Page 107 of Slash & Burn

She held up her phone so I could see the screen. It was a selfie of three women taken just outside our front door; I recognized the display in the front window. I took the phone from her, scrolling down to read the caption.

Hockey lovers unite! The best place to get your next romance is from Love, ME. The cutest all-romance bookshop I’ve ever seen! And you can order online! #shopsmall #womensupportingwomen #indiebookstore #hockeyromance

The post had 75,000 likes and had been reposted nearly 15,000 times.

“Who the hell are these women?”

Ashlee took her phone back, clicking on something before she showed me. “She’s the wife of one of the Brawlers’ defensemen.”

“Wait, what?” I snatched her phone so fast she jumped. I didn’t recognize the hockey player she was posing with in her other photos, but I didn’t need to know his face or name to know his jersey.

“Grady.”

“You think he had something to do with this?”

Ashlee had seen the frame hanging on my office wall, and she was a local. It hadn’t been rocket-science for her to sort out that he and I were . . . meaningful to each other.

I clicked back to our store profile and scrolled through the photos we’d been tagged in. One after another of hockey players or hockey wives. There had to be hundreds of these posts. Each one sang the praise of Love, ME.

“He knows how much I hate cameras,” I said, my eyes flicking back to my laptop with the email from Mallory still open.

“Well, then he’s an evil genius in addition to being a fucking awesome hockey player.” I looked up at her and she grimaced. “Sorry, he’s really good.”

Oh, he was really good, all right. At a lot of things, it seemed.

CHAPTER 44

GRADY

It was a bad idea to call three wins in a row a streak, at least according to my dad. Nothing less than six could be called that, and even then, you risked your mojo the minute you gave it a name.

“Nice game,” he said, slapping me on the back with a wink. “Feeling good?”

“Yeah,” I rotated my shoulder as if on command. It was easier to show than to tell at this point. But my shoulder had been fine since camp.

“You looked like a well-oiled machine out there,” my mom said, pulling me in and kissing me on the cheek.

“The lines are getting tighter. It’s been fun.” Michum had finally gotten comfortable after the first couple of games. Now when he got rowdy, fired up, and throwing his weight around on the ice, it made things interesting.

Lexi held back, letting our parents gush over me like usual. But when I held my arms open to her she rolled her eyes and walked into them. On her tiptoes, she whispered in my ear, “How’s that ego, Bro?”

“As healthy as that chip on your shoulder, kiddo.”

She swatted at me, but came away laughing. It wasn’t often she made the trip down to see me play in person, and I liked having her there.

“This place is supposed to be top notch,” my dad said, as the hostess brought us back to our table. I always let Dad pick the restaurants we ate after games they attended; it gave him a chance to try all the places in the city he read about in his Boston magazine.

After ordering a bottle of wine for the table, my father sat back, his chest puffed up with pride. “I have to say, Grady, you guys look great. This could be the year.”

“What happened to your superstitions?” my mom asked, her eyes wide and sparkling. She loved ribbing on him as much as he loved taking it. “You can’t talk about it or it won’t happen.”

It made me laugh, because as much as we had some traditions and myths in the locker room, talking about winning the cup was certainly not forbidden. It was all we did. It was the fuel to our fire, and we pictured ourselves holding that thing over our heads before every period.

“Okay, okay, you’re right.” He grabbed his menu, but put it down almost as fast. “I already know I want the filet.”

“Me too,” I said, adding my menu to his on the edge of the table.

“So, after the cup”—he held up his hands, cutting my mother off—“assuming you get it. What do you think? I bet the national broadcast could do with a little Holloway upgrade.”

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