Page 32 of Of Pucking Course

I shrug. “No clue.”

“We doing shots tonight, boys?” Theo says.

“I’m sticking to Scotch,” Blomdahl says.

Xander pats his shoulder. “You and your Scotch.”

Blomdahl shrugs. “I like what I like.”

“Let the man drink his Scotch,” Theo says. “He’s been on fire in the net. If Scotch is what keeps you playing like that, then drink all the damn Scotch you want.”

Blomdahl grins.

“We should play a drinking game,” Camden says.

Xander pulls him into a headlock and messes up his light brown hair. Camden shoves him away, smiling.

“You don’t wanna go against us in a drinking game, rookie,” Xander says.

Camden flashes a cocky smile. “What? You scared of a rookie being able to drink you under the table?”

Xander narrows his gaze at Camden, competitiveness flaring up in his eyes. I shake my head. Dude just can’t help himself. Xander always takes the bait when someone challenges him. It doesn’t matter what it is—hockey, drinking games, board games.

“You’re on, rookie.”

“Let’s play Never Have I Ever,” Camden says as he sits back down at our usual table at Spanky’s with a bottle of tequila in one hand, a stack of shot glasses in the other.

Del groans at the same time that Ingrid grins.

“That sounds fun,” she says. She loops her hand in his and drops a quick kiss to his mouth. His frown fades.

“Okay fine, we’re in,” Del grumbles.

Maya and Theo nod along. “It’s been a while since we played that,” Theo says.

Xander glances at his fiancée, Sophie, who’s the team doctor for the Bashers. She aims a sweet smile at him as he wraps his arm around her.

“You up for a drinking game, gorgeous?” he asks.

She nods. “As long as I can stick to my drink.” She glances down at the non-alcoholic beverage she’s drinking.

He kisses her temple. “Of course you can.”

“You don’t wanna do tequila shots with us, Doc?” Camden asks while pouring tequila into the small glasses.

Sophie shakes her head. “I’m not much of a drinker.”

“Sophie’s a genius. That’s why she doesn’t drink much, unlike the rest of us,” Xander says.

The whole table laughs.

Camden aims his wide-eyed stare at Sophie. “You’re a genius?”

Her cheeks turn pink as she flashes a shy smile.

“She absolutely is,” Dakota says, hugging her arm around her best friend. “She skipped through elementary school. And middle school. And high school. And then she went to medical school when she was nineteen. She graduated in the top one percent of her class.”

I smile. It’s sweet how proud Dakota sounds when she talks about Sophie.

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