Page 127 of The Hat Trick

“She wouldn’t want to hear about it either.” I shake my head.

“You and I both know that’s not true. Look, I want to get her back and I know you and McQuaid do too.”

I look at him, wondering where he’s going with this. We all agreed to give her time. Maybe she’s reached out to him, maybe she’s reached out to both of them and I’m the only one left out of this. The itchy feeling under my skin is starting up again that makes me need to do something to get my control back.

“I have a plan, kind of, and if it works, I hope you’ll want to get her back too, and hopefully will tell her what is going on with you. Maybe it’ll help.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Are you in this?” he asks, seriously.

I sigh. Despite the feeling of inadequacy for her and the thought of admitting all my darkest demons to anyone, let alone someone as perfect as her and risk losing her for good, makes me feel even worse. I know I need to try. It’s a last resort for all of us and even the possibility of having her in my arms again would be worth it.

“Yeah, I’m in this.”

45

“This is a bad idea, nope, I shouldn’t be here,” I try to argue with Audrey as she practically pulls me through the doors of the arena.

“Yes, you should and it’s way past time you get your men back,” she insists.

I groan and drag my feet as we go toward the seats that were reserved for us. I received a text from Vince yesterday and after screaming, showing Audrey, questioning everything, deciding to go, then deciding not to go, changing my mind at least fifteen more times, and then debating on what to wear for a solid three hours, we are here.

His text said there are tickets for Audrey and I at will call and that it’s not the suite with the WAGs, which I was extremely thankful for. He also said not to respond to the text to tell him if I was coming or not. Just that he would see me.

Our seats are right behind the goal, and I can’t help but wonder why he picked seats right here. I can’t deny it’s going to be amazing to see the game from here, but it’s not like when we sat behind his bench.

When the announcement comes on that the players are coming out for warmups I try to bolt out of the seat. Audrey stops me by pushing me back down.

“I’m not ready,” I tell her.

“Yes, you are.”

Then, everyone starts coming out and I realize these tickets are on the side where the opponents start. Which means it’s the side where they are not warming up. I can’t explain the twinge of disappointment I feel, but I try not to let it show.

The Dragons are on the other side of the ice and there’s no way they can see us from all the way over there. People have signs for the opponents, players send over pucks. I jump a couple times at how hard the pucks fly into the glass when they practice their shooting. I’m barely paying attention to the players that are right in front of my face. I’m too focused on findingmyplayers all the way across the rink.

“Why would he get us tickets over here?” I finally ask Audrey.

“I’m sure he has his reasons, just trust it.”

The warmups come to an end, and I’ve been so distracted trying to find and watch Vince, Brent, and Matt that I didn’t even appreciate the suggestive positions the guys in front of me were in.

Then, the Zambonis come out directly to the left of where we are, and they introduce the fans that are getting to ride on them. The first is a veteran who did three tours in Iraq, the second is a breast cancer survivor, the third is a child who won a special award, and the final person makes me stop breathing. His face fills the jumbotron and the announcer introduces him.

“The last person riding on the Zamboni this afternoon is Jay. Jay got the opportunity from one of our Dragons players personally. Jay here just recently got married,” the announcer pauses while the crowd cheers, “to the woman he cheated on his ex with.”

The crowd goes quiet. Some boos start and his face on the jumbotron falls.

“Then, he asked his ex for tickets to a game because he knew she’s friends with one of our great Dragons players!”

The boos of the crowd increase and I’m staring out in shock while Jay looks completely mortified.

“Everyone give it up for Jay!”

The whole arena is booing, and I slap my hand over my mouth because my laughter is about to come out obnoxiously loud. They continue to show Jay on the jumbotron, he is much less cocky than he was before. He’s doing his best to hide his face now as the crowd goes crazy. And not in a good way.

Finally, it ends when they move on to some other fan competition to distract everyone until the game starts, but I’m still enjoying the piece of payback my ex just got. Plus, as the Zamboni drives back through the door it came out of, I get the perfect view of Jay and I can’t help myself as I bang on the glass. He looks up and I flip him off with both hands. It’s not mature. It’s not even that it helps me get any sort of closure or anything, I’ve been over him for a while.

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