Page 53 of Playmaker

Five.

Sabrina. I grinned behind my visor; should’ve known it was her by the superhuman speed.

By the time I made it across the blue line, Sabrina was engaged in a board battle with two of New York’s skaters behind the goal. I itched to join in the fray, but Anastasia was closer. I’d be one body too many; I was better off staying somewhere they could pass the puck once they got it free. Or where I could snatch it away from a New York player if she won the fight and tried to break away.

That was exactly what happened, too—one of their skaters got the puck and flung it around the boards, probably to be intercepted by someone waiting at the blue line.

I don’t think so.

I lunged for the puck and just managed to stop it with the tip of my blade. I bobbled it a little, but I got it under control.

Behind me, someone tapped her stick on the ice, and I whipped around to pass it to her.

It had barely hit Sabrina’s stick before she wound back and slapped it toward the goal.

The netminder might’ve been ready, but Anastasia was screening her, and the puck sailed past both of them and right into the twine.

Sabrina pumped her fist in the air and shouted as the goal light came on. Along with our other teammates, I skated over to hug her and congratulate her. As I did, she had a huge smile on her face, and when she locked eyes with me—

Oh my God. Good thing I was hugging her into the glass, because had I been trying to support my own weight, I probably would’ve lost an edge.

And why was I suddenly overcome with this need to kiss her right there on the ice?

I let her go and followed her and our other teammates to the bench for fist bumps, all the while reeling from my own stupid thought.

What the hell? That wasn’t who we were.

But maybe it’s who I want us to be.

Okay. Sure. I had a crush on her, especially now that I knew everything I’d thought about her was wrong. But I knew it probably wasn’t mutual—despite Faith’s thoughts on the matter still ringing in my head. Either way, on the ice in the middle of a game wasn’t exactly the time to do anything about this attraction.

I’m losing my damn mind.

Fortunately, I still had hockey to hold my focus. That was one of the great things about this sport—itdemandeda person’s full attention.

I could finish losing my mind later. For now? Hockey.

As we were setting up for a faceoff, the announcer spoke in that reluctant way they sometimes did when they called opposing goals. The booing crowd almost drowned her out, but I heard her anyway:

“Pittsburgh goal. Number five, Sabrina McAvoy. Assisted by number seventy-two, Lila Hamilton. McAvoy from Hamilton at three minutes, thirty-four seconds.”

I grinned to myself. Another assist for me. Another goal for Sabrina. And now we had the lead.Andthe home team’s fans were pissed off. Nice.

The chippiness continued into the third period. I loved games like this—the competitiveness and the feistiness, what wasn’t to love?

After an icing call, we set up again. Sabrina won the faceoff, and we were off and running. There was a battle in the neutral zone, and New York almost got into our zone before I stole the puck away.

I quickly scanned the ice and realized two of my teammates were wide open.

“Ana!” I called out, and as soon as Anastasia looked my way, I sent the puck to her. She passed it to Sims, who passed it back to me, and I sent it on to Val. She got into the zone, and we were once again setting up, cycling the puck and keeping the skaters’ attention while we closed in on their goal.

I almost wanted to laugh because they were so focused on us and on the puck, and we were moving around so much, they hadn’t noticed that only four of us were engaged in the puck-go-round.

From the corner of my eye, I tracked Sabrina, who’d quietly made her way from the faceoff dot around the back of the goal. I sensed when she was in the right position. The puck came to me. I wound back like I was going to send it to Sims, who was off to the goalie’s right. When everyone—including the netminder—shifted toward Sims to anticipate the pass, I fired it to Sabrina.

Before the goalie or any of the skaters could course correct, Sabrina tipped it in just past the goalie’s left skate.

The crowd made a collectively frustrated sound, and we all nearly toppled her as we went in for hugs.

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