Josie shrugged. “She’s Tucks’s girlfriend. She’s gonna hear it whenever she’s hanging out with us.”
“It’s not like it’s my league nickname that everyone knows,” he muttered. “And you don’t have to use it, you know. Harper doesn’t use Timmy’s.”
“But I didn’t give Connor that nickname,” Harper offered. “Josie gave you yours. You should just give it up anyway because I’m pretty sure I heard some fans calling you that tonight.”
“Dammit, Josie.”
“Oh, please. You love it.” Then she leaned in and kissed him, stopping his grumbling.
Harper giggled. “Tamed by some tongue.”
Timmy shook his head. “Fucking hell, Harps.”
“What? It’s the truth. Works on you, too,” she said, and I was pretty sure she pinched his ass if him quickly shifting away from her with a tiny yelp was anything to go by.
Dani chuckled softly, and I was grateful that Josie’s and Harper’s antics made some of her tension dissipate. I was honestly glad that, out of all my teammates who could have known the truth, it was Timmy and Micah I had trusted. Josie and Harper could get anyone to laugh and feel welcome. It wasn’t like my other teammates’ partners weren’t awesome, but Josie and Harper were the funniest.
Dani turned to me and nodded at Micah. “So, are you going to explain the nickname?”
“Not a big Transformers fan?”
“Oh, man. My brother loved playing with them when he was a kid. We used to play with his Transformers and my Barbies together.”
“Apparently, so did Micah and his best friend, who happens to be Josie’s older brother. She gave him the nickname Micahtron when they were kids and then graciously told all of us that when they reconnected last season.”
Dani laughed, her eyes sparkling. I loved the sound of her laugh. It warmed my entire body.
How long would it be until she let me kiss her again?
“Bet he loved that getting out.”
“He might grumble a lot, but I think he secretly loves it.”
“Do not,” Micah groused.
“Sure you don’t, big guy.” Josie patted his chest and just laughed.
“Can we get back to asking Dani how she enjoyed the game?” Micah said, clearly trying to change the subject.
Dom turned to face her. “Yeah, much better than watching a Blizzard game, right?”
Chapter 8
DANI
Iabsolutely didn’t want to talk about Roger tonight, but it would’ve been stupid of me to think he wouldn’t come up. They all knew why I was fake dating Tucks. Hopefully, not all the details, but enough to assume why we were playing this game.
“Uh, I didn’t go to that many of his games, but I really enjoyed tonight,” I said.
Harper grinned. “We’ll make a hockey fan out of you in no time. It’s the best sport ever.”
I laughed. “It’s okay.”
“Those are fighting words to Harper. She’s been a hockey fanatic since we were kids,” Connor said.
“That’s how I met Connor. Knocked him on his ass playing pond hockey when I was, like, six,” she said.
Her boyfriend shrugged. “It’s the truth. We’ve been besties ever since.”
