Page 24 of Levi

“Of course I made you a sandwich. I'm not that big of a dick to make one for myself and not you. It just took a little longer to make yours because I had to let the bacon crisp up in the oven just how you like it,” Levi says casually as he stands up and walks back into the kitchen, leaving me stunned and speechless.

He knows the way I like my bacon? I’ve always been made fun of because I like my bacon crispy—and when I say crispy, I mean crispyyyyyy. It’s basically bacon dust, as my family likes to say, but I think it’s delicious. Especially on a BLT.

When he returns and places a plate in front of me with the most delicious looking sandwich, with impeccably cooked bacon and what looks like jalapeño chips, I’m seriously tempted to get on one knee and propose to this man because, dammit, this is my favorite lunch in the world.

Looking up at him, I can only imagine how I look based on the smile on his face, but I don’t even care if I look like a kid staring up at Santa. Food may normally be the path to a man’s heart, but it’s the direct line to mine as well.

“Thank you. I don’t think I even realized I hadn’t eaten yet today, and now that I have food in front of me, I’m practically minutes away from perishing if I hadn’t gotten it.”

“I figured you hadn’t eaten since I barely saw you after you got coffee a few hours ago. Plus, I heard you throwing a fit about clothes, so I figured you weren’t thinking about food. What’s got you stressing?” Levi asks before taking a massive bite of his sandwich.

“I can’t figure out what to wear tonight. I have clothes to wear, obviously, but I wanted something Firebirds-related, and I can’t for the life of me find something that feels professional at the same time,” I tell him, picking at my chips, not wanting him to look at me like I’m an idiot for stressing over this when, in just a few hours, he’ll be on the ice in front of his city, hoping to bring home the first win of the season.

“What’re you talking about? Didn’t you get one of the jackets they passed out yesterday?” he says, setting his sandwich down and staring at me.

Jackets?

“No? That’s the first I’ve heard about a jacket. Am I supposed to wear one? Am I going to look like an idiot for not having the same thing as everyone else?” I worry aloud, immediately panicking at the thought of sticking out like a sore thumb because I don’t have the same outfit that everyone else has. What the fuck. I hate this.

Looking at Levi, I can tell that something about this is making him angrier than I’ve seen in quite some time, which is odd because it’s just a jacket we’re talking about. I’m the one who should be freaking out about it, not him.

“Are you telling me that when Ally passed out the jackets after your meeting yesterday, you didn’t get one?”

“Yes…that’s what I already said,” I tell him.

He immediately grabs his phone and starts typing out a message, his eyes bouncing between me and the screen. “Every year, my nana and her friends embroider jackets for the coach and the rest of the staff to have for their games. It’s a tradition your uncle reached out to her to continue, which honestly surprised the hell out of me. I know for sure yours was in there because the new names on the list had already been mentioned to me, and yours was one of them. Which tells me your sister is a bigger bitch than we both realized.”

My heart drops. I always knew my sister didn’t like me. She’s made that very clear, and over the years, the feeling has become mutual. Well, I don’t dislike her, but I hate the way she treats me like I’m below her. But this? This hurts. It feels like she’s trying to sabotage the first big night of my career over something stupid, and it just hurts that she truthfully doesn’t care. I did this on my own, putting in the work to get through school, and now she’s trying to take the joy away from something so important to me.

I haven’t liked her as a person for years, but worse than that, I can now say she’s done something that didn’t just make me mad—it makes me sad to realize just how far apart we’ve become.

Levi’s phone buzzes next to him, and he looks down at it before glancing back at me. “It’s being taken care of,” he says before going back to his sandwich.

“What?” I ask, confused. It feels like so much just happened, but at the same time, I don’t understand any of it.

“I just texted Coach to let him know, and he said he was on it. This isn’t something that would look good on Ally as the organizer, or the team, if anyone found out why you were left out. HR would especially have a field day if they knew your sister was singling you out, and I for one would make sure of it.”

“But why?”

“Because no one should feel excluded, especially not when the entire point of the jackets was to make sure the coaching staff didn’t look so different. We thought it would be nice for the coaches and staff to wear something that looked similar to what the team wears with our jerseys. I’ve also known you for a long time, Quinn. Whether you like it or not, I do care about you, and I hate seeing you feel this way. To be clear, I wouldn’t be fake dating you if I didn’t care about your feelings.”

“I mean, it does help you out in the long run,” I tell him, knowing the real reasons he wants to stay in Nashville, though he still doesn’t know that I know.

“Yeah, staying in Nashville has always been my dream. It’ll be nice not to have that ruined before I’ve even been playing here for ten years,” Levi says, and I can tell he doesn’t want to talk about it or he wouldn’t have completely diverted the topic.

“Well, I’m glad I could help,” I tell him with a smile. “Thanks for helping with the jacket. Now hopefully I don’t find something new to stress about before tonight.”

“I’m sure you will,” Levi says with a laugh.

We eat the rest of our sandwiches in peace before heading off to get ready. Levi made me ride with him because he said he wanted to make sure we were there at the same time—so he could personally make sure that my uncle tracked down the jacket. I didn’t mind driving in with him, though, because something about seeing a tattooed man in a suit perfectly tailored to his muscular body…yeah, that was exactly what I needed to start the evening.

Thank God he found the jacket because I really didn’t want to witness Levi finding Ally. I think he would’ve torn her a new one. My sister is all bark, no bite. She has a big mouth and is loud, something people often confuse for confidence, but that’s just her shield to hide how unsure of herself she’s always been. I mean, we all know she doesn’t dream of being our uncle’s secretary for the rest of her life, but she has no idea what she wants to do outside of that.

After Levi made sure I was set, he went off to put all his stuff away and meet with the team. Then it was time for him to suit up and get ready for the game. I had a couple of players scheduled to get taped beforehand, and Jax needed to come see me to make sure his ankle was still okay. He was on our list of questionable players for the start of the season after getting injured at the end of the last. I still remember watching the game. The injury was brutal, and I was sure he’d be out with a torn Achilles or something. It’s rare, but the way he went down and how they had to help him off the ice, I thought for sure it had happened.

Thankfully, it was only a sprained ankle, albeit a serious one. He did a lot of physical therapy during the off-season and strengthened it significantly better than anticipated, but we still wanted to make sure nothing was being overlooked. It’d be a damn shame to have one of the star players on the team get seriously injured when just an extra week or two off could’ve prevented it.

After prepping my bag and meeting with the rest of the team, we got everyone ready, and my uncle delivered the same speech I’ve heard every year while interning for him. It’s a speech that’s very effective at getting everyone riled up. They all know they want to be holding the beautiful Stanley Cup at the end of the year, and that fight starts tonight.

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