Page 65 of Prayers for the Prickly

“You proposed to him after the championship game senior year,” I said, kicking himself for how many times I’d walked past here without ever recognizing it was owned by my longtime rival on the ice.

“Yup, you guys got the championship, but I got the guy who’d always been in my corner, even when I couldn’t see how important he was to me,” Brendon said, casting a look over at Janie with love and devotion shining in his eyes.

One of the things I’d always appreciated about Brendon was the man’s ability to play hard but clean the same way I’d liked to play. We’d pushed each other, bumped, bruised and even slammed each other around from time to time, but the gloves had never come off, and afterwards, we’d always held on to a healthy respect for one another, even after the numerous times we’d competed over the years.

“Man, it’s good to see you. I’ve been meaning to drop into your shop, but each time I think I’m going to get out of here early, we get another rush. I hate leaving Janie to handle everything himself, but I hear you’ve got some amazing creations in there.”

“They’re unique,” I said. “I pride myself on that. I’ll let the rest of you decide if they’re amazing or not. I just love making them.”

When Brendon nodded, I could tell he appreciated the sentiment and my refusal to toot my own horn, even if I did think each one was something truly special.

“Shocked I’ve never seen you at open ice,” Brendon said. “Please tell me you didn’t stop playing after we graduated?”

“For the most part, yeah, unless it’s a family pickup game. Just didn’t see the point when I didn’t intend to continue playing in college.”

“Dude, I thought you’d been offered like, a dozen scholarships?”

“I was, just wasn’t interested.”

“Damn, so you’ve been here the whole time?”

“Yup.”

When Brendon shook his head, I could see the confusion in his eyes and appreciated him not saying anything more about it.

“I know you went away,” I said, turning the focus onto Brendon and Janie. “I’m guessing you both did. What made you want to come back here to open a toy store?”

“Just wanted to bring a bit of joy home with us,” Brendon explained. “What with Janie’s folks passing away and leaving us the building, we wanted to do something that would be a tribute to them while sharing the love they had of making people smile.”

It took a moment before it dawned on me why else Janie’s flame bright hair had seemed familiar. The fox shifter’s parents had been absolutely amazing acrobats.

“This was where all those tumbling and acrobatics classes were held,” I said as I looked around again, trying to picture the place the way it had been when one of my sisters had been taking lessons here. “Your parents were performers.”

“Yeah, they were,” Janie said. “They traveled with several different carnivals before us kids started coming along. Something about this place called to them when they were in town for the fair, and they decided to buy it and raise us upstairs while teaching classes and holding some impromptu performances down here.”

“My sister took them for a little while, before she discovered that she loved being on the ice as much as the rest of us.”

“Having been checked by her, I remember what a vicious skater she could be,” Brendon said. “Tell me she’s still playing at least.”

“Semi-pros, down in Portland, where she is under the ruthless direction of our aunt, now that she’s taken over coaching there.”

“Damn,” Brendon said before glancing over his shoulder at his mate. “We’ve got to get tickets. What do you think it will take for Cammy to cover for us so we can catch a game?”

Janie sucked in a breath over his teeth, squirmed and looked pensive. “You may have to part with one of those bottles of Scotch you brought back from our trip last month.”

“Seriously?”

Brendon’s groan sounded downright painful, and while I wasn’t a Scotch drinker, I could appreciate what the sacrifice would mean.

“Fine, but only if he agrees to open the next day so we can sleep over and not have to drive back after the game.”

“I think he’d go for that,” Janie said, fingers already flying over the keypad on his phone.

“He’d better,” Brendon grumbled, “’cause that’s the best deal he’s going to get.”

“Oh yeah, he’s down,” Janie declared seconds later, then hurried to ring up a waiting customer.

“It was good seeing you again,” Brendon said. “I’ll let you get back to your shopping, but I hope you’ll think about popping down to open ice sometime. Would be nice to see how we’d do playing on the same side after so many years.”

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