Page 74 of Puck Yes

Adrenaline whips through me, and when I turn to the camera, it briefly occurs to me Ivy is probably watching us back at home. I flash her a smile, confident she’ll know it’s for her.

* * *

Later that night, sitting next to Hayes on the team jet, I open our group chat.

Ivy: Nice teamwork. You guys deserve a reward.

Stefan: Is that on your planner?

Ivy: It is now.

Hayes: I know what I want for my prize.

Ivy: Do tell.

Hayes: You answering the door naked.

Stefan: Such a simple man.

Hayes: Got a better idea?

Stefan: Yes, she’d look sexy in a Number 18 jersey.

Hayes: Sexier in Number 21.

Ivy: Here’s a better idea. How about Number 21 in the front and Number 18 in the back?

Cracking up, I raise my face from the phone and meet Hayes’s eyes, which spark with mischief and dirty thoughts. “She’s perfect,” I whisper in filthy approval.

“I know.”

When we see Ivy that night, she’s not naked. She’s not in a jersey either. She comes upstairs to Hayes’s penthouse wearing a T-shirt and shorts and carrying her peach-bandana-wearing pup, who side-eyes me before she remembers she likes me.

Seems Ivy had the better idea after all. She looks incredible at the door just like that, here for us.

When she comes inside, the loneliness fades a little more.

* * *

On Friday morning, I run alone across the Golden Gate Bridge as the sun rises. On the way back up the endless hill of Divisadero Street, I spot a familiar silhouette ahead of me. Ledger McBride is one of the veterans on the Sea Dogs, the other team in town, and he’s running a block ahead.

Well that’s an opportunity if I ever saw one. Finding some in the tank, I rev my engine and race up the street. As I pass our rival, I flash asorry, suckergrin.

He rolls his eyes, but a minute later, he catches up to me at the top of the hill. “Don’t underestimate me, Christiansen.”

“Did you miss the part where I beat you?”

“Did you miss the part where I caught up to you?”

“Seems I did.” We jog down the hill toward Pacific Heights together, shooting the breeze about the season so far.

“Are you still getting all the retirement questions?” I ask. He’s logged well over a decade in the pros and gets asked on the reg when he’ll hang it all up.

“If I wasn’t having one of the best starts of my career, I would be,” he says, then checks his smart watch. “A bunch of us are going out to play pool tonight. Want to join?”

I flash back to Ivy’s planner. To the note I left her. To what Hayes and I have in store for her. “I’m busy tonight.”

“I get it. Rearranging your sock drawer is important.”

---