Page 23 of One Pucking Heart

“What are you grinning about?” Cade grabs one of the daisy’s cheese petals and eats it.

Once again, it doesn’t faze Iris.

I raise my shoulder, the corners of my lips tilting up. “Nothing. Just happy for you guys.”

Iris turns to Cade and peers up to him like he holds the moon. He kisses her forehead. “Thanks, man. We’re pretty excited.”

“Have you decided when the wedding will be?” I ask.

Iris presses her lips in a line, her gaze darting from me to Cade. “Well…” She scrunches her nose. “I think we decided on September. I know it’s only two months away, but honestly, we’re just ready to be married, and we wanted to do it before the season starts.”

“You can do it,” I tell my sister, “and it will be perfect.”

“It will,” she agrees.

Cade, Iris, and I have been a trio of inseparable friends for seventeen years. No one in the world deserves my sister more than Cade, and vice versa. The two were always meant to be together. I can’t say I don’t feel guilty that I’m going to be stealing some of my sister’s thunder today. The shock value of me getting married, let alone to the new team doctor, will be off the charts. Everyone will be shocked. There’s nothing I can do about that now. I’ve made a promise to Elena. This whole thing is already in motion.

The guests begin to arrive and consist of our team members, office and PR staff, equipment managers, and trainers. Other friends have come and gone along the way, but my entire life is wrapped up in the Crane organization. My teammates are my family, and really the only people I care to celebrate my birthday with.

“There they are!” Sebastian Calloway, who we call Bash, our starting center, walks into my parents' kitchen holding two bottles of Barbados rum. “Presents for the birthday boys.” He hands Cade and me each a bottle. The gift is a nod to our team’s bye week vacation in Barbados, where I became slightly rum-obsessed.

“Thanks, Bash.” I clasp his hand and pull him in for a one-armed hug. “We will be putting this to good use tonight.”

“How’s the knee?” he asks.

“Good. It’s getting better every day. In PT and getting stronger.”

A large beast of a man, also known as our goalie Gunner Dreven, steps up behind Bash. “But will you be in top form come season opener?”

I nod. “Doc says I’ll be good to go.”

“Good. Because we’re taking the Cup next year. Our showing in round one of playoffs was a joke,” Dreven grumbles. Our goalie is always unhappy about something. The guy is as serious as they come and, therefore, the opposite of me, but we’re in total agreement this time.

Cade, who is in his in-love optimistic era, calls out, “There is no doubt we’re taking it next year, guys. Let’s fill some shot glasses and toast to the best season yet.”

A round of hollers sounds.

“Did someone say shot glasses?” Jaden, one of our defensemen, joins the party.

The rest of the team trickles in, and we spread out throughout my parents' first floor. They have a great house for entertaining. Despite having very little time to plan, as Iris stated, the food she had catered was delicious, and the drinks were flowing.

I’m more than a few shots down when Elena texts me that she’s here. I meet her in the foyer. She’s the last to arrive, and the others are too busy having fun throughout the house to notice us.

“I was beginning to wonder whether you were going to show.”

She shakes her head and blows out a breath. “I know. I had to make myself come here. I’m so nervous.”

“Well, you still want to go through with it, right?”

“Yeah, I have to. It’s already in motion. Right?” She looks at me, concerned.

“I mean, yeah. But we can always stop it. It’s your choice.”

“No.” She stands tall. “No one is getting my father’s estate but me. We’re doing this.”

I smile. “There’s my girl.”

“Would you stop?” She rolls her eyes.

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