Page 71 of Wrong Pucking Player

“Surprisingly, no,” I note. “Siblings.”

“Siblings? You can’t be on the same team with your older or younger brother?”

“I’m as clueless as you are, bestie,” I say before taking a shot. “Could be twins.”

“Still don’t understand how that’s a problem.”

“They could both want to be forwards and rising stars, forcing them to play the ultimate game of…” I pause just to emphasize my point. “Rock. Paper. Scissors.”

I groan before she takes her shot glass.

“I can’t with you,” she concludes, making me laugh far too loud because she actually fell for my bullshit.

Truthfully, I’m just trying to comfort and distract her because I know Winchester’s presence, even from afar, is making her anxious. She’d hide it to the best of her ability because we’re in public, but from how she’s drinking, she’s not as comfortable as she was when we first got here.

“You love me!”

“A shame that I do,” she admits and takes a shot. “Fuck. We’re going to feel this in the morning.”

“Better than staying home! We’re supposed to get shit-faced after getting the news that we both got internships! What sports team do you think we’re going to get?” I still haven’t wrapped my head around the internships. I seriously can’t wait to start.

Prove to all the fuckers who thought I’d be a nobody that I’m a smart as fuck cookie who deserves a chance at a career I love.

“I mean, if we get hockey, that would be pretty cool since we’ll stay here,” she admits. “Then again, we could get baseball and head to Toronto to watch the Blue Jays prep for their season.”

“Not just watch,” I emphasize. “We’re nurses, Mickey! The team nurse at that. Imagine... surrounded by tall, muscled beasts all the time until one of them is injured. Then you get to run to their aid, in slow motion, like a Baywatch Rescue Mission, and give them CPR!”

“Why do I feel like you’re confusing us with lifeguards?” she points out but smiles back.

“It’s the same shit,” I brush off. “We just run with a stethoscope around our neck instead of lugging some floaty thing to save the drowning player.”

“No player is drowning in a field of grass.”

“Skating rink could crack and boom. Hockey players sinking to their doom.”

“You’ve been watching too much Final Destination.”

“Nah! They wouldn’t die! That’s why we’re here!”

“Girl, we’re nurses, not life-saving doctors.”

“Hey, nurses save lives, too. We all remember that pandemic that had us shut down for three years. Thanks to us nurses who went over and beyond to save the day, or else the whole healthcare infrastructure would have collapsed and burned to hell.”

I’m ready to go on a tangent explaining to her the importance of our roles as nurses, especially now that we’re accepted, when I notice how Mikayla stops midway of taking her third shot.

Her eyes aren’t glued on me.

Actually, she’s not even looking my way.

I’m not even sure she realizes I’ve stopped talking.

It’s like she’s in a complete daze that’s stolen every ounce of her attention.

Only one man can do that to her.

I follow her gaze to find the culprit until it lands on the man I actually approve of having a chance with my best friend.

Maddox O’Riley Wilson.

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