Page 133 of Suck My Puck

I stare at her, stunned. “Maya, that’s epic. Theo must have loved that.”

She beams. “He did.”

A minute later, Dakota joins us. She hugs us all hello and gives me a massive grin when she sees I’m wearing Braden’s jersey.

“You two are together?” she says.

I nod. She sits down next to me. “I feel like the odd one out not wearing a jersey,” she jokes.

I think back to the Halloween party, how Dakota and Sam spent a lot of the night talking and laughing together. I remember talking about it with Sophie. I wonder if Ingrid and Maya noticed how things were between Sam and Dakota too.

“You just have to get your boyfriend to start playing hockey,” Ingrid teases.

“Ha. Not likely,” Dakota says. “I can’t even get him to come to watch a hockey game in Denver with me.”

Her tone is joking, but her eyes look sad. Actually, defeated is more like it.

I want to ask how things are with her boyfriend, but it kind of feels like prying since we’re pretty new friends.

“Hey. Is everything okay?” Ingrid asks Dakota in a soft voice.

Dakota sighs. “It’s just…Jake’s been kind of closed-off lately. I think he’s going to break up with me.”

Her shoulders slump forward.

“Are you sure?” Maya asks.

Dakota shrugs. “I mean, I don’t know for certain, but I notice he’s been pulling away these last couple of weeks. He doesn’t call or text me much. He doesn’t want to come over to see me. And when I talked about making plans for Thanksgiving, he didn’t seem interested at all. That’s why I decided to travel to Vancouver and hang out with Sophie and you all. Jake didn’t want to do anything together.”

Maya grabs her hand. “His loss. If he can’t see how amazing you are and isn’t making an effort to be with you, he’s an idiot.”

“Yeah. Total idiot,” Ingrid says.

Dakota lets out a heavy breath. “Thanks.” Shestraightens up in her seat. “Enough with the sad stuff. Let’s cheer on our team. Who wants a beer?”

She and Maya leave to grab drinks. The music in the stadium booms, signaling the start of warmups.

Players from Vancouver and Denver hit the ice. When I see Braden skating toward the net, my tummy flips. I take in the hard, focused look on his face as he smacks his stick against the posts. Then he skates a circle around the net, then another, and another.

Ingrid chuckles. “Goalies and their pre-game rituals. So weird.”

I bite back a smile, thinking about Braden’s other pre-game ritual: getting filthy in bed with me.

“He does this every game?” I ask Ingrid.

She nods as she films Braden with her phone. “Yeah. He hits his stick against the posts, then skates ten circles around the net. Then he goes through all his stretches and exercises. Oh, and apparently he licks the bottom of his stick every game when he’s in the tunnel, right before the team hits the ice.”

I laugh.

“I’ve been posting clips of his warmups on social media, and they always get a ton of likes. Fans are crazy for your guy.”

My cheeks flush hot as I smile. I watch Braden finish skating around the net, then he starts to stretch out on the ice.

The moment he catches eyes with me, his mouth curves up in a sexy smile. A second later, his gaze drops to my jersey. His eyes widen the slightest bit. Even from this far away, I can see the look in his gaze the moment it changes.

He licks his lips as he stares at me, fire in his soft blue eyes. “Stand up,” hemouths.

I do what he says. He rakes his gaze along the length of my body.

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