. Be one all the time, even in the kiddy section,” Max deadpans, and he makes a fair point—one I’ll use very shortly.

“Anyway, what was your question, Lambert?” I say to Max as I weave past a tiny castle filled with beanbags and head toward the front of the store. I already left a huge stack at the counter earlier.

“Can you record it for us? The whole interaction with Winters? I feel like it would be really great for team morale.”

I roll my eyes while Asher jumps in, saying, “Not a bad idea. We might want to look at it when we review video.” He pauses, like he’s deep in thought, then holds his hands out wide. “How to handle the puck you didn’t see coming.”

I groan. “You did not actually make the world’s worst pun.”

Asher flashes me a grin. “I did.”

We arrive at the counter where I buy several boxes of kid books, then wait as a man behind the counter gift wraps a small handful for me.

The woman who rang me up smiles. Her name is Trina, and she’s a fixture at Sea Dogs games. “So glad Ryker told you to shop here,” she says with a smile.

“As if we’d shop anyplace else,” Asher says.

“Except Once Upon a Good Time,” she points out helpfully. “That’s my romance-only bookstore. But I still work here from time to time too. I guess I’m just a ‘why choose’ girlie with bookstores,” she says with a knowing smile. Trina’s married to two of our teammates—Ryker and also Chase. It’s unconventional, but it works for them.

“And I’ll be sure to stop there when I need something new to read,” Asher says.

“You read romance?” Max asks with a dubious arch of his brow.

“Don’t you wish you knew?” Asher retorts.

Max grumbles, “Actually I don’t need to know.”

We thank Trina and leave. My friends do help carry boxes, though, since we have a big haul. My car’s parked at the curb, so we set the boxes of books in the backseat, along with the stack of wrapped ones.

I take a breath then check my texts, confirming Christian’s address. I messaged him this morning and said I need to stop by to chat with him before morning skate in an hour or so.

I give a tip of the hat to the guys. “Pick you up in thirty at Doctor Insomnia’s?”

“Unless we need to pick you up in a body bag,” Max deadpans.

“We’ll get you a nice body bag, Bryant,” Asher says.

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