Page 62 of Hitting the Goal Line
The second that Blake wraps his arms tightly around me, I control myself slightly, but tears are still making their way out of my eyes.
“I’m so proud of you,” I say into his chest, not caring that he smells like a dirty hockey bag.
He places a kiss against my hair and tightens his hold on me. “I couldn’t have done this without you, Soph. Thank you so fucking much for believing in me.”
“I will always be by your side, hockey or no hockey, remember?” I say, reaching up and placing a kiss that was meant for his cheek but ended up closer to the corner of his mouth. I didn’t even think about doing it, I just did but in this moment, I don’t care. Not one bit.
“I remember,” he says, the smile that he is wearing spreading some more. “Love you,” he tells right before placing a kiss on my cheek in return.
This isn’t the first time that he has told me that he loves me, and it won’t be the last, but a part of me wishes that it was a different kind of I love you that I was hearing. One between lovers and not one between best friends.
Either way, I smile up at him and repeat the words. “Love you too.”
I love you.
I’m in love you.
I’ve loved you for a long time.
So many versions of those three words that I want to say but keep them to myself because they will never be said back in the same manner.
“Let’s go find your parents,” he says, taking my hand and helping me to the other side of the rink.
All the while my heart aches for reasons he may never comprehend.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
BLAKE
My body is absolutely soaring.
We just won the Stanley Cup and all I want to do is climb the tallest building that the world has to offer and yell it out for everyone to hear.
It feels so fucking good to be the champs, to be at the top of the world.
After the game, the team had a little champagne celebration in the locker room. Well part of the team. Liam and Christian left as soon as the game was over to head to the hospital. Apparently Hunter took Chloe to the hospital somewhere in the second quarter and as soon as the game was over, our team doctors told Christian and he told Liam. Within second that ran off the ice.
Off the ice but not out of the arena. Liam apparently jumped in the shower before leaving because he didn’t want to smell like cooked rotten cheese. Whatever that means.
The good thing is that he was able to make it in time, and according to the text message that popped up on my phone about an hour ago, he now has a beautiful baby girl named Emma.
Now, it’s three in the morning and the celebration of just winning the cup has dwindled down a bit.
Me and some of the other guys on the team decide to rent out a restaurant at a hotel close to the arena so that we would have somewhere to go after the game. Win or lose, we wanted to at least finish up the season with a good meal and a drink.
Thank fuck we won because that would have been one hell of a depressing meal.
After the celebration at the arena finished, we came to the hotel and partied our little hearts out. Now, hours later, only a few of us are left standing.
My mom and stepdad when back to my apartment to get some sleep, and Sophia’s parents, Hunter and Selena went to their respective hotels to get a few hours of shut eye in before they all head back home in a few hours.
That just leaves me, Sophia, Logan, and few other guys trying to see if we can make it until the sun rises.
“Dude, it’s been what six hours? And I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that we won the freaking cup,” I say to Logan since he’s the closest to me, distance wise.
“Trust me, I can’t either. It’s fucking crazy,” Logan responds before taking a drink of the vodka that he has been babying since maybe one in the morning.
Me and Logan had somewhat of a rough start when I first came to the Knights. If you can even call it that. Logan isn’t much of a talker. He keeps to himself a lot, so when we met and the most I could get out of him was a grunt, I thought he hated me. It wasn’t until the start of this season that he started to open to me. The grunts turned into actual words. Now were friends, maybe not best friends, but still friends.
