Page 60 of Well Played

The slam of a car door cut off my thought spiral.

“I have a place you can use. Get your asses in the car and I’ll tell you the address to send out to your guests.”

I had completely forgotten about the guests.

While Cian and Cam texted everyone they knew on the guest list, I sat like a stupid lump in the front seat of Coach’sRange Rover.No phone, no suit, no way to help the guys who were trying their hardest to savemyspecial day.

“Get out of your head, kid. Marriage isn’t about the wedding day. It’s about every day you wake up and decide you’ll do everything you can to make life work with the person you’ve chosen. Don’t hang your hat on a perfect day. Make it a good enough life.”

I let Coach’s words play through my head for the rest of the drive. He really was a smart dude, which, of course I knew because he’d done so well coaching us on the ice for our college careers, but realizing he was a human who could teach us life lessons was possibly the biggest shock in a day full of the unexpected.

I was so lost in my thoughts that it took me a while to notice when we turned down a dirt road and pulled up in front of a farm house that looked like a cottage-core wet dream.

“Whoa,” Cian muttered as we piled out of the car.

Coach shrugged. “It should work all right. We have a pavilion out in the gardens that you can use for the ceremony, and plenty of room for parking.” He spoke with a calm that hardly seemed to do justice to the huge hole he’d dug us out of with a click of his fingers. The only evidence that it meant more than a simple offhanded offer was the fact he’d said several sentences without cursing once.

“Naww, you really do care,” I gushed, knocking his shoulder with a fist but still not brave enough to try for a hug.

“Quit it, idiot. Come inside, let’s see if we can find a button down and tie that’ll fit you.”

“You’ve saved my life today, Coach.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just make sure you and Tweedle Dumb include me in your speeches when you win your first Stanley Cup.”

Best. Coach. Ever.

6

Mia

“What doyou mean you assumed I was getting a boob job?!” I stared down at the bowling ball sized cups on the dress I was supposed to wear in… shit. Forty-five minutes. We had to get on the road to make it to the venue on time and I had no dress to wear because of the woman babbling down the phone line.

“I’m so sorry about the mistake. If you bring the dress back I can alter it and have it ready by Tuesday.”

“I’m getting married this afternoon.”

My face flushed with frustrated heat, my eyesight blurring. Why was everything going wrong? Did the universe not want Oscar and me to be married? Well, fuck that. Come hell or high water, he was mine and we were going to make today happen. I took a breath, gearing up to take all my worries out on the woman who couldn’t tell the difference between a C and a G… and let it back out again as Tia planted herself in front of me and held out a demanding hand. Without argument, I gave her the phone and watched as she ended the call. No goodbye. Nothing.

“You don’t need that stress in your life. You can deal with a refund tomorrow. Right now, we need to find something you’d be comfortable to wear down the aisle. Don’t you have a ton of costumes from your performances?”

I led her to our spare room, where the walk-in closet was entirely dedicated to my old costumes from burlesque shows over the years. She quickly found a mermaid dress that I dismissed because the velcro fixings had failed the one time I wore it onstage. Next was a silver flapper dress that I agreed to put in the maybe pile. It was close to white, but now that theperfect white dressidea had been ruined, I found the idea was less than appealing. From deep in the back reaches of the closet Tia gasped and appeared a moment later holding a bright red sequined dress.

“This is the one.”

“Isn’t red supposed to be a harlot color or something? Are you trying to drop hints here?”

The flat look she gave me warmed my heart. This family was exactly the people Luca and I deserved after our shitty upbringing. They didn’t slut shame or try to put us down. They lifted everyone up because that’s who they were.

“This is a bombshell dress, and I can’t think of anything better to remind my brother what a lucky son of a bitch he is to have you walking down the aisle to him.”

She held out the dress I’d bought a couple of years earlier to cosplay Jessica Rabbit for a Halloween party and, after only a slight hesitation, I accepted it.

She gave me space to change into the dress and when I joined them all in the kitchen, it was to a raucous round of applause.

“Tell your brother the wedding’s off. She’s coming home with me.” Mateo elbowed Tia before flinching away from Luca’s slap to the back of his head.

“Time to go. Mia, you look beautiful, sweetheart,” Mrs. Cavanaugh said, ushering us all toward the front door. She squeezed my shoulder on her way past and I smiled as her cinnamon and clove scent drifted around me like a hug.

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