“She’s great,” I murmured to Griffin before getting up to get us a few morebeers.
His smile consumed his entire face from the second I got up to the moment I returned. “I can’t believe it, to be honest,” he admitted, taking the Coors Light bottle frommyhand.
“What’sthat?”
“How my life could change in a few days just because I met a girl.” He thumbed the label on the bottle, still grinning like a little kid with his firstcrush.
“I’m happy for you, Griffin. You deserve to be with someone you truly care about and have a deepconnectionwith.”
“Thanks Jordan, that means a lot. How’s everything going with you?” He pointed to the number on my jersey—thirty-three, Crosby’snumber.
I chewed on the inside of my lip. “Why won’t anyone leave me alone about Will? We’re justfriends.”
Griffin leaned farther back in his seat. “Because we all see what the two of you are too scared to admit to each other, or even yourselves. We’ve all known for years. Shit, I can see it, and I am barely ever around. That must meansomething.”
“Yeah, I stilldon’tknow.”
The game started and within the first three minutes, Brayden was fighting with a dude from the other team and Gavin was trying to calm him down while Crosby threw his gloved hands intheair.
“When are you going to knock some sense into your man?” Myla asked, eyeingKarla.
“Hey, he’s your brother—why don’tyoutry?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the sisters-in-law as they playfully argued about how big of a hothead Brayden was and how quick Gavin was to defend him. It had taken those two guys a long time to even tolerate each other. Even as kids, I remembered Gideon Hayes going on and on about how much he couldn’t stand Reggie Cox, Myla and Brayden’s father. They were both players for the Otters way back in the day, and the family feud had started during their rookie seasons. Needless to say, the boys had come a long way from all the petty, nonsensebullshit.
The rest of the game was uneventful until the last minute of the third period. The visiting team tied the game and it was down to the wire. They were on a power play, so the Otters took Crosby out of the game to get more men out on the ice fighting for thevictory.
“Gah! I can’t watch.” I hid my eyes as Crosby skated to the bench to join histeammates.
The strategy failed and the Otters had their first loss of theseason.
“Gavin is totally going to blame this one on me, just watch,” I heard Griffin mumble to Myla as he helped her put herjacketon.
“Oh, he’ll be fine. He’s gotten a lot better about losing over theyears.”
“He does not get that from our father.” Griffin and Olive were holding hands and my heartmelted.
“To the bar?” I asked thegroup.
They all agreed and we made our way down the street to where we knew the team would be gathering to lick their wounds from thedisappointingloss.
Chapter6
Jordan
It didn’t take too longfor the players to all join us at the dive bar. Sitting in a far booth with Myla and Jess, I couldn’t help but stare when Crosby walked in with the rest of his team. I watched like a creepy stalker as he chugged down a beer and threw back a couple of shots. It was apparent that he was a little salty from the loss, and all I wanted to do was make him feelbetter.
“Please, for all of our sakes, just go fucking talk to him.” Myla leaned over the table to give me alittlepush.
“Fine. Twist my arm, why don’t you.” I smoothed out my jersey, feeling like an idiot for wearing his number. Even though I had feelings for Will, that didn’t change the fact that he was actually my favorite player on the team. Of course, I loved Gavin with all of my heart and we were practically family, but Crosby was—in my eyes, at least—the best New York Ottersplayer.
I sheepishly walked up next to Will where he was talking with Griffin andOlive.
“Bates!” Crosby’s voice boomed as he scooped me up into his arms, twirling mearound.
“Hey Crosby, tough luck out there tonight.” He sat me down on the barstool next to his left and something finally clicked. It was as if we were both looking at each other the way we had wanted to forsolong.
His hand landed on my shoulder as a shit-eating grin spread across his lips. “I think I just hit the level of sloshed where I am too drunk to even give a flying rat’s ass. Everyone loses a game every once in a blue moon—we’re not fucking superheroes or some shitlikethat.”