Page 200 of Ice Mechanic

I whip my head back and forth until I locate the center of the action. Chance passed the puck to one of his teammates, Theilan—I think his name was.

Theilan gets into position, passes back to Chance, and circles around. I watch as Chance moves his hockey stick like I do when I’m scrambling eggs. It’s so fast that I don’t even realize he’s making a shot until he sends the puck skittering into the net.

“Yeeeeess!” I scream. Along with most of the arena.

Chance continues to play amazingly, along with Gunner who’s soon put back on the ice. The Lucky Strikers win over their opponents who, I’ll admit, fought valiantly. But not as valiantly as we did.

Chance’s teammates huddle together, celebrating Gunner who delivered the winning shot. Finally, Chance breaks out of the huddle and finds me in the crowd. His eyes brighten and he grins hard enough that I can see his teeth flashing beneath his helmet.

I wave happily.

Beside me, Gordie is also waving enthusiastically to her dad. It’s easy to tell Renthrow out of the pack, not only because of hismassive size but because of the Hello Kitty sticker on his jersey. He’s also staring in our direction and waving at his daughter.

To my surprise, I notice Gunner looking over at us too.

It’s hard to tell for sure but… is he staring at Rebel?

I lose that train of thought when Chance skates off the ice. I know he’ll be looking for me in a short while so I give Gordie a hug goodbye, grab Rebel’s hand and drag her down the bleachers.

“Are you April?” A fan asks, waving to me. “Hi!”

“Hi!” I wave back. I’m slowly getting used to people recognizing me.

A young girl wearing a hockey jersey stops me. “Can I have a picture, April?”

I stop to take the picture and the little girl gives me a big hug. “I’m going to be a mechanic too when I grow up.”

“Aw! That’s so sweet!” Rebel coos.

“I think that’s awesome.” I wink at the girl.

She grins wide.

My heart full, I follow the flow of people until I get to the lobby that splits into two hallways—one leading to the exits and the other to the admin building.

Bobby is at the door, doing crowd control. He smiles warmly at me and nods from afar. Rebel and I wave back.

“This arena is getting a little small,” Rebel muses. “Max really needs to think about expanding. Especially now that Chance is a permanent part of the Lucky Strikers.”

“I heard he wants to use our architect, but he’ll have to wait in line. We asked for them to design our new garage first.”

Rebel snorts. “And you said you weren’t competitive.”

I laugh.

At that moment, I feel someone’s arms slide around my waist. At first, I stiffen in surprise and then look back to find Chance. He’s wearing a low baseball cap, a T-shirt and jeans.

“How are you here?” I hiss, glancing around at the crowds. Chance uses a separate exit after games or he’ll be bombarded.

Sometimes, he’ll host meet and greets with fans, but we have a date tonight.

“I couldn’t wait to see you,” he says low in my ear.

“That means you didn’t shower,” Rebel mumbles beside me.

I chuckle.

My best friend rolls her eyes, but a grin tugs at her lips. “You love birds are obnoxious. I’m dumping you on your boyfriend, April.”

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