Page 11 of SlapShot Sweetheart

“It was a stupid idea…”

“What if we each do a little something, and you can leave the recording so it’s personal, but if you have different voices, accents, and help – then maybe it will remain a surprise,” Thierry volunteered quietly, watching him. “If we do a bit of everything, then it will make it hard to pin it on someone.”

And Theo stopped skating, hopping off the stationary machine and looking at their concerned faces as he breathed deeply, sucking in his breath several times as he tried to cool down from the abusive exertion that he was putting himself through. Right now, he was practically panting, and his legs felt like Jell-O, but his heart felt hopeful for the first time.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Of course.”

“Don’t ‘of course’ me – you were just laughing at me.”

“Only because we didn’t realize what this meant to you,” Coeur muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. “Think aboutit, Batiste – if I came to you and said ‘hey, I need to impress my girl, but I want to do a bunch of goo-goo romantic crap’…”

“Then I’d think you were lying,” Theo muttered, nodding in understanding.

“What’s your plan?” Giroux asked, and surprisingly, Lafrenière stepped forward with a sheet of paper wadded up in his hand, causing Theo to pause curiously.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“I can be sneaky,” Lafrenière protested. “Don’t look at me like this.”

“I’m not looking for sneaky,” Theo muttered hotly. “I’m looking for romantic.”

Coeur was rolling his eyes and shaking his head while Giroux was looking over the goalie’s shoulder – approvingly. The center glanced at him, nodding and smiling, as he pointed. “This is all stuff my wife would love. These are all great ideas.”

“It is?” Coeur balked, looking shocked. “Are you serious?”

“Wait,” Gerry paused, “Lafrenière has ‘romantic’ideas?”

“I could date if I wanted to – I just don’t feel like dealing with the rest of the drama,” the man growled, looking insulted as he snatched the paper away again, his cheeks reddening. “Forget it. You twerps can figure it out on your own and…”

“No! I need help,ami,” Theo began quickly, stepping forward. “S’il vous plaît?”

“No laughing,” Lafrenière growled, “And no judging. I have four sisters, and they like all this sort of garbage.”

“What’s first?”

“Well, I think we need to arrange the moment…”

“The moment?”

“NO JUDGING!” Lafrenière roared and Theo’s hands shot up in surrender.

“No! No! I’m listening and will do as you say,mon frêre…”

“Here’s what we’re going to do – and it will take all of us,” Lafrenière began, smoothing the paper and putting it on the weight bench nearby, pointing. “Step one, we’re going to need rope.”

“What did he say?”

“Oh boy, this is gonna be kinky…”

“You’re sick…”

“Nooo,” Theo whispered, staring at the paper in amazement and then looking at the frowning goalie whose lips were pressed together angrily. “This is incredible…merci beaucoup.”

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