Page 69 of Breakaway

Squealing, I jumped and spun around, clutching my stick to my chest. Dax, Reed, and Fletcher were all in the front row with smiles on their faces. Relaxing, I skated over to them as happiness radiated out of me. I felt better than I had in a long time. I needed to do this more—take time for myself.

“I should spank your ass for leaving without us,” Fletcher growled, setting off my libido.

“Especially since she didn’t answer her phone,” Reed added, crossing his arms.

“I left a note!” I skated up to the boards and rested against the rail.

“Don’t listen to Daddy Fletch or Punchy. They’re just jealous I won the right to tell you the good news,” Dax said, pure light in his voice.

“Good news?” I asked, like I was afraid it might bite me.

“If you had your phone on…” Reed mumbled, but I ignored him. I had it off for a reason.

“They love you, Petal. The campaign’s a hit.”

“What?” I asked, my mind going offline. Out of all the things I thought he would say, that wasn’t it.

“Come on, let’s hit the showers, and we’ll tell you all about it,” Fletcher encouraged, motioning for me to come off the ice.

“Tell me,” I said as we walked, but the three of them shook their heads, refusing to give me any details. “Ugh,” I groaned.

“Don’t leave without us next time,” Reed gruffed, but his tone was teasing. He bent down to kiss my forehead, making it harder to be mad at him.

Pulling off my hockey jersey, I unlaced my skates and turned to the three of them with my hands on my hips. I momentarily got distracted as I stared at them, all three mouthwatering and too hot for their own good. Alone they were panty melting, but together I worried for the safety of everyone around us that I might spontaneously combust into a million orgasms.

“Well?” I asked when no one said anything.

“Take a look,” Dax finally said, holding out his phone.

My hands shook as I accepted the device; my breath caught in my throat as I prepared myself for the hate. When the nasty words I expected to be there weren’t, I had to blink to make sure I was seeing the right thing.

“This is amazing. Someone who looks like me in a sport I love. #NewRoleModel”

“Strong women in sports plus representation of gender and race… way to go, SnowPoke. #RepresentationMaters”

“I had no clue that people outside white males played this sport. I’m suddenly very interested in hockey. #NewHockeyFan”

“This is everything younger me needed. #HockeyIsForEveryone”

The comments continued talking about how much they loved the company’s message and how great it was to see women in leadership spots and different players accepted in the sport. Tears gathered in my eyes, emotion clogging my throat to the point I could no longer see the screen.

“Wow,” I said, blinking as tears fell down my cheeks. “I wanted to do it because it was important, and I hoped it would be well received. But this… I had no idea it would be like this.”

“The world is ready for hockey to change,” Fletcher said, pulling me into his arms.

“Yeah. I guess it is.”

“Go take your shower, and then we can get some food. Dmitry wants to meet with everyone this morning.”

Nodding, I grabbed my shower stuff and did a quick wash and rinse, not fooling too much with my hair since I’d get sweaty again later. We opted to grab some food from the cafeteria in the hockey arena and got it to go so we could head to the conference room.

The space was full of people when we entered, which surprised me. Most of our meetings were small. The second shock was when they all stood at our entrance and clapped. I peered over my shoulder just to make sure there wasn’t someone important behind me needing to get into the room.

“It’s for you, goof,” Scar shouted, making everyone around her laugh.

Sticking my tongue out at her, I smiled as I stepped further in and took an empty chair. I suddenly felt self-conscious about eating in front of everyone, but my stomach growling told me it didn’t care one bit.

Reed, Fletcher, and Dax also dug into their food, so I pretended like I had the confidence of a hot guy for a few minutes as I shoveled food into my mouth. Thankfully, everyone returned to their conversations while we ate and waited for a few more people to arrive. When Dmitry walked in, everyone quieted.

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