Page 132 of Suck My Puck

My face heats. “I really am.”

“Does he know?”

“No, I want to surprise him.”

“That’s the most romantic gesture you could ever do for a hockey player, wearing his jersey.”

I grin wide. “I know. I can’t wait to see his reaction.”

The music playing through the stadium starts to get louder the closer I get to my seat, which is behind the Bashers’ net. I can barely hear Lauren anymore.

“I’ll call you later, okay?” I say.

“Have fun cheering on your goalie boyfriend!”

We say goodbye and I slide my phone into my jacket pocket. I walk down the stairs to my row. When I see Ingrid and Maya sitting there, I wave at them.

“Bella! Hey!” Maya hugs me, then Ingrid.

“We’re so pumped you decided to come to the game,” Ingrid says.

“Thanks so much for saving me a seat,” I say.

“It was no problem,” Maya says. We all sit down.

I notice they’re wearing Bashers’ jerseys too. Maya is wearing Theo’s, number eleven, and Ingrid is wearing Del’s, number sixty-six.

I take off my jacket and set it over my chair before I sit.

Ingrid’s eyes go wide when she sees what I’m wearing. She elbows Maya, who looks at my jersey before a knowing smile pulls at her lips.

They both look at me. “You and Blomdahl are jersey official?” Ingrid asks, her tone bordering on giddy.

I glance down at the maroon Bashers jersey, at the number three. Braden’s number. I blush. “Yeah. We are.”

Ingrid squeals and squeezes my hand.

Maya smiles and shakes her head. “I knew it. I could tell at the Halloween party just how crazy you two were for each other.”

“I guess it just took us a little bit of time to make it official.” I think back to how jealous I got seeing Braden with another woman. It feels so silly, thinking about it now.

Maya pats my hand. “It’s okay. It took me a while to realize my feelings for Theo.”

“Really?” I ask.

She nods. “Yeah. I was a commitment-phobe when Theo and I first got together. And a little stubborn. I wasn’t ready to be in a relationship. We fought over it and stopped seeing each other for a while. But I came to my senses and thankfully Theo was ready to go all in with me after all that. It worked out for us in the end.”

She flashes a dreamy smile.

“Thanks for sharing that,” I say to her. “It makes me feel better to know that you went through something similar.”

Ingrid elbows her best friend. “You also pulled off one hell of a romantic grand gesture to win Theo back.”

Maya rolls her eyes good-naturedly at her best friend.

“What did you do?” I ask Maya.

“I showed up to one of his games wearing a t-shirt that said, ‘I heart #11,’ and told him I loved him. And I got the Jumbotron guy to put, ‘Maya loves Theo,’ on the screen.”

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