Page 44 of Fear of Falling

With wide eyes and a giant grin, I turned to Tasha, thrilled to see she looked just as excited. I turned to Mila who jumped up and down, cheering.

“They won!” Unable to control myself any longer I started cheering alongside her, my yells getting lost in everyone else’s.

They finally won!

When the team broke apart, I managed to catch sight of a grinning Wyatt, his helmet now off. I knew this game meant a lot to him. After losing the last six games they needed this.Heneeded this.

As I stood there smiling like a complete idiot, Wyatt turned, and our eyes met. The smile on his face seemed to grow evenwider. The sight of it making my heart patter in my chest. I gave him a dorky thumbs up. He threw his head back as he laughed, making me wish I could hear it. With one last smile, he skated after his team.

“That was amazing,” I breathed, feeling electric. I couldn’t imagine how Wyatt felt right now.

“They played great tonight,” Mila said.

They truly had. For the first time since the season started, the team looked like their old selves.

“They’ll have to do some post-game interviews and change, but we can slowly head down to the locker room if you guys want,” Mila suggested.

All around us fans were already making their way up the stairs which meant the parking lot would be a zoo for the next hour.

The three of us stood around talking as the arena slowly cleared out. There was no point in heading down to the locker rooms quite yet while the guys were busy, and I was glad to not have to weave through the crowd.

“This may be a bit forward,” Mila said, and for the first time she seemed nervous as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “Would you guys want to hang out sometime? I don’t really have many girlfriends and tonight was a blast.”

“I’d love to.” I didn’t even hesitate and neither did Tasha.

“Here, give me your number.” Tasha extended her phone. “We can plan a girl’s day and invite Lydia.” We passed our phones around, exchanging numbers with a promise to have a girl’s day soon.

With the place now clearing out, we made our way up the stairs. When we reached the top Mila turned in the opposite direction of the flow of fans.

As we followed her, I couldn’t help but feel like we were doing something wrong. A few workers watched us walk by, but noone stopped us. As we approached a set of double doors, I saw a security guard and was certain he’d stop us. Instead, all he did was smile at Mila and open the doors for us.

“After coming to enough games, the security guards start to recognize you.” Mila explained after the doors shut behind us. “They only let the wives or girlfriends through though. Can’t tell you how many puck bunnies I’ve seen throwing fits, thinking they can come down here.”

Puck bunnies.

Mila’s words reminded me there’d be plenty of competition for Wyatt’s attention—especially after making the winning shot. I bet the puck bunnies were already gathered outside the doors, waiting to snag a hockey player eager to celebrate. I felt a little sick at the thought.

I’m being silly. Wyatt wouldn’t invite me here just to leave with a bunny.

“I haven’t seen Wyatt play that well in such a long time,” Mila said as we walked down a long empty hall, the sound of our shoes echoing around us.

“Wonder who he was trying to impress,” Tasha smirked.

“He looked really good out there,” I replied, ignoring her jab. A small part of me wanted to believe it was because I was there that Wyatt played so brilliantly, but I knew that wasn’t the reason.

This was all Wyatt.

As we kept walking, I looked around, wondering if we were lost. There was nothing but cement walls on both sides of us.

“Uh, do you know where we are going?” I asked after a moment.

“The locker room is just straight ahead. Not sure why they made it feel like some sort of dungeon down here. Clearly a man designed it,” Mila said as her heels clicked along the concrete. I snorted at her words.

She’s probably right about that one.

Finally, we came to a fork at the end of the hallway. To our right, the hallway led to another set of double doors. An exit sign glowed above it, so I assumed it led to the parking lot. To the left, the hallway snaked further along.

Mila led us to the left, and fortunately we didn’t have far to go before we came to another set of doors, the wordsLocker Roomabove it. A second later the sound of booming voices echoed through the door. We were definitely in the right place.

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