Page 245 of Waiting Game

“Yeah. She does all my ink.” My brows lift. “Take it you know her too?”

“Of course. She did my backpiece, plus, this one.” He points to his forearm where there are layers of inked feathers decorating it beneath his expensive sports coat. “How didn’t I know yours were by her?”

“Is that a rhetorical question?”

He pulls a face. “I was supposed to see her earlier this year but things got messy.”

“Messy… Understatement. Well, you can make one today,” I chirp. “Orrrr… I know she’ll let you double up with me.”

“What kind of ink are you getting?”

“Gotta commemorate Betsy becoming a part of the fam.”

“You have a good heart, Mia.”

“Hush.”

“No. You do. I’m honored to take up a good chunk of its real estate.”

I snicker. “That’s a weird way of phrasing it.”

“Is it? You still look freaked out when I tell you I love you.”

“I don’t freak out,” I mumble.

“Sure you do.”

“Don’t.”

“Do.”

Burrows clears his throat, drawing us from our bickering.

Cole smirks at me, more like his normal self, and I roll my eyes.

“What are you getting?”

“You know she specializes in mandalas?”

“Yep.”

“I want a cat-shaped one.”

“Cool.”

“You going to get some ink?”

He purses his lips. “Yeah. But I don’t know if she can do it. So I’ll ask her first before I get my heart set on it.”

Nodding my understanding, I sit back for the ride, relieved that I broke his sorrowful mood.

I know how grief can settle on someone. He didn’t have to meet Lacey for him to feel his teammate’s pain.

That’s something I’m coming to learn about professional hockey players—they have odd dynamics but they consider themselves family.

Apparently, that’s how I came to possess a bunch of memorabilia from other teams. Cole guilt-tripped them into signing their uniforms for me.

I bite my lip at the thought of all that going up in smoke. The only saving grace, of course, is that I didn’t get charged for insurance fraud.

---