Page 96 of Pucking Your Best Friend

“What I’m trying to say,” Dax interrupted his thoughts, “is if you’re scared of what would happen if you broke up — if you or Maddie changed your minds…it’s not too late for staying friends,at this point. You’ve been friends for a lot longer than you’ve been sleeping together.” He shrugged. “That’s worth something, right?”

Matt frowned. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. If all else failed…they could just be friends – as long as they realized their mistake soon enough.

His shoulders relaxed. Dax was right. They had dozens of options. Everything would be fine.

“Okay.” He nodded slowly. It all made sense: They just had to continue being honest.

“Okay? So…is everything okay now?” Dax asked, uncertain. “Have we made up?”

Matt grinned. “Oh, Dax, you’re not still insecure about us, are you?”

“Oh, shut up…”

“It’s okay. We’ve made up.”

Dax breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. Now Lucy will stop pestering me to call you.” Dax patted him on the shoulder. "And could you also tell her what a good guy I was, apologizing first and everything?”

Matt nodded dutifully. “Absolutely. And I’ll tell her how adorable you looked as you did it.”

Dax grinned. “She already knows that. She…”

“What the hell?!” the coach barked from the sidelines and they flinched. “Temple, Payne! You can’t just send everyone off the ice during practice before a big game!”

“Maybe weshouldn’t. But wecan,as I’ve just proven,” Dax called back, grinning at Matt. “How many shades of red do you think his face will be?”

“Four.”

“Six,” Dax countered. “The winner buys.”

“Deal,” Matt said, but the word was drowned out by Coach Gray’s shouting.

Chapter 26

She should have forced her father to attend an ice hockey game with her and Lucy sooner, because it was almost like back then.

Maddie had been afraid that the game would remind her dad too much of their mother, but she’d been wrong. He even smiled several times. He cheered when the goals were scored as if he had forgotten for a moment that he was sad.

He had to get out more. Sometimes it didn’t help to just focus on the pain in the name of working through it. Sometimes you had to distract yourself. She realized Rachel, the psychologist, might have disagreed…but for today, Maddie didn’t care.

She could have relaxed completely and continued being as happy as she had been for the last few days if Lucy hadn’t been giving her pensive and even occasionally miffed looks. Every time Maddie raised her eyebrows in question, though, her sister merely shook her head silently. Maddie didn’t feel like explicitly asking what her problem was, especially not when her father was happy for the first time in what felt like years. After the second period, she offered to get another round of drinks. Dax and Matt were playing well together today and the Hawks were leading two to one. Maybe the two of them had made up. They were patting each other on the back pretty often, even by sports standards, and even grinning stupidly at each other.

Maddie fought her way through the narrow rows of seats to the paved walkway to the food stalls. Matt had offered her the VIP lounge, but that wouldn’t have been the same family experience they’d had as children. She turned a corner and was surprised to see Lucy following her.

“Did you change your mind about wanting a drink?” she asked, confused, and opened the door to the main corridor. As soon as it shut behind them, the noise of the crowd was muffled.

Lucy didn’t respond to her question, but instead asked, “How did you convince him? I mean Dad. To come with you. How did you manage that?”

She raised one corner of her mouth. “I had…a confrontation with him.”

Lucy raised her eyebrows, impressed. “Really? But hey, you’ve always been good with Dad.”

She was right about that. Yet someone had to do it, and Rachel and Lucy had always avoided the situation.

“He seems pretty happy, doesn’t he?” she asked hesitantly.

Lucy nodded.

“Maybe we could make this a habit? A monthly get-together at the arena. But I know you practically live here, so maybe we could do something else…”

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