Page 126 of Thoroughly Pucked

“Both of them? Together?” Garrett doesn’t sound shocked though. He sounds like his lawyerly self, clarifying the points.

“Yes.” That’s all I say.

He leans back, scratches his jaw, then shrugs. “Well, since you aren’t even asking my permission, I guess all I can say is…enjoy the suite Sunday night.”

I crack up. “Wait. For real?”

He rolls his eyes. “Dude. I pretty much walked right into that one.”

I laugh. “So you’re a matchmaker now? A wing brother? A dating coach? A set-up man? A fairy godbrother?”

He holds up a hand, as if he’s fighting off the laughter. “Stop. Just stop.”

But really, I can’t.

54

FAST FORWARD

Dev

I’m almost home from the rink after a shutout, thank you very much to me. I bound up the steps to my home in Pacific Heights, still high on the game, when my phone pings with a group text.

I stop in my tracks.

Hell, my heart stops beating.

It’s her. Yes, we’ve been talking. Yes, we’ve been texting. But the preview pane has me all kinds of hopeful. I click it open faster than I stopped that shot flying toward my face tonight.

Aubrey: You know those scenes in the movies when there’s a montage to showthe passage of time?

Yes. Fucking yes.

I reply, though, in the way she’d want me to.

Dev: Yes, like in a Christmas movie when they show a Christmas party, a tree farm visit, and a stop at the Christmas fair. Go on.

Ledger: Are you saying it’s Christmas, Aubrey?

Aubrey: It seems my calendar just went into fast-forward mode.

Best. Gift. Ever. But just to be sure, I write back.

Dev: So it’s ten months from now…now?

Aubrey: If you guys want to see a football game with me Sunday night it is.

Our answers land simultaneously.Yes.

I punch the sky, then once I’m inside, I call Garrett and I waste zero time. “I’m wild about your sister.”

He sighs heavily, but it’s not an annoyed sigh. It’s more like atell me something I don’t knowsigh. “I figured as much.”

Some things in life are just simple.

But I do give him a hard time that weekend as I’m getting ready to meet Aubrey. “It’s your fault,” I say on the phone as I trim my beard in the mirror.

“I did not intend to set you and Ledger up with her,” Garrett grumbles.

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