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“Thank you,” I choke out.
“I should be the one thanking you.”
I stick my hand out to shake his.
We did it, I think. We really did it. Levi grabs my hand and pulls me into a hug and I hold on. So many words I want to say, but none of them will come. I just hope he can extract all those unspoken things from this hug, every thanks for so much more than just this amazing project.
“I’m not sure this seems balanced,” Nic says.
“I know,” Levi adds. “The two best skaters are over there.”
Nic groans. He’s right though; Travis and Devyn can skate.
“Of course, they do have Davey,” Levi says.
I rolled my eyes at him and flip him off.
“Do you even remember how to do this, Davis?” Levi quips as he skates back and forth in the net. I hear Nic chuckle.
I’m not on the ice nearly as often as everyone else currently out here is. But I think I still know how to get the job done—at least, I hope like hell I do. I skate backwards to the blueline, then do a circle around the pile of pucks. I eye Levi and pluck one off. I head toward him. Feeling possibly too cocky, I make a move, let the puck drift between my legs, reach back for it and fling it at Levi’s glove side with all the power I can muster. I don’t expect him to miss it, but I want him to feel that there is some juice on it.
Stupidly feeling the need to impress him. But more so to impress the man not on the ice.
“You tell me,” I say as I swung around the back of the net.
“Damn!”
“Second thoughts about having me on the opposing team?”
He laughs. “Puck still found my glove, not the net!”
“Well, this is kind of screwed up,” Devyn says as she skates over to join us.
“What, you have an extra man, well Davey,” Levi says again.
“Keep it up there, asshole,” I laugh at him and smack his pads with my stick. “Were you this mouthy when you played?”
“Nope, this is all inspired by you,” he laughs, and I shake my head at him again enjoying the jousting and fun that only happens on the ice.
“Fuck you, Holt.”
“Not today, sweetie.”
Devyn laughs too. “I just mean every damn one of us is a defenseman—person.”
We glance around at each other and laugh. She’s right. Aside from Levi and Ilya, of course. Myself, Brady, Nic, Travis and Devyn all played, or play, defense.
Carter dashes out the door and across the street to rally some forwards. He soon reappears with essentially the entire team, including head coach Logan Kessler, to watch and join in on the fun as desired.
“TJ, if you even touch those skates in your bag, you aren’t traveling for two more weeks,” Brady bellows from across the ice. I glance at TJ who drops his bag with a loud thud. His bruised kneecap is healing slowly, but it is healing and taking a risk of it getting hit again isn’t worth it. These goof off sessions are sometimes primed for something stupid to happen.
While we wait for others to join us on the ice, Devyn and Travis start tossing the puck back and forth in the air. They finally let it hit the ice and race out of the other zone side-by-side.
Well, shit, here we go. They do a give-and-go, then switch sides. Travis dishes the puck over to Devyn with the velocity of one of his wrist shots just as Nic reaches him to defend Levi. She corrals it easily. Holy shit. So mesmerized watching her skate with Travis, I completely forget about Brady heading towards her. She hits the brakes hard and pivots, leaving Brady’s huge body still heading in the other direction. She now has a clear path to Levi.
Devyn slows way down, making multiple stick taps along the puck. She patiently waits for Levi to commit and when he finally does, she backhands the puck through the smallest of openings over his blocker as she glides across the crease. Travis howls and scoops her up into a hug.
Levi fishes the puck out of the net as Brady skates to him.
