Page 28 of Pucking Grey

He shouts, “They’re like a bunch of gals sliding on ice cream.” He claps obnoxiously like our father. “Pick up the pace!”

I laugh, leaning into him because he is so fun to be around. Greyson makes a shot into the net, and Ryan shouts, “The dick fucking scores again, shooting it right in.”

I glance at him, feeling offended by that comment. Maybe protective of my fake relationship. “Cress is a good player.”

“Good player he is,” Ryan jokes sarcastically.

My scrunches at his body language. “You don’t like him?”

He shakes his head. “There’s nothing to like.”

I drop it, returning my attention back to the game. Sydney remains quiet next to me. I swear Grey makes eye contact with me. It’s hard to see from this distance. I withhold my hand from waving at him. It’s not like Grey deserves that from me anyway.

“Look at who it is,” a very tall guy stands in front of me, speaking to my brother. Ryan shakes his hand as I try to peek around him to watch the game. “Is this your girl?” The guy points at me, waiting for Ryan to answer. We lock eyes and I shake my head.

“No,” Ryan laughs. “This is my sister, Maddie. Maddie, this is Foster. He’s a quarterback.”

“Hi,” I say, taking his hand. He has an arrogant look. It’s in his stance, how he holds himself. I am so over the confidence of football players. “Quarterback, huh?”

He nods, so I joke. “You look cold.”

He laughs, pointing at me. “You’re funny.”

“This is Sydney,” I say, changing the subject. “Sydney meet the quarterback.”

“Hey, quarterback,” Sydney says, shaking his hand.

Foster takes the seat next to my brother and talks his ear off for most of the game. But my brother is good at balancing the conversation between all of us. When Matt misses the net, Ryan shouts, “He’s ruining his personal life and his hockey life.”

I have a good chuckle with Sydney. She’s not catching onto most of his phrases because he’s quoting my dad most of the time, but that one hit.

Sydney shows me her phone. The notes app is open with details of the party after the game. I nod, trying to telepathically tell her that I don’t want Ryan to come. If he sees me talk to Greyson at all, I’m going to be in big trouble.

As if Foster could read her screen, he mentions, “Hey, dude, what’re you doing after this? There’s a party at Kappa Pi. Looks like the Honey Badgers are going to win, so it’ll be fun.” Foster looks over at me and Sydney, but I glance at Ryan.

Ryan shrugs. “We’ll come.”

“What?” I scoff. “Party with a bunch of college people?”

Ryan smiles. “You guys are a year younger than me. Chill out. I wanna see Crew. You don’t have to come.”

Sydney chimes in, “No, she’s coming. I was planning to drag her out with me. You know, after everything.” I elbow her, and she smiles at Ryan.

Foster says, “Sounds like a plan.”

“Great,” I mutter under my breath.

When the game ends, Ryan disappears down the stands, leaving us with Foster. He scoots over and says, “I’ve never seen you two before.”

I reply, “I’ve seen you on the field when the games don’t interfere with hockey.”

Sydney smiles sweetly.

“Ah, you have heard about me.”

I roll my eyes and begin to say, “Get –“

Greyson is knocking on the tempered glass with his hockey stick, glaring up at us. I glance around, terrified my brother is going to see. When I don’t stand up right away, he knocks on the glass again. I smile at Foster and stand up. As I make my way down the steps, Greyson’s face from this distance looks red and frosty. The tip of his nose and cheeks are red, and his eyes are bright blue.

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