Pierre looks at me, then at Fish, then at Felix before returning his gaze to me, looking shocked as if he can’t believe he just asked that.
“You’re buying, and Felix and I are coming,” Pierre shouts back at him.
“Obviously,” Fish yells back. “You think we could ditch them if they came?”
I’m laughing. I can’t help it. The audacity of this man asking my brothers for permission to buy me a meal while standing on their ice, in front of the entire team, during a bet he started because he thinks I can’t shoot.
“And if she wins?” Bouch calls from the bench.
Marlowe, Zara, and Billie have materialized at the boards like they have a sixth sense for content. They huddle for three seconds, and then Billie looks up.
“Strip tease on the ice full production,” she yells out.
The team erupts. Nelly is banging his stick. Pierre is laughing, which means he’s confident I’m going to win.
“Deal,” Fish says, like an idiot. “I knew you wanted to see me without my clothes on. You didn’t have to go to these lengths. I would happily strip for you any day,” he says quietly, only for my ears.
“You really have a high opinion of yourself.”
“Babe, look at me. Who wouldn’t want to see me without my shirt on?”
He’s not wrong.
“Did you just babe me?”
Fish stiffens. “It just slipped out, sorry.”
“Don’t think we’re at that level of friendship yet,” I warn him.
Then his face lights up. “Are you telling me we’re friends?”
I roll my eyes, but can’t hold in my laugh. “You’re an idiot.”
“Is that how you talk to your friends?” He raises a brow at me.
I flip him off, which makes him chuckle. “Right, let’s do this,” I shout so everyone on the ice can hear me as I roll my shoulders back.
Felix skates over and hands me his stick. “You’ve got this. Don’t let the family down.”
Gee, thanks for the pep talk, bro. I adjust my grip, it’s been a while since I’ve held a stick, but I used to train with Pierre when I lived with him and Kitty back in South Dakota. He had built a huge indoor ice rink, and we would escape out there to play when Kitty got too much for us both.
Nelly skates out and places five water bottles across the crossbar. He grins and throws me a wink as he skates back off. I practice a little with the puck, loosening up my stick handling as it’s been months since I last did this.You’ve done this a thousand times with Pierre, you’ve got this.
“Ladies first?” Fish offers.
“Thanks, but I need a tiny bit more practice. You do this all the time, I’m not warmed up.”
He nods. “Fair. I’ll go first and show you how it’s done.”
I roll my eyes and continue warming up.
Fish goes first. Top right, ping. Bottle flies off, the bench cheers. Second shot, top left, ping. Two down, and the third clips the bottle but doesn’t knock it off. It wobbles, and everyone holds their breath, but it eventually falls. Fish lets out a sigh of relief.
“Pressure’s getting to him,” Felix calls.
Fish flips him off as he resets. Fourth, ping, he knocks it off. One left, dead center. He takes the shot, it hits the crossbar and bounces off.
“Fuck,” he mutters as his entire team starts screaming and chirping at him.