Page 59 of Brace and Chase

“And you could play for ten more seasons and never have as many Stanley Cup wins as I do,” I toss back.

“True,” he admits with a nod and settles back on his chair. “Isn’t it great that we have a shot at getting you one of those trophies and getting me a chance to hoist the Stanley Cup, though?” He raises an eyebrow at me and goes back to eating as if he didn’t just light a different kind of fire under me.

How is it possible that I’ve never wanted anything more?

I want to be there when he holds that legendary cup over his head. I want to see his face when they give us our rings. And I want him to clap for me when I’m named the best defenseman in the league.

If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to make both our dreams come true.

We arriveat the small airport outside the city earlier than planned, but I’m fine with that. With any luck, I’ll be able to sit next to Bear during the flight and maybe get a chance to cool down a little.

Laney—who’s starting to go a bit overboard in my opinion—has other plans, though.

“You two are sitting together.”

I keep my mouth shut and lead Charlie to the second last row, where I always sit with Bear, and send him a look so he’ll sit in the window seat. I like to be able to get up whenever I feel like it, and since I’ve been keeping my distance all season, I have no clue if he’s a sleeper or what.

There are some guys already here but over the next twenty minutes the whole plane fills up. I’m surprised when the two seats across the aisle from ours stay empty, but when Jules and Bear stroll down, I realize this was probably planned.

“We need to talk,” Jules says in his captain voice. Then he tells the eight players around us to listen to some music, his tone giving no room for argument. And they don’t argue, because we rarely do with Jules. He might not be the oldest guy on the team, but we’re all well aware he knows better than us.

I don’t dare look back at Charlie to see his reaction to this ambush—because that’s what this is. I don’t think Bear and Jules want to talk to me about the kiss I told them about just two days ago, but I’m still acutely aware that any mention of it right now could make things awkward with Charlie.

“You two know we need you, right?” Jules asks once we’re all settled and the plane starts moving.

“We know,” Charlie answers from next to me.

“Last night was a fluke,” Bear says, leaning forward in his window seat to look over at us.

I make sure to keep my back completely pressed to my backrest so Charlie can see them, and my eyes don’t leave Jules’s even when Bear speaks.

“What do you mean?” Charlie asks.

“It means we got lucky. New York started to get sloppy and your tips really helped the young guys, but if we want to win enough games to get to the playoffs in good enough shape to win it all, we needyou guyson the ice.”

“Weknowthat,” I say, maybe with more force than warranted.

“Bothof you,” Jules tells me, with just as much hostility in his tone.

“Picard, I am telling you we are good.” I point my thumb at Charlie without looking. “I have no issues with Charlie anymore.” We enter a staring contest that’s only broken when Charlie clears his throat.

“We really are.” I do turn to look at him this time. “We’re turning into besties,” he says, with just enough humor to have us all snorting at him. He’s great at that—making people relax.

When those people let him, I think with regret. God, I wasted so much time hating him. And all because I was jealous before I heard his words. Jealous enough to be willing to believe he was a seriously bad human.

I should probably talk about that with him too... at some point.

“Yes,” I continue and look back at Bear and Jules. “We are behaving and doing everything they asked us to do. We will be on the ice in no time.” I nod to emphasize, and I can see Bear’s happy with my words, but Jules looks skeptical.

“Heart, Mater wants to talk to you about some of the notes you gave the guys last night. Why don’t you go over there when we’re leveled off?”

I smell another ambush coming but keep my mouth shut.

“Yeah, sure,” Charlie says, and we sit back for takeoff.

Ten minutes later when the seatbelt sign goes out, I stand to let Charlie pass, and this time it’s Jules giving methe look, so with an epic eye roll, I slide into the window seat.

“What now?” I grumble, really hoping he’s still not going to ask about the whole kissing-a-man thing even though Charlie’s clearly out of earshot.

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