Page 127 of Hot Damn
Chase straightens, his gaze locked firmly on Vegas’s goal, and I move beside him.
The noise of the arena muffles, drones in my ears like the buzz of a thousand bees, but I don’t take my eyes off the same thing Chase is looking at.
The puck.
What feels like a lifetime but is milli-seconds, I watch history in the making.
The puck, traveling at a speed my eyes can barely keep up with, whips down center ice, straight and true, sliding right over the goal line into the back of the net.
Chase’s clearing shot is a goal.
Our goalie scored the game winning goal!
Pandemonium erupts around us.
Players, fans, officials.
It’s a cacophony of noise that threatens to raise the roof.
“Holy fudge sticks!” Chase’s shout swivels my head and I launch myself at him.
“We’re playing for the Cup,” I yell in his ear as I take us both to the ice. Bran jumps on next, followed by Mikel, Tasman, and Gannon.
More bodies pile on and it’s then I realize the whole team is off the bench and on the ice. We’re a pile of Rogues in front of our goal, the hero of the day lying at the bottom.
Chase’s gaze is on me, his eyes wide in shock and I grab his mask, give it a shake.
“We’re going to the Cup!”
“Holy fudge sticks!”
“I think you can sayholy fucking shitright now, Chase,” Bran laughs. “The kids aren’t out here yet but they’re coming.”
Turning my head, I see it isn’t only the team taking the ice. It’s the coaches and staff, the GM and owners.
The second I see Cam, I’m shoving my way from beneath the pile. There’s no way I want her walking on the slippery surface of the rink in her condition.
At five months she’s barely showing and we’re past the danger zone of the first trimester but I’m not risking her or our baby.
Two pushes and a glide and Cam is in my arms.
“You did it!” She smacks her mouth on mine. “You won!”
“Wewon long before tonight.”
“Dad!” Whit crashes into me from behind. “Oh my god! Dad!”
Laughing, I lower Cam to her feet, keeping one arm around her to be sure she’s steady before wrapping my other arm around my daughter. “Whitbee.”
“You have to name my brother Chase now.”
“What?”
“Why?” Cam leans around me to see Whit.
“Because we want him to have a strong winner’s name and Chase isn’t just a Rogue now. He’s a hero.”
She isn’t wrong. We might have earned our place in the finals but winning was never a guarantee and we all knew it. Chase isn’t just a Rogues hero, he’s going to be the inspiration of every underdog in the world after tonight.
