Page 3 of The Best Friend Power Play

I'm a smalltown girl who runs her dead mother's flower shop, considers list-making to be her favorite hobby, and isn't the least bit spontaneous.

The last spur-of-the-moment thing I did happened last week when I swapped out my usual Ben and Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream for Peanut Butter Cup. I regretted it the whole time I ate it and swore off making rash decisions ever again.

See? I try to be impulsive and only end up messing it up.

I'm boring.

No. I'm worse than boring.

I'm…I'm…I'm lost.

I'm twenty-five, and I have no idea who I am.

How—why—would anyone, much less a great, successful, attractive pro hockey player like Culver who could have any woman he wants, choose me?

Nope. It'll never happen.

Friends to lovers is strictly a romance novel trope and not something I foresee happening in my own very un-romance-novel-like life.

Culver and I are, and will always be, friends only.

I've accepted that…because the consolation prize is having the best friend in the world.

There's a lull in the group conversation, so I bring up a topic we need to discuss. "Should we talk about the new train station in Comfort Bay?" The girls stare at me blankly because there is no new train station in Comfort Bay. "You know…" I nudge Evie's non-coffee-drinking arm. "The station that leads to Happy Couplehood."

Evie stops nursing her triple grande monstrosity like a baby sucking on a sippy cup and breaks out into the widest smile. "You talking about me and Fraser?"

"Yes, I'm talking about you and Fraser. It's been a week since he bought you a hockey stadium and a hockey team?—"

"Two hockey teams," Amiel corrects.

"Sorry. You're right," I say. "Two hockey teams." Since Evie is determined to not only start a junior team but also a junior para team as well. "And we are all still swooning. Aren't we, ladies?"

Beth: "Oh, my gosh. Yes. I'm drowning in the swooning."

Amiel: "So. Much. Swooning. It's all people in town are talking about."

Beth: "The bookshop has been days-leading-up-to-Christmas busy all week."

Summer: "That's wild."

Beth: "What's even wilder is that we've sold out of every single hockey romance book on the shelves. I've had to express order a new shipment."

Amiel: "We launched hockey-themed cupcakes at the bakery, and I haven't been able to keep up with the demand."

Evie: "Seriously?"

Beth: "Yep. I've been fielding requests to have them iced with the initials EF, FE, Frevie, and—my personal favorite because it's truly bad—Evraser."

Me, chuckling: "That is pretty bad."

Evie, nodding: "Shockingly bad."

Beth: "I hear the Planning Committee is scheduling a parade down Main Street."

Evie: "They are not…are they?"

Beth: "No. I'm kidding. But I wouldn't put it past them."

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