Page 80 of The Hat Trick

“Come on, there’s an open bar up here.” Brynn rubs her hands together before leading us over to the bar. She ends up leaning down to whisper to me, “Don’t pay attention to them, most of these girls are bitches and you shouldn’t care about what they think of you anyway.”

My shoulders drop in relief that she’s not acting weird about being seen with us, or weird about what she saw the other week.

“So, who are you repping?” She moves to look at the back of my jersey and gives me a smirk. “Couldn’t decide? I don’t blame you.” She winks.

My jaw drops wondering if Brent told her, but that would seem like majorly oversharing with a sibling. I guess she did see me with three of them…in the morning…clearly comfortable and not completely dressed. My mortification begins to take over as I really get a chance to think about what she must think of me.

I’m about to say something about Audrey and me leaving when a child screeches and we all turn to look in the direction of the sound. That’s when I see another woman entering with two young kids with her. One has just thrown herself onto the floor and is crying. The other is holding onto a man’s hand, who I assume is her dad. She’s staring at her sister on the floor, and it almost looks like she’s judging her.

“Who’s that?” I ask Brynn.

“Oh, that’s Vince Dumont’s sister and her family, she’s really nice.” Brynn waves over to her and I really notice her brown curly hair, and the resemblance to Vince. She smiles at us while carrying the previously screaming toddler in her arms who now has a toy in her hands and is much happier.

“Hey Brynn, long time no see,” she greets with a half hug since the child in her arms prevents her from hugging Brynn fully.

“Em, this is Chandler, she’s a friend of Vince and Brents,” Brynn introduces. My cheeks flush at her mentioning me being afriendof those two.

“Oh Chandler, Vince has mentioned you, so nice to meet you.” She wraps me in a half hug as well. I’m taken aback by her forwardness, but clearly the Dumont’s are a friendly family. I’m also stuck on the fact that she said Vince has mentioned me.

“Nice to meet you too, this is my best friend, Audrey.” Em ends up pulling her into a hug as well.

“This little drama queen is Alana, and her sister, Josie is with my husband Eric.” Em points out the man and other little girl she came in with.

“I was just telling Chandler not to pay too much attention to anyone around here because they can be catty bi-o-tches.” Brynn covers her mouth at the curse, but Em just waves her off.

“Please, her uncle is a hockey player, she’s heard so much worse. It’s true, ignore them if they try to say anything nasty to you, they don’t take well to new girls and it’s nothing against you, they just don’t want to have to share the spotlight.”

“Oh, I’m not trying to be in any spotlight,” I say adamantly.

“That’s probably just one of the reasons my brother is so into you.” She softens her gaze at me, and I panic slightly about her talking about Vince being so into me, wondering if Brynn is going to bring something up about Brent, but she doesn’t.

We all take our seats that look down at the rink. Audrey and I sit in the last row and off to the side, away from most of the other women who keep peeking back at us and then giggling. Brynn comes up to us with another round of drinks despite the first period not even starting yet.

“Seriously, ignore them,” she says before sending a glare in their direction.

Em and her family are sitting a couple rows in front of us, also away from the other group as well.

“You’d think since the guys are all on a team together, their wives and girlfriends would want to be close with everyone,” I say.

“Bitches are catty, I don’t think they care about it that way. They see everyone as competition or some shit. Not like there’s anything to compete for.” Brynn shrugs. I guess she’s been in this world with her brother longer than anyone else here. Well, except Em, but either way they have both been here their brother’s entire careers.

Audrey leans over to whisper so only I can hear her, “Maybe if they knew you were fucking three of the guys, they would have something to hate you for.”

I smack her arm playfully while she laughs. Brynn gives us a look that makes it obvious she really wants to know what Audrey said. I wave her off because there’s no way I’m repeating what was just said.

Brynn just shrugs. Then the game starts with the whole pre show, the introduction of the plays and players before they all skate onto the ice and the game begins.

* * *

Both teams are stuckat zero by the end of the first period and it’s my turn to get drinks. Audrey, Brynn, and I have been having a good time throughout the game. I was surprised when Brynn made some borderline dirty commentary, which Audrey then proceeded to make obscenely filthy and that Brynn thought was hysterical. I’m glad it’s loud and Vince’s nieces can’t hear us. Em would jump into our normal conversations here and there, but mostly she was wrangling her littles.

I’m at the bar grabbing the three drinks when someone comes up next to me and orders a vodka soda. I stifle my eye roll; I feel like that’s a drink you order when you hate yourself. In my peripheral I see the woman who ordered it, she’s one of the lanky blondes and she’s clearly staring at me.

“Hi,” she finally says, and I jump slightly when I realize she’s speaking to me.

“Uh, hi,” I stutter.

“Are you a friend of little Collee’s?” she asks and for a second I wonder if she’s calling Brent that but realize she must be referring to his sister.

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