Page 79 of What if I Told You

“Way to go Lumin!”

“Hey great job out there!”

“That’s our girl, Lumin!”

“You’re a beast out there, Lumin.”

“Think you’d give Blackstone here a run for his money!”

“Nice job out there, babe. Knew you’d kick his ass.” I offer her a fist bump with my glove which she meets but she surprises me when she slaps my ass right before I take the ice.

And I can’t lie. That little gesture just gave me the extra zip I needed to want to play a hard and fast game.

We go through our normal warm-up routine and then we’re called to center ice for the playing of our national anthem. From there, our dance with the birds begins.

Landric and Magallan face off, smirking at each other under their helmets. The puck is dropped and Landric comes out on top with Magallan right on his heels. Landric passes to Quinton Shay but Ledger intercepts and takes it down the ice to Red Tails territory. He’s unable to get it past Dex Foster who shifts it to Colby Nelson. Colby takes possession and works the puck out of their defensive zone sending it to Landric but I’m there just in time to check him into the glass.

“Sorry Landric. The puck is mine,” I shout as I pass him a quick wink.

Ledger, Oliver, and I work together to get the puck back into the scoring zone, working the puck in front of the net. I shoot my shot but Miller is too quick and blocks it with his knee as he slides left.

“Don’t fucking think so brother!” Miller says as we fight to regain a hold on the puck. The crowd boos as the puck makes its way into Anaheim territory but when Landric tries to score, Bear refuses to let it pass.

No goal.

“Come on, Stars,” I mutter to myself. “These birds are not beating us today.”

Harrison is able to work in a hit but it’s deflected by Quinton Shay and pushed back into the Anaheim zone. Shay is jacked into the boards by Griffin and the puck is back in the Stars’ possession. Griffin tries to move the puck and succeeds, getting it to Oliver who shifts to Ledger.

Ledger moves into scoring range and tries to shoot this time but the puck hits Miller’s other knee pad and ricochets right into Coby Nelson’s grasp.

“Dammit,” I mutter. “Give it back Nelson.”

Colby laughs. “In your dreams Black—ah, fuck!” Harrison sneaks in for the steal and throws it back to me as I laugh at Colby.

All in good fun of course. These guys are a blast to play. A hard solid team, for sure, but a good game is great fun.

I curl behind the net refusing to stop moving while I maneuver the puck back and forth with my stick, waiting for my moment, and when I finally see it, I waste no time taking the shot. Miller sinks to the ground, his knees butterflied, but by the grace of God, it slides just past his leg and into the net and the sirens go off as my arms go up.

“SCOOOOORE! HELL YEAH!”

The crowd erupts and it’s hard to hear any train of thought, but the guys all swarm around me, patting my helmet and hugging me.

“That’a boy, Blackstone!”

“Damn, that was fast, Auggie!” Harrison says with a smile. “Proud of you!”

“Great start, Blackstone!”

The first period ends with the Stars leading 1-0.

During the first intermission my face is glued to the television in the locker room as I watch Ella do her thing. She happily makes her way through the crowd until she finds two people she can tell are there together and places her fur-covered paw on each of their heads forcing them to turn toward each other. The crowd cheers for the couple to kiss and when they do, Lumin claps and cheers and then pats them both on the head. She does this for four or five more couples and then makes her way to the t-shirt cannon in the corner of the arena. With each blow of the cannon, she pretends to almost fall backward and then proceeds to shoot t-shirt after t-shirt into the excited crowd.

“Aww, look at our boy Blackstone,” Griffin says as we’re all seated in the dressing room in various stages of undress. “Pussy-whipped and in love. He hasn’t taken his eyes off that screen.”

“She’s a hell of a lot prettier than you are, Ollenberg,” I tell him as I wipe my sweat-soaked face with my towel.

“Touché, my friend.”

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