Page 89 of The Drop

“We can do it.” I grab the bag, and we sprint toward the locker room. Andrew runs ahead to let the team know we got the bag.

“This is about to be carnage.” I laugh as we face the locker room, and Coach comes out shaking his head.

“I can delay us an extra ten, but good luck, girls, they are all on a post-game high.”

“I’m kind of excited to go in the locker room,” Cami whispers, bouncing up and down.

“Can we revisit that when I don’t feel like I’m going to vomit?” I laugh as I push into the locker room.

As promised, we are faced by twenty-three players in various stages of undress dancing around and chanting, and I can’t help but smile when I see Grant in the middle of it all.

“Hey!” His smile is huge when he spots me. “You found it!” He lifts me, spinning me around, and the guys cheer around him.

I can’t help but laugh, even though I’m so stressed and take a moment to feel like this isn’t all hidden and secret and hug him back. “Yeah.” I smile as he puts me down. “But I need to shoot it.”

He looks confused. “Now?”

“Now.”

“Shit!” His eyes are wide. “Okay, tell me who you need first.”

“Anyone! I’m just putting anyone in anything.”

“Hey, listen up,” he shouts. “Brooke needs to shoot the last of The Drop in the next 10 minutes.”

“Grab something that fits and line up,” I add, grabbing my camera and Cami hands out clothes, all the guys are rallying to help now.

We shoot some guys together and lean into the celebration of the win. With time ticking away, I tell them to do exactly what they were doing when I walked in and shoot some shots and videos before Andrew comes back to tell us we are out of time. We hustle it to the bus, and I take the damn bag onto the bus with me. No one argues.

“How long till you need to go live?” Cami asks as I’m loading the pictures onto my laptop. I had intended to edit as Iwent along, the mid-game, and then it would have been ready to launch as we got on the bus, but I’m running out of time now.

“Forty minutes,” I mutter, feeling the pressure. “I’ve got to get through three hundred images.”

Cami leans over her seat and shouts down the bus, “Who knows how to edit a photo?” Hands shoot up. “Like Instagram edit, boys, not Photoshop your dick pics?” Some go down, but at least five stay up, and Cami instructs them to move to the front of the bus. “Send me the ones you need editing, and I’ll send them over to them, and then they can send them straight back to you when done.”

I nod at her, and we begin. It’s quick work with the guys helping, and the whole bus gets involved in which ones look better. I upload the last edited image with five minutes to spare and press live.

“It’s done.” I cover my eyes, and I’m surrounded by hockey players shouting and hollering. I can’t help but laugh in relief.

“It looks good, Brookie,” Adam shouts from the back of the bus. I can hear them all discussing their favourite images, and I’m watching The Drop being purchased; it’s going fast, and it could be sold out before we even make it home.

I lean my head back against the seat and let loose the breath I’ve been holding.

It’s about three in the morning when we pull back onto campus by the rink, and tired bodies get off the bus as we all head to our cars and say our goodbyes before break.

Bear slings an arm around Cami, subtly steering her toward his car. Adam and Gunnar follow behind him.

Grant puts a hand on my back, moving us to his car.

“Anything to do with you?” I yawn as we settle into the seats, and he starts the jeep to get the heating on, but doesn’t make any move to head back to the apartments.

“Might have nudged Bear to do it as a favour he owes me.” He gives me a lazy smile.

“Of course.” I laugh.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you today.” He sighs, taking my hand and playing with my fingers.

“You were. You helped me to get the shots,” I reassure him. “Plus, you had a game to win. I would never want to come between you and Hockey.”

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