Page 48 of SlapShot Sweetheart

“I’m going to surprise ‘er tomorrow night.”

“Seriously?”

“Dude, take it slow.”

“What if you change your mind?”

“I say ‘go for it,’” Giroux said simply, shrugging as the others stared at him in disbelief. “Life’s too short, and no one knows when you are ready to take the next step – except you. If someone had told me a year ago that I would be married with a baby on the way, I would have thought it to be a joke… but we are truly happy.”

“Thank you, my friend.”

“Always.”

“And Boucher has a divorce attorney on speed dial.”

“Coeur!”

“Dannnng bro, that was cold…”

“Skeptical much?”

“Very. She just doesn’t seem like Theo’s type. Two years ago he was all over every blonde woman he could find and never asked their names.”

“Two years ago, we were all like that and drunk most of the time.”

“C’est vrai…”

“Truth…”

“People change, feelings change, and I think she has brought out the best in me.”

“You sound like a lovesick fool.”

“And who looks like one with the pom-pom on your head?” Theo grinned, pretending to pat a man-bun that wasn’t there.

“Didn’t man-buns go out of style ten years ago?”

“You’re just jealous I have more hair than you, Thierry…”

“Yup.”

“We need to set up Boucher…”

“What?”

“He needs something to turn people’s hearts, making him sound like a ‘hometown hero’ or something.”

“I’ve got just the thing,” Lafreniere said with a slow smile spreading on his face. “But he’s not going to be happy about it.”

“Is heeverhappy?” Giroux added, making several of them chuckle and smile in awareness. Oh yes, a plan was coming together he realized. They had his back helping him with Aimee and now his brothers, his friends, were going to step up and help another member of the team.

“What can I do to ‘elp?” Theo volunteered.

Coeur pulled him aside the moment he was leaving the locker room. His friend grabbed him by the arm, catching him by surprise.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Why not?”

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