Page 31 of The Hat Trick

Mom doesn’t give them any looks or tells them to stop. Why would she? I’m the problem child, not them.

“No one is a toothless bully,” I roll my eyes.

“Are we going to meet him?” Mom asks.

I shake my head. “I’m not dating anyone, you’re not meeting anyone, and if I was, he wouldn’t be some toothless monster.”

The table goes quiet, the awkward silence dancing all around us until my dad, ever the peacemaker, decides to break it.

“Dessert, anyone?”

* * *

I’m finally back home,and it’s pretty safe to say I spent the entire plane ride thinking about this whirlwind trip, and where my life goes from here. Vince has texted me since he left, and he called me last night. He asked if he could give my number to Brent. I said he could, but I haven’t heard from him.

I don’t know what to do with both of these men. Vince is obviously more outward with his affection toward me, despite us agreeing this is casual. Brent wouldn’t even touch me. Even though it seemed like he wanted to, and the way he spoke to me, I could have come from that alone. But I want more.

This isn’t something I’ve ever dealt with before. I’ve never even liked two guys at once, even at school. If I had a crush on someone it was only him, I didn’t have eyes for anyone else. But this is something new, and Vince seems to like it. Brent…I don’t know what to think about him.

Audrey is coming over tonight for us to watch the game together because it has quickly become a tradition for us. I think we are even starting to understand the game a bit, and I’ve actually been enjoying it.

“Welcome back, give me all the details,” Audrey says as soon as she’s plopped onto the couch.

“You sure you want all of them?” I wince.

“Well,nowI do, tell me.”

I debated hiding the Brent situation from her, but decided to say,fuck it,and tell her anyway. And I tell her everything.

When I’m done, her mouth is gaped while she stares at me. She hasn’t said a word, the only sound in the room is from the announcers talking about the game before it starts.

“You…are…a queen,”she finally says, and I laugh.

“I don’t think this makes me a queen,” I shake my head.

“It makes you my fucking role model. Seriously, I would kill for just one of those men to want me, let alone two.”

“You have a chance with thirty-six, and I’ll make sure of it.”

She waves me off like it’s not going to happen, but I make a mental note to ask Vince about him for her.

The game starts, and it halts all conversations of my newly intriguing sex life. It seems like the guys are angry from the second the puck drops. Maybe it’s from their last game ending in a loss, but I feel like they move more aggressively, hit harder, and smack the puck like it personally offended them.

There are a couple times throughout the first period I’m surprised some of the players don’t get a penalty for how hard they hit the other guys. Apparently, the refs are being lenient this game.

“Frosting!” Audrey shouts as the puck goes flying across the ice.

I throw my head back on a laugh. “It’sicing,not frosting.”

She joins my laughter, and I vow to only call it frosting from now on.

We use the first intermission to pour drinks, and refill our snacks. Our boys are winning two-to-one at the start of the second. Vince got the assist on one of the goals, and Matt made the other one.

It’s not even a minute into the second period, and all of a sudden, the camera pans to two players circling each other, gloves off, fists up. I instantly recognize the player in the Denver jersey as Matt and I’m not even slightly surprised that he’s the one currently about to fight.

Matt ends up yanking the other player in by his collar while punching him with his free hand. From there it’s an all-out brawl between the two, fists flying. Their helmets end up on the ice right before Matt takes the other guy down to the ground. The refs have let them go at it without interfering until now, and work to break them up.

Finally, they do and Matt shoves them off him as he skates over to the penalty box. I wonder why sometimes they go back through the tunnel, and why other times they go in the box.

---