Now he’s smiling like butter wouldn’t melt, with his arm slung casually around my shoulder, while I can still taste him in the back of my throat.
“We’re getting drafted together. I can feel it,” I say as the three of us—Roman, Jasper, and me—stand shoulder to shoulder, soaking in the thunder of the crowd.
“It’s all three of us or nothing. The scouts just need to understand we’re lethal on the ice together, and we don’t fucking split.” Roman’s deep voice is firm, not giving an inch.
“Damn right we are,” Jasper adds, before his elbow finds my ribs. “Well, well, look who’s here.” I follow his gaze to find Addie in the crowd again, beaming with her friends.
“Come on, you knew she’d be here,” Roman says, brushing it off like he always does when Addie comes up.
“She’s here for her dad,” I say, but there’s something in the way she looks at me sometimes—at all of us—that makes me wonder if maybe…
But no, Coach made it crystal clear:hands off his daughter.
Not that Roman ever listened. He and Addie have a history that predates the little three-way we found ourselves in. He has his own special brand of torture when it comes to her, which runs deeper than Jasper’s or mine. What happened between them left scars that have yet to fully heal.
“Well, she certainly isn’t here for you, Rome,” Jasper teases.
Even though he’s poking the bear, he always knows exactly when Roman needs the distraction.
“Fuck you.” Roman laughs, shoving Jasper playfully before flipping him off and skating away. But even as the team celebrates around him, I see the way his eyes keep drifting back to the stands.
For three bi guys who’ve sworn off everyone else, Addie’s always been our exception.
We don’t sleep around.
No drunk mistakes.
No meaningless shit.
Just us three, locked tight.
Unbreakable.
But Addison Hope has always been the wild card—the one who could break every rule we’ve made and somehow still be exactly what we need.
You’d have to be an idiot not to see how beautiful she is, but that’s not what hooked me.What got me was the friendship we built over time and the way she let me see every version of her.
I got the real, unfiltered Addison, and that’s when the attraction really took hold.
Jasper’s been caught in her orbit too.I catch him making her laugh and see how she leans into him as if he’s the safe place where she can breathe a little easier.
Jasper has this way about him—one I’ve felt myself since the day we met—where he can take your worst day and turn it into your best without even trying. Just pure Jasper magic.
The three of us walk into the party like we just won the fucking world.
Because we kind of did.
State champs.
There’s music, sweat, and the buzz of a hundred bodiescelebrating us, but none of it matters when I see Addison in the corner of the living room, half lit by the shitty string lights, standing way too close to Mikey King. She’s laughing, sipping something from a plastic cup, and her head is tilted slightly to the side in a way that makes her long blonde hair cascade over her shoulder.
Mikey’s our goalie. He used to be great, but now he’s just a lazy fuck, coasting on the scraps of whatever talent he had left. He’s overrated as hell and a walking ego with a dick for a brain.
But Addie knows exactly what kind of asshole he is, which makes it even more infuriating to watch her feed his ego with that smile—the one that makes her eyes crinkle in the corners and should be aimed at anyone but him.
“Nope, fuck that.” Jasper’s gone before I can stop him, stalking over to where Addie’s cornered, and in one smooth motion, he hoists her over his shoulder.
“What the fuck, Hastings?” Mikey’s voice cracks with anger as Jasper strolls deeper into the house Mikey shares with his twin, Mitch.
