Page 125 of My Ex's Brothers

Dane passes me first, grinning ear to ear. He winks at me as he skates past. Richie tears off, easily one of the biggest men on the ice, period. He’s not hard to miss. When he skates by, he kisses the air before placing two fingers in front of his mouth and making the most obscene gesture, which causes me to turn six shades of red.

“He’s a fucking animal,” Tripp grunts, but there’s no animosity in his voice. Just pure, unadulterated annoyance. Sibling rivalry, but so much more than just the typical.

Considering there are twenty years between them, I’m not surprised they irritate one another. But there are some things they can agree on.

Hockey, family, and love are three of them.

The game is intense. The other team—the Malscott Magpies—give the Badgers a run for their money. It’s neck and neck, and in the last leg of the game, Richie shoots and scores. Winning the game.

I grin, hooting and hollering alongside Tripp as the buzzer sounds and the lights flash.

“That was insane!” Tripp says as we make our way near the locker rooms.

“I know!” I whistle. “Honestly, I didn’t think they were going to make it.”

“Richie coming in clutch as usual. Guy’s a menace out there. He might be old, but he’s so fucking good.”

I smack Tripp in the chest. “He’s forty-five, not eighty!”

Tripp rolls his eyes. “I forgot you like those old geezers.”

I smack him again. “Technically, you do too. I’m older than you, need I remind you.”

Tripp rolls his eyes. “Yeah, by like six years, Mia. Not fifteen.”

I scoff playfully at him as he laughs. “Dane’s only two years older than me,” I say.

“Dane’s mentally an eighty-six-year-old grandpa.”

I laugh. “He is not.”

“Oh, let me tell you a story from when I was a wee lad…” Tripp teases, his smile contagious.

“Shut up!”

He laughs, pulling me against him and kissing me, a flurry of quick, sweet kisses on my mouth, my neck, my jaw…

“Get a room, Tripp, not all of us are into voyeurism,” Richie calls out, and my cheeks heat even more.

“You were amazing out there!” I say, pushing away from Tripp. I don’t miss his sigh, but he doesn’t seem to care, leaning against the wall.

Richie stares down at me with freshly washed hair, his dark eyes gleaming with excitement. “I know,” he says cockily. “But I had to put on a good show for my baby girl.”

Tripp groans. “So cringe, bro.”

“What the fuck does that even mean?” Richie bites out, and I laugh.

“Like I said,” Tripp mutters. “Old geezers.”

“Fuck you, Tripp.”

I watch as Tripp flips off his stepbrother. “You wish, grandpa.”

“Hey, Mia…” Dane’s voice breaks the spell. “I’m so glad you came.” He looks between Tripp and me. “I hope you two…had fun?”

I grin, throwing my arms around Dane, not giving a flying fuck who sees me. When the three of them are around me, I find nothing else seems to matter. Because they feel right. My sweet, sexy, loving boyfriends.

Sometimes it hits me, that truth.

---