Fucking hell, I want to.
My eyes lock on Sutton as she shouts and screams like a madman.
I can’t hear her over the rest of the crowd, but her little voice is loud and clear in my mind.
I pause at the boards and press my gloved hands to the plexiglass.
She continues to scream at me, Mom standing at her side with a proud smile on her face.
‘Love you, Peanut,’ I mouth.
Pressing my weight against the screen, I push myself back, ready to get changed and take her home to bed, but before I can turn around, my eyes jump.
My breath catches. Casey’s face is flushed, and her eyes are wide as she chants along with the rest of the fans.
She’s drunk.
But the worst thing about it is that she’s acting like she hasn’t even seen me standing here.
Wow. I guess we really are done.
With my heart in my throat, I continue skating backward before I spin around to shake hands with the Bandits before they disappear off the ice, leaving us to soak up the rest of our celebration.
“Fletch, Linc, you’re both on press,” Coach says as we make our way to the dressing room a while later.
“You got it,” Linc agrees with a smile.
All the guys are in high spirits after the win, and despite flying out first thing in the morning for another game tomorrow night, they’re planning to head to The Fractured Compass once they’re showered.
“Rivers, you’re in tonight, right?” Handsy asks.
“We’ve got a seven-a.m. call time,” I mutter.
“Just one. You can be tucked up in bed by midnight, old man.”
“Watch it.”
“Come on, bro. First round is on Rett,” Linc announces, causing a round of cheers to go around the room.
“I promised Sutton,” I explain.
“What about Ca?—”
“I’m taking my girl home,” I state, cutting off Linc’s words. He might have been saying them quietly, but I don’t want her name so much as whispered in this room. Especially from someone else’s lips.
Hearing the warning in my tone, Linc holds his hands up and backs away.
When I went up to collect Sutton and Mom last Saturday, Casey wasn’t there.
I knew she watched the whole game. She was standing right next to my daughter the entire fucking time. But it seemed she bailed the second we left the ice.
At the time, I assumed it was because of me. Hell, I wanted to think it was; my ego and battered heart wanted her to be suffering, too.
But after what I saw tonight, I know I was wrong. And that is fully confirmed when I walk into the suite and find her sitting at the bar, looking right at the door as if she’s waiting for me.
But despite her eyes landing on me, she doesn’t so much as react.
Ouch.
