Emma’s heart raced.She’d missed this.With three brothers playing competitive hockey, she’d seen more games than she could count, which was why it’d been easy to convince herself that she didn’t need to make an effort to see more. But being in this chilled arena, feeling the heaters radiating overhead, hearing the sounds of blades against smooth ice and the puck knocking against the boards. It felt like coming home.
The crowd continued to grow through the first period, and after watching the Snowballs play a man down for a minute or two, those in blue roared while those in gold booed as André exploded back onto the ice. The score was still at zeroes, and Emma knew Sean had to be getting antsy.
Pucks Deep had the puck, and their forwards flew into formation. They wove and passed between themselves, keeping the puck wide of the defence, then took a shot from the far side. Boyd, the Snowballs’ goalie, split his legs and blocked it with his left pad. Half the crowd screamed their approval.
Ryan took the puck behind the net, then back again. He found Curtis who then spotted Tyler cutting the neutral zone and sent a tape-to-tape pass. Tyler split the defence and beelined to the goal in two hard pushes.
Emma rose from the bench, watching each graceful pump of his legs. With a quick move to his backhand followed by a swift return to his forehand, Tyler faked a shot through the five-hole, then flicked it over the now sprawling Pucks Deep goalie.
A horn blasted through the arena, and Emma couldn’t help but scream right along with it. Kelty bounced up and down, clapping her hands as the Snowballs on the ice swarmed Tyler, then moved as a puppy pile back into their own territory.
A group of women screamed and trilled on Emma’s right, and she leaned forward to see the sign one of them was holding.#4, Drop mitts with me!
Emma gagged. Puck bunnies. Of course they were cheering for Tyler.
“How long has this been happening?” Emma murmured to Kelty as they sat down.
Kelty rolled her eyes. “André still has his regulars, but it’s worsened since Tyler joined.”
“How do they even know? Is there an underground group sharing new recruits I don’t know about?” If there was, then why wasn’t she on it?
Kelty laughed and picked up her hot chocolate. “Oh, word gets out quick in this town, you know that. And most of itisTyler’s fault. He’s the life of the party when they go out on the weekends.”
Emma’s ribs closed a little tighter over her lungs. Was that what Sean’s text message was about?Don’t get involved with Tyler.
He hadn’t seemed like one ofthoseguys at Tim’s the other night, but usually, thatwasthe red flag. Players always seemed like they weren’t playing you until you spent the night, and then they suddenly stopped returning your messages.
The Snowballs continued their aggressive play, with Ryan making key defensive stops and Boyd coming up with a couple of highlight-reel saves. Pucks Deep didn’t make it easy, though. They continued pressing, looking for opportunities to level the score.
They’d always been the team to worry about, and since Jordan Wheatfill became their captain, Sean was even more dead-set on beating them. He and Jordan had played against each other in high school. Jordan’s team won Provincials Sean’s senior year, but that wasn’t why Sean hated him. That came two years later when Jordan slept with his girlfriend.
Every close call, every shot, every save evoked a collective gasp, a shout, a cheer. Pucks Deep scored late in the second, but Tyler sent a laser between their goalie’s legs at the beginning of the third, taking advantage of the knowledge he gained off of the fake he made earlier.That sneaky bugger.Somehow the Snowballs staved them off, and fans erupted in a wave of baby blue when the final buzzer sounded. The team swarmed the ice, hugging each other and raising their sticks.
“Glad you came?” Kelty grinned at her.
“Hell, yes.” Emma threw an arm around her shoulders and added her voice to the cheers.
It didn’t take long for the crowd to filter out of the arena. Emma and Kelty moved in the sea of blue and gold across the street to One Place after the game. The whole team would be there. They always were. Even if players couldn’t stay for long, they made an appearance and greeted Pat behind the bar before heading home. Tonight, she doubted any of them would leave early.
The pub was bustling with activity, its dim lighting casting a warm glow on the exposed brick walls adorned with vintage hockey memorabilia. Laughter filled the air as patrons clinked glasses while classic rock drifted in the background.
They moved past the booths and, with a wave to Pat, made quick work of moving the tables in the back. Once they were pulled together to form two long tables, they set up the chairs and dropped into two seats at the end.
Emma ordered six plates of loaded nachos to start while Kelty stood at the bar to transport pitchers of beer as Pat filled them behind the bar. "Sean's going to be over the moon tonight.”
Kelty nodded to the door where the players began to trickle in, still riding high on adrenaline from their win. They greeted friends and fans with hugs and hearty pats on the back, their smiles contagious. Emma scanned each face, not realizing until she didn’t find one in particular that she’d been hoping to see it.
Emma and Kelty took two of the nachos, cups, and pitchers back to the table. Sean grinned from ear to ear, and Emma made a point to compliment him. She loved seeing him like this. His life hadn’t gone as planned over the last decade.
Sean knew he’d never be able to go pro with hockey after getting in a motorcycle crash his senior year and never quite regaining his speed. He went to Mount Royal and graduated with a business degree, then worked with a friend at a tech startup company. They paid him well, especially in stock options, but when the company went belly up a couple of years later, that didn’t help much.
For all their faults, none of her brothers were prideful. They were simple. Kind under their burly exteriors, and Sean the most tender-hearted of the three. Nobody would know it by looking at him. He didn’t say much, and when he did open his mouth, it was usually to make a joke. But when Emma found out Alex had been cheating on her, Sean had been the first one on her doorstep. Not Lindsey. Not Vaughn. He’d even brought her a bag of dark chocolate—all the wrong brands because he never ate it himself—but it was the thought that counted.
“Emma, you’re eating cheese now?” Sean put a hand on his chest in mock horror as she lifted a chip coated in queso from the plate. “I thought you were counting macros.”
Emma flipped her middle finger at him and shoved the chip in her mouth. It was the memory of that bag of dark chocolate that kept her from throat-punching him in moments like these.
Cheers lifted at the front of the bar, and Emma’s heart stuttered.She knew.Before he even walked through the door—freshly showered, his dark hair still damp and curling over his ears— she knew that Tyler had walked in.
