“Martin got away?” Goldie grimaced and leaned into my side, looking defeated.
“Oh no, he didn’t.” Jasper called excitedly, “There! Look!”
Collectively, the entire rink turned to where Martin Lister ran along the top railing, trying to make it toward the exit through the crowd.
“Someone stop him!” Anastasia called out.
“I got it!” A little voice echoed over the railing, and instantly Eli and Travis yelled back.
“Toby, no!”
We all watched as the cute, chaos-filled little boy took the cup in his hand and threw it right at Martin’s face as he ran by in his attempt to escape. I had expected soda, or maybe even hot chocolate to cover the man as the cup made perfect contact in the center of his face. But what I wasn’t expecting was a volcano of what looked suspiciously like liquid nacho cheese to erupt, covering his entire upper body and face, sticking to every inch.
“Oh my God,” I cringed, as the bastard that had tried to intimidate Goldie and ruin our town ran blindly, nacho cheese covering every inch of his face, straight into the railing over the upper bleachers, tumble-weeding himself over the top and down into the crowd, effectively catching himself.
“Woo-hoo!” Toby cheered, jumping up and fist-pumping the air in excitement. “Three points for me!”
Everything else happened in pure Cedar Bluff comedic fashion after that.
Martin and Tolbert, or whatever his name was, were arrested, facing enough felony charges to write a book with. Jasper took all the credit for keeping Goldie sane during the game while they waited for the feds to show up and updating Thomas on the situation, giving Tanner and me an ally on the ice.
And as we all started making our way toward the boards, ready to call it a day after the overwhelming excitement of the day, one furious and outraged voice cut out across the noise in the rink.
“You have to be shitting me all the way to the toilet and back.” Emmie screeched in frustration. “Do any of you know how many chores I had to do to convince my mom to let me play against a bunch of smelly, hairy, old men?” She struggled against her dad’s grip to get to the ice on her skates, but when she got down, she stood in the center of us all and yelled even louder. “And you’re going to let some wacko nozzle nut ruin it for me!” Turning to Eli, she held her hand up before he could chide her for using the snarky name for firefighters, “He’s wacko. You can’t get mad at me for saying that.”
Tanner snorted and Goldie giggled where she stood between us as Emmie went on, missing the whole thing.
“You can’t just leave now! I won’t get another opportunity to prove I can do this! They’ll lock me down in kiddie hockey hell for the next five years,minimum. I’ll be driving before I get this chance again!”
“I am not equipped to handle this,” Travis said with a grimace as Eli chuckled.
“I want to play this dang game!” Emmie finished, staring at me. “You have to help me finish this!”
“Me?” I stammered, looking around at everyone. The agents had cleared off the ice, leaving just us players and Goldie and her friends. “I’m not sure?—”
“She’s right,” Goldie said with a curt nod of her head and a pointed look my way. “She earned her spot on this ice. You can’t cut it short.”
“Ah, hell,” I laughed, “What’s one murder attempt, a concussion, and some spilled nacho cheese got against a hockey game? Why not?” I turned to Tanner, eyeing up his cut check. “You up for it, Scarface?”
Tanner flipped the towel over his shoulder and put his helmet back on. “Oh, hell yes. But we’re switching the teams up.” He skated up to me, nose to nose, and lowered his voice. “Because I don’t want to play unless I’m fighting you for the puck.”
“Game on, Officer Golden Boy.” I said smugly, skating backward to the opposite side of the ice as everyone got geared back up.
“Let’s play ball!” Toby shrieked from the boards, slamming his palms against the glass, making everyone laugh and his mom shake her head in pure defeat.
Emmie whooped, jumping up for a high five with me as she pulled her goalie mask down over her face and headed to our new side of the ice. “Let’s kick their asses.”
“Emmie Hayes!” Eli groaned and then stopped short when Travis skated with us to the other side of the ice with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Wait a second, you’re jumping ship too?”
Travis shrugged, fist-bumping Emmie and slapping his stick against the ice. “Show us what you’ve got, Sunshine.”
“Just remember, you asked for it.” Eli grinned cockily.
And just like that, Cedar Bluff found its footing amidst all the chaos and danger. Because of course we did. Who else was going to spin the rumor mill if we didn’t?
Kids screamedwith excitement as the dunking booth cracked, dropping a sputtering Travis into the tank with a massive splash. The smell of charcoal grills and hotdogs filled the air. Balloon animals and face paint filled the park in the town square.
And I sat back and watched it all with such pride.