Page 101 of Beauty
“Do you want to stop and grab a snack on the way in or wait until we get into the suite?”
Ollie shakes his head. “Nah, I want to get a good seat.”
My chest tightens with affection. The admiration he has for his dad is adorable. “Do you want to go down to the ice and watch them warm up?”
He comes to a screeching halt, his eyes wide. “Really?”
My brothers’ kids all love it, but this level of excitement is unexpected. “Sure, come on.”
It takes some time to find the visitor bench, but when I do, I wave at Gavin, and he motions the security guards to let us in.
“Holy crap,” Ollie says, scanning the stands. “This is so cool.”
As we step up to the boards, Aiden breaks into song. I’ve heard all about the lyrics he makes up to get the team pumped up, but I’ve never seen him in action like this. Even the video of his on-ice performance when he proposed to Lennox wasn’t this exciting.
He’s on the ice, stick in hand, while the rest of the team stretches around him, when he launches into his version of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.”
“Now they’re thinkin’ ’bout us every game, oh
Isn’t that a goal? You know so
Say they can’t win, baby, we know
You’re playing the Boston Bolts, though
Beauty goes up, War goes down, oh,
Slides into the goal, whoa,
Say they can’t win, baby, we know,
You’re playing the Boston Bolts, though.”
War spots us and hops to his feet, interrupting Aiden before he can start the next verse. Then the rest of the guys follow.
“Ollie, baby!” War roars as he glides toward us.
The little boy at my side grins. “Who you calling baby?”
As the guys approach one by one in their skates and pads, I feel tiny.
Even in uniform, Noah is easy to pick out. As he skates up, he pulls off his helmet and grins at his son the same way the little guy just grinned at me. “You being good for Sienna?”
His gaze flicks to mine, the grin turning slightly lazy, and my lungs stop working. His blue eyes are breathtaking. Soul-crushing. They’re lit up with genuine excitement, and when they bounce from Ollie to me and hold, the entire arena vanishes, and it’s just the two of us. The pounding of my heart in my ears is the only sound. Those damn blue irises are my sole focus.
“She just picked me up. How bad could I have been?”
Ollie’s one-liner and the responding howls of laughter break the spell.
“Your kid’s the coolest.” Aiden whacks Gavin in the chest with a gloved hand. “Let’s make sure your son ends up just like him, okay?”
My heart stutters as I look from a smiling Aiden to a grimacing Gavin. “It’s a boy?”
Aiden winces. “Shit.”
“That’s a bad word,” Ollie chides.
Gavin sighs. “Millie has a whole reveal planned, keep it between us please?” He eyes me pleadingly.
