Page 32 of Uniquely in Love

“I think he did.” Brooks shook his head.

“Fuck off,” I muttered. “I go out plenty. Unlike Rhodes over there.”

He flipped me off, going back to his pre-game ritual while getting ready.

Grumpy asshole that he was, I couldn’t fault him for being an incredible hockey player. He had a record for the most assists in history with our team over his last decade that he’d played, and so I tried not to give him too hard of a time. Even if I rarely saw the guy smile.

One day, someone was going to come into his life and completely knock him off his feet, and he’d have no idea what to do with himself. I chuckled to myself, pulling my jersey over top my shoulder and elbow pads.

Hopefully, I’d be around to see it. After all, some guys on the team had been here for their entire career. I hoped I would be the same. I loved the Pacific Northwest, and I didn’t want to leave it. Though I missed Portland, they didn’t have an NHL team there, so at least I was close to home.

Imagining leaving this place… even now, it felt wrong. I couldn’t imagine how rough it would be to hear I was being traded. Hopefully, the day would never come.

That was why I had to keep my head in the game and stay serious. It was my fourth season in the NHL, and while I didn’t feel like I was at risk of being sent down to the AHL anymore—proving my worth over the last two seasons—anything could happen.

I needed to stay focused. Sharp.

It wasn’tlong until we stepped out onto the ice, a giant stack of pucks being knocked onto the ice by Finn Evans, who entered before me. We all took turns shooting at the net, our man Farkas in goal, doing his best to block our shots.Since he didn’t play most of the games during the season, these would give him the extra practice he needed as our alternate goalie.

After a few turns around the ice, I skated over to the boards, coming to a stop next to Brooks. He was almost the same height as me, only an inch shorter. Sometimes, it felt like we could read each other on the ice so well that we didn’t even need to communicate. That was one reason it felt like we worked so well together. We were both damn good at blocking the other team’s shots and had a record number of hits between the two of us.

He tipped his head, looking across the ice. “Hey, she’s pretty cute.”

“Huh?” I asked, looking back at him.

He motioned with his stick. “Over there. Blonde. Standing next to the kid in the corner.”

I perked up. There was no way. It couldn’t be. She wasn’thereat my game.

We hadn’t talked to each other since I’d left that morning. The group chat I never took part in didn’t count, though it seemed like she’d been doing okay.

I wasn’t even aware I was moving, skating across the ice, until I was right there. The only thing that separated us was the half inch thick piece of plexiglass.

“Ellie?” My eyes were wide.

But it was her. She was here.

Her lips moved, and a hesitant smile covered her face. “Hi,” she mouthed, and I wished I could hear her voice.

She moved her hand, placing it against the glass and splaying her fingers wide.

Fuck, I couldn’t believe she was standing in front of me. I blinked a few times, trying to decide if it was really my imagination. Had I just hallucinated her?

But no.

“You’re here,” I said, unable to keep the smile off my face.God, she was beautiful in Seals blue, wearing one of our jerseys. It wasn’t mine, butshewasn’t mine anymore, either.

Ellie nodded.

Where was she sitting? I wanted her closer to me. So that I could watch her during the game. Something told me she would disappear all too quickly after it ended.

Did she drive up just for the night? While my family came to my games fairly often, since Seattle wasn’t too far from Portland, Ellie never had. I puffed up my chest, knowing I shouldn’t feel this way but unable to rein myself in. I’d enjoy knowing she was watching me for tonight, and after that, I’d go back to moving on. Letting go of our shared past.

Maybe we could be friends again. We’d been best friends before I’d ever asked her out, and I missed her as my friend as much as I missed her as my girlfriend. She’d always been the one who would sit on the bench in the rink with me growing up as we talked about anything and everything.

That was where it had all began. It felt fitting that we were here once again—me on the ice, and her in the stands. Like this was fate. Like it was meant to be.

Looking around, I shook my head before holding up a hand. Unfortunately, she couldn’t hear me through the plexiglass, so I just had to hope she understood the universal sign forwait.Especially with my gloves on.

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