Page 133 of In Your Wildest Dreams
“Yeah, we should throw another one after the game tomorrow night. The last one was all doom and gloom. I’m in the mood to celebrate.” He skates off without another word.
* * *
My pulse races as we walk down the tunnel. With every step, the noise of the crowd gets louder. I hold my stick horizontally across my body, twirling it to release some of my nerves.
I let out a breath, roll my shoulders, and force my mind to focus. My eyes are locked on Declan in front of me. His broad back is all I can see, but when the first guy’s skates touch the ice, I know it. The roar inside the arena vibrates inside of me.
One by one, my teammates take the ice in front of our home crowd. The buzz of excitement in the arena is electric. The night is ours and this moment is magic.
The music is loud, the announcer louder, and my heart thumps wildly in my chest, nearly drowning out everything else.
When it’s finally my turn to take the ice, everything gets quiet. I go through my usual routine: skating around, finding a puck, and then firing it at the net before I skate back to center ice. Slowly, things come back into focus. That’s when I look for Bridget.
She’s standing with thousands of others, but I could pick her out even if I didn’t know exactly where to find her. She’s my heart existing outside of my body.
When I meet her gaze, she holds up the sign in her hands. “I Wanna Puck #53!”
Chuckling, I skate over to her. She comes down to the front of the plexiglass.
“Is that a request for a souvenir or did you just proposition me at work?” I point to the sign.
“Everly dared me.”
Her friend waves from their seats a section up.
I flip the puck up with my stick and catch it. “I’ll puck you any time, babe.”
“What about your jersey?”
I blanch.
“I tried to get one in the gift shop but they were all sold out.” She bats her lashes.
Fuck me.
Bridget holds back a laugh as I strip off my jersey. I toss both it and the puck over to her. She clutches them to her chest with a satisfied smile.
“I’m gonna get you back for this,” I promise her.
Screams around the arena pull us out of our bubble.
“I didn’t think this through,” she says, glancing around at the fans cheering at my half-naked performance.
“Don’t worry, babe. I’m all yours.” I tap my hand onto the glass and then skate over to the bench.
40
MY GIRLFRIEND DOESN’T LIKE TO SHARE
BRIDGET
“Canwe talk about Ash’s Instagram page?” Everly turns her phone around to show me the screen. “It’s basically a shrine of you.”
She’s sitting on my bed while I get ready. “I’m serious. Here’s one of you two at Wild’s last week, another at the arena. You in his T-shirt, you in your scrubs, you, you,you.” She scrolls, calling out recent photos Ash posted. In the weeks since Gabe was fired from the Wildcats, we’ve been enjoying dating in public. And kissing in public. We’re the obnoxious couple holding hands and kissing everywhere we go, and I love it. I can finally shout how great he is to anyone that will listen, but as usual, Ash is one-upping me.
“This one is just a picture of you sleeping.” She huffs a laugh. “You two are disgustingly cute.”
“Thank you.” I spin in front of the full-length mirror in my bedroom to face my roommate. “Do I look okay?”
