Page 78 of Broken Promises

“Willa prefers the stands to a private box. She and Maggie are going to be sitting there together. The rest of the band is going to be in a private box.” I give him the box and seat numbers.

“I’m going to have my guys watching her. I have an idea.” With that, he turns and leaves.

“Should I be worried about your idea?” I call after him. He just chuckles.

“You get fired?” Gideon asks, handing me my helmet and sticks as he leaves the locker room with the rest of the team.

“Nope, but Bethany is here.”

Gideon freezes. “Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Listen up!” Gideon shouts.

Everyone stops and turns to us, including the coaches.

“The psycho bitch trying to take Willa from us is at the game tonight,” Gideon yells. Everyone boos, and I tear up. I thought it would be difficult to get close to a new team after being with San Diego for so long, but it wasn’t. They took me into the fold immediately. “We’re going to make our boy look good in front of his wife and then we’re going to make sure the world knows who Declan belongs to!”

Everyone cheers. Even Coach is smiling.

“What does that mean?” I whisper out of the side of my mouth.

“You’ll see.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

willa

“Sorry!I swear I’m not usually late,” I say, taking my seat next to Maggie. Considering this is the second time I’ve been late meeting her at a game, we both know I’m lying.

She laughs me off. “You didn’t miss anything yet. They’re still warming up.”

“I know, but I wanted to see Declan before the game and introduce you to my niece.”

Gideon skates in front of us and holds up a paper that says, “Operation Claim the Prince” on it.

“What the hell?” I ask. Maggie’s eyes are wide as she nods. Then she looks around until she finds whatever it is she wanted and glares at it. I follow her line of sight and groan. “Why is she here? I just wanted to watch Dec annihilate the team that tried to cripple him while drinking a beer with my friend.”

Maggie turns to me and grabs my hand. “Pretend she isn’t here.” She bites her lip nervously.

“What? What was that operation thing about?”

“Giddy and I came up with a plan when all this came out this week. You’re just going to have to trust me.”

I narrow my eyes at her but decide I do trust her. “Fine. I trust you, but if it’s something embarrassing, I’ll cook for you and guilt you into eating it.”

Maggie looks horrified. As she should. Cal told her all about how terrible I am at cooking when we were at the last game together.

We settle in and watch the game. Declan skates up to me whenever he can. The worried look on his face kills me. He clearly knows Bethany is here and the cameramen seem to keep trying to get him looking at her, but he never does. If his eyes are anywhere other than the puck, they’re on me or Cora. He’s been waving to her whenever he can, and I know she’s loving it.

“I love you,” I mouth to him. The first period just ended with the score at one to zero. Gideon scored the only goal.

“I love you too,” he mouths back. He’s about to skate off when a carpet is rolled out and the announcer asks for everyone’s attention. Dec turns around, confusion marring his face. I turn to look at Maggie, who seems equally confused when Anderson Sinclair walks out onto the carpeted ice.

“Hello, New York. I’m Anderson Sinclair, owner of the Boston Bruisers,” he says into a microphone. He gets a good mixture of cheers and boos. “I have a player on my team being targeted by the daughter of another owner. You may have seen it in what my mother likes to refer to as the trashies, or tabloids, if you’d like.” The arena quiets down, either in confusion or interest. “As a favor for not reporting your team after the way you played against us last time and getting you thrown out of Stanley Cup contention, I’ve been allowed to show you a video his teammates made for him.”

The lights dim, and Gideon’s face lights up the jumbotron. “Declan and Willa are close friends of my wife, Maggie, and myself. Willa might know hockey better than a lot of hockey players, and she has no problem telling Dec when he messes up,”he laughs. I probably would laugh along with him if I wasn’t so dumbstruck. “They’re the most supportive couple I’ve ever met. She’s busy being a multi-platinum artist, yet she always watches his games and comes to as many as she can. He’s busy getting us the cup, but he calls her the moment he can to check how her show went.”

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