Page 94 of What if I Told You

I shake my head. “She didn’t say a word about it, so whatever it is, it’s also a mystery to me.”

Hawken chuckles and reaches over Griffin’s shoulders to grab some popcorn from his box. “I have no doubt whatever shenanigans Jonah is up to, Ella will fit in perfectly with his plan and it’ll be amazing.”

With mascot Grizzy acting as goalie, each of the mascots take their turn dribbling the puck and taking their shot. The first four don’t make it in, but Yenson Yetti does and so does Remi Red Tail. Pete the Parrot tries to dribble down the ice but loses control of it when he hits it with his stick too hard and ends up flying after it only to fall flat on his face.

Griffin laughs. “That guy’s nuts.”

“I want to be him when I grow up,” Harrison adds with a chuckle.

Flip, Growler, and Bucko Bronco all miss their shots when their pucks are blocked by Grizzy. The only mascots left to go are Icer and Lumin. Icer decides on a last minute slapshot that hits Grizzy in the stomach. The puck falls to the ice as does Grizzy after he grabs his stomach and bends at the waist pretending to be hurt.

“Bad form!” Dex shouts to the amusement of all of us. “Lower your weight and bend your knees next time!”

“Alright, Ella’s up,” I tell everyone as if they don’t already know.

Come on, Babe.

You can do this.

There’s a flutter in my stomach that wasn’t there ten minutes ago and a tense feeling in my chest. Hell, I think I’m nervous for her.

Kind of wish I had a cinnamon roll to stuff in my face.

Ledger claps me on the shoulder. “Relax Buddy, she’s got this. She’s Ella.”

“Yeah.” I nod. “I know.”

Griffin stands up and starts a slow clap as he shouts, “LU-MIN! LU-MIN! LU-MIN!”

I immediately stand up and join him as do all of us on the team. And before she even begins to dribble the puck, there’s a solid chant around the arena. We watch excitedly as she pushes the button on her stick that makes it sparkle and then she kicks off with her skate down the ice. Keeping the puck in good control, she works her way closer to the net. Grizzy widens his stance and lowers his center of balance so he can move in either direction. The crowd continues to chant for Ella as she picks up speed. She’s thirty feet from the net, twenty, ten…and then suddenly she spins in place, twirling with her stick in hand.

“What is she doing?” I laugh, a goofy smile on my face. She twirls once, twice, three times which confounds Grizzy. He stands up tall not understanding what’s going on and that’s when my girl takes her shot.

Fucking genius.

“AND IT’S IN! SCOOOOORE FOR LUMIN!” Jim announces to a crowd gone wild.

“HELL YEAH!” I shout with my fist in the air and a wide smile on my face. “THAT’A GIRL LUMIN!”

“Damn, that girl’s got skill,” Quinton says behind us.

Colby nods. “Carissa did something kind of like that when I taught her how to play the game.” He shakes his head with a smirk. “Women and their creative ideas.”

“She’s a goddamn genius,” I tell them.

And I love her for it.

“Alright mascots,you know what it’s time for!” Stabler announces to the crowd. “It’s time for round two of this Mascot Tournament of Champions as we test our dancing skills in this year’s MASCOT DANCE OOOOOOOFF!”

“Oh Hell, this ought to be good.” Griffin laughs and flags down a drink carrier for another beer.

“Up first to show us his boot scootin’ moves, give it up for BUCKOOO BRONCO!”

With the red carpets laid out on the ice now, Bucko Bronco enters the arena as the sounds of “Cotton Eyed Joe” fill the room. He hops and jumps around like a wild stallion and then performs his line dance flawlessly as the crowd claps to the beat of the music. When his part is done he waves to the crowd and takes a bow as everyone cheers for his efforts.

“Our next performance is a group of three of our mascot favorites who just want toooo PUSH IT! Let’s hear it for Pete the Parrot, Wally Wolf, aaaand Yensin Yetti!” The three crazy mascots strut into the arena wearing their sunglasses causing laughter to sound through the crowd but nothing is better than watching these three dance to Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It”! They try to perform some type of choreographed dance but no way in hell are they getting it right.

“Oh shit!” Dex laughs. “I think even I could teach them a thing or two about dancing.”

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