Page 66 of Melting the Ice

“Apparently, they’ve been winning home games when I’m here and losing when I’m not.”

Cora tilted her head to the side like she was going over the past games.

“Well, shit. He’s not wrong. They do win when you’re here. We’ll talk to Simone,” Cora said.

I chuckled. “No, you won’t. I’m not taking any responsibility for their game results.”

“If they win tonight, you might have to,” Ally said. “And it’s not just the guys. I’ve been in a hockey family my entire life. You don’t mess with results like that.”

“Same. You’ll jinx them,” Harper explained. I knew she came from a hockey family, too.

“Oh my god, you guys are all terrible. That’s a lot of pressure, you know,” I said.

“See? You’re not only good for Micah, but you’re good for the entire team. So you have to stay in Denver,” Cora said, then paused. “Um, okay, I didn’t mean it like that.”

Harper burst out laughing.

“Cora, you’re reading too many spicy books. I didn’t even think that way,” Anna said, shaking her head at her friend.

“I can’t help my dirty mind. Nate’s only made it worse because he demands we research possible spicy scenes for authenticity.” Her cheeks were bright red right now.

Harper smirked. “Damn right. Research is important. Timmy and I do lots of it, and I’m not even writing a book.”

“Same,” Ally and Anna both said.

Then the goal horn went off, and we all glanced down as the Stampede players on the ice hugged each other. The jumbotron showed the replay of Santa getting a goal and Micah hugging him, a huge smile on his face.

“Woohoo, Nick,” Anna called out, beaming as Santa looked up toward our suite and tapped the top of his helmet.

“Yup. You can’t ever leave Denver. I mean, at least during the season. And you and Micah are going to live happily ever after,” Harper said, nudging her shoulder into mine.

Was I crazy to want that?

Chapter 14

MICAH

Ishifted in front of Tucks, keeping an eye on the St. Louis forward in front of me and one of his linemates just to the right of me. We were up three to one with ten minutes left in the third period, and I was not going to let anything slip past me. I poked my stick out to try to knock the puck away from him, but he curved his stick into his body, and I caught his eyes quickly darting to his linemate. He made the pass, and I poked out my stick again, connecting with the puck and knocking it down the ice and away from Tucks.

Tally caught it on his stick and then he was skating up the ice with everyone hot on his heels. He passed to Sin on his right, but one of St. Louis’s defensemen checked Sin into the boards. It was a clean hit, and Sin managed to keep possession of the puck. I hovered right inside the St. Louis side of the ice with Timmy just ahead of me. It was my job to make sure Tucks was neverunattended in case some of the opposing team broke away from our guys.

Sin passed the puck back to Tally, and Tally sent it to Santa when he couldn’t find an opening. Santa took his shot, and the clang of the pipes echoed through the arena. He tried for the rebound, but the St. Louis goalie covered the puck, and play was stopped. We got into position around the face-off dot, and Tally easily won, sending the puck back to Sin, who tried to take a shot, but one of St. Louis’s forwards snagged the puck, and we were all skating back toward Tucks.

I tracked the forward, cradling the puck on his stick, reaching out with my own to knock the puck free. He skated close to Tucks and tried to take a shot, but I blocked it, sending the biscuit toward the boards. As he went after it, I checked him into the wall, my hit clean. Crowding the guy from the other side, Dom shouldered in and managed to snag the puck. I was gassed, and Dom’s line had just hit the ice, but there wasn’t a clear break to get back on the bench as the puck ended up back in St. Louis’s possession. Dom finally got it back and passed it to Xan.

Timmy had gotten off the ice, and Fishy skated into the other defensive spot alongside me. We made our way up the ice, and Batesy was ready to hop on as soon as I cleared the door. I caught my breath and slid down the bench, taking a gulp of the sports drink in front of me. Xan had the puck and took his shot but missed. Flower scooped it up before the goalie could cover it. Flower passed it to Dom, who managed to narrowly avoid a hit into the boards by one of the opposing defensemen.

“You fucking got this,” Tally called out, and we were all on the edge of the bench, our gazes glued to the St. Louis net. Four to one would be sweet after Vegas the other night, and there were only five minutes left in the game.

Dom found his spot. Their guy had been weak on his blocker side, and Dom could read any goalie. He was always lookingfor the perfect angle. The puck sailed right between the guy’s blocker and his side, flying into the net as the goal horn blared, and we all shot to our feet to celebrate.

“Fuck yeah,” I yelled, banging the end of my stick on the floor in front of me. We were on fire tonight, playing so fucking cohesive. I wanted to play like this every game. Yeah, we were only in our second year, but this team was getting solid, and I was happy to be in Denver and on this team.

And if we won, I had further proof that Josie had to come to all my home games. Fuck, I loved seeing her in the arena cheering me on. I missed when she wasn’t close to the glass, but I liked that she was getting to know the other WAGs.

Shit. That should have freaked me out more than it did. We had to tell Ray, but I didn’t want my best friend pissed at me for hooking up with his sister, and if it blew up, he definitely would be.

Was I an idiot for wanting to really pursue her? For wanting more than just fucking around for a while? I needed to talk to her, but I didn’t want to hear her say that she was leaving Denver. Not that she’d mentioned it at all so far.

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