The implications hung in the air between us. All of us, potentially able to converge on Boston after graduation. It seemed too perfect, too convenient.
“So we could make this work,” Eva said carefully, “even with everything ahead of us.”
“It would be complicated,” I cautioned, not wanting to get ahead of ourselves. “Training schedule, your med school workload.”
“When has anything with us ever been simple?” Cole pointed out.
Alek set down his coffee mug with finality. “We will make it work,” he stated, as if by his command alone, the universe would bend to accommodate us.
The tightness in my chest since the accident finally loosened. We had challenges ahead, but the core of what we were—this strange, beautiful connection between four broken, slowly healing people—remained solid.
“So we’re doing this?” I asked, looking at each of them in turn. “For real this time? Get through graduation and go to Boston?”
“All in,” Eva confirmed, her smile lighting up her entire face despite the bruises still visible on her throat.
“All in,” Cole echoed, his usual sarcasm absent.
“Yes,” Alek said simply.
Under the table, our hands found each other’s—a tangle of fingers, a silent promise. Whatever came next, we would face it together. Not perfect, not conventional, but ours.
And that was enough.
70
ALEKSANDR
Eva wore Tristan’s jersey—weall did. She’d asked Dr. Parker and Coach Caruso if she could sit with Cole and me for the final game of the Frozen Four, and they’d agreed.
They should have insisted she stay with the team to take notes and do her job, but they were kinder than I would have been and knew what this game meant to all of us.
She snuggled up to me in the best seats in the house, right against the glass. Cole sat to her right, and we’d dressed her in a jersey, several layers, a short skirt, and thick stockings that attached with garters.
And no panties whatsoever.
Cole draped his jacket over her lap, and Eva looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
“C’mon, slut,” he said, leaning close so only we could hear. “You knew what you were getting into when you walked out of the hotel room without panties this morning.”
“It’s so—” Her eyes widened. “Cole, your fingers are cold.”
“Then warm them up, princess.” His hand moved underthe jacket, and her face flushed as she tightened her knees together before remembering it wouldn’t help.
I bent down and captured her gasp with my lips, swallowing the sound before anyone around us could hear. She kissed me back desperately, one hand tangling in my hair as she held me close.
“That’s it, baby girl,” I murmured against her mouth. “Stay quiet for us.”
Tristan skated by, warming up, and tapped the boards right in front of us, pressing his glove to his mask then blowing a kiss.
“The sign!” Eva gasped, breaking away from me to hold up the poster she’d made.
PUCK BUNNIES FOR TRISTAN, it declared in bold letters.
Katie and the girls were a few rows back with matching signs. They screamed and waved, and I watched Tristan’s grin widen behind his mask.
An unfamiliar warmth expanded in my chest—no, it was familiar now, and I’d felt it for the last several months, since Eva had so fucking bravely ordered us back into her life, making it clear she wanted us, and she expected us to get in line.
So we had.