“What?” I recovered quickly. “Oh, yes, it’s just awful.” I hadn’t been thinking about the kids, but she must’ve read something in my expression when I’d thought about my father.
I shoved his image aside and focused back on the ice, just in time to see Gabe really start stretching out.
“Damn, he’s flexible,” I muttered.
Cora laughed and my cheeks heated.
Guess I hadn’t kept my voice low enough.
TUCKS
I wouldn’t say I was nervous about tonight’s game, but I was apprehensive. Facing the Blizzard again and not knowing if Jenzy was going to try and start up shit was irritating. He hadn’t been much of a nuisance aside from a few comments on any post I put up with Dani in it. Of course I had zero plans to ask Dani if she thought we still needed our ruse. Hell, at this point, it wasn’t a ruse to me. I figured I should just try to keep her in my bed—or hers—until she realized she never wanted to leave.
Waking up with her this morning was exactly what I wanted every day. I just had to convince her of that, but I was treading carefully.
“Hey, earth to Tucks,” Micah said, nudging my leg pad with his stick.
“What?” I looked up to see him standing in front of me and my teammates starting to file out of the room.
“Want to join us?”
I popped up. “Like you could do it without me.”
“Where the hell were you? I know goalies can get away with looking like they’re in their own little world, but did you even hear any of Tally’s pep talk?”
“Of course I did. I can multitask. It might’ve looked like I wasn’t paying attention, but I heard it all.”
“Sure, whatever. You gonna be good tonight? I saw Jenzy try to knock into you before we left the ice.”
“He’s such a damn child. Kinda hoping he would’ve lost his footing when I stepped out of the way at the last second.”
Micah chuckled. “We all were. At least he will be at the other end of the ice. Fuck, I wish I could trip him or something.”
“Don’t touch—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
“—the goalie.”
We’d made it through warm-ups without any issues. I’d stuck to my side, Jenzy had stuck to his, and I’d decided to stretch in front of Dani instead of close to center ice like I typically did.
For two reasons, because again, I was efficient and could multitask. I managed to be smart and avoid Jenzy, all while reminding Dani of just how flexible I was. I hadn’t missed her pink cheeks when I’d finished and turned around to wink at her.
She’d softly shaken her head at me, but I knew she loved it.
***
I tapped my stick on the ice, reminding my teammates that they had fifteen seconds left in the penalty kill just as Micah cleared the puck out and sent it sailing down the ice. Sin was in the box for a tripping penalty, the eighth penalty of the night, and we weren’t even halfway through the second period. It’d been a chippy game, and we were tied with the Blizzard at two each. My shutout hope had gone down the drain six minutes into the first,on a bad bounce that I swear had hopped right over my stacked leg pads.
The last few seconds of our penalty kill were winding down and the Blizzard’s star winger was streaking back down the ice toward me. My eyes darted between his face and the puck, watching for even the tiniest tell. He looked ready to snipe it, but instead passed it to his center, who cradled it on his stick, searching for an opening that I had no plans to give him.
The center skated around the back of my net, and I shifted from guarding one post to the next, filling in as much space as I could with my body. He deked around Micah, who’d been on the ice too long, but all I could do was focus on the guy with the puck. He dropped one shoulder back and then took his shot. I stretched out the full length of my body diagonally across my net, and the puck hit my blocker instead of flying in top shelf. It bounced over the net, banging the back cross bar, and Micah snagged it, clearing it back up the ice again, just as Sin came out of the box, his penalty over.
How Micah timed it perfectly was beyond me, but Sin got the puck on his stick and headed right for Jenzy. I stared up at the Jumbotron and watched Sin make his slapshot, right over Jenzy’s left shoulder and top shelf, into the back of the net.
“Fuck yeah,” I yelled as the goal buzzer blared and my teammates cheered from the bench and the ice. Fuck. It would have been nice to skate over there for that group hug, especially since it was right in front of Jenzy’s face and where a bunch of our family members, including Dani, were currently sitting.
It hadn’t escaped my notice that Jenzy had looked over to that corner a few times. I hoped he wasn’t pissing her off. Hell, I hoped she’d gone into the family room they had set up for us so she didn’t have to be near him. I’d been tempted to bring it up when he’d gotten a bit too close to me during one of the TV timeouts, but there was no reason to extra goad him. I just hadto get through the rest of this period and then I’d be back on her side of the ice, flirting with her and hopefully stopping every puck the Blizzard tried to get past me. I wanted to keep them at two for the rest of the night.
