Page 104 of Slapshot Bride

My heart aches, my legs suddenly feeling weak, but I manage to stay still and sit, eyes locked on him.

He gets up.

He shakes his head like a wet dog. He looks at the ref. He doesn't chirp. He skates to the bench. He's fine. He's more than fine. He's annoyed, which apparently, on Easton, is the tell that he's about to score, because when he comes back out ninety seconds later, he takes a pass from Kai at the top of the circles and puts it top-shelf before I have even lifted the camera.

The arena erupts.

Quinn is on her feet, screaming. I'm on my feet without knowing when I stood. My camera is at my hip. The lights flash. The horn goes. On the ice, the players are around Easton, cheering.

He looks up at the family section.

He finds me.

Across the ice and the glass and the lights, with a helmet on and a mouthguard in and eight thousand people around him, he finds me.

He points at me once.

The section erupts louder than the crowd. Quinn is laughing and screaming at the same time. Emma, who has now crossed to my arms, throws her hands in the air.

“Riley…”

That makes me laugh, and I realize tears are streaming down my face.

Quinn looks at me, and understanding dawns on her. She doesn't comment. She hands me a napkin from the nacho tray.

“He always does that when he scores?”

“Never. That is the first time in three seasons.”

I look at the napkin.

We win 4-2.

By the time the game ends and the family section is filing out, I have shot two hundred and something photographs that will be edited and posted to my social media pages.

Quinn walks me to the tunnel Easton told me to wait at, hugs me at the door, and says, “Coffee next week. I’m still around for a week or two. I will pick you up, too. Bills on me?” She flashes her brows.

“Sure. Would love that.”

“Great. Text me tomorrow.” She takes my phone from me and quickly saves her number, and shoots herself a quick text. “There.”

She hugs me, I hug Emma, and we say our goodbyes, and she’s gone.

I stand in the corridor. The players are still coming off.

Wyatt goes past first, wet with a champagne bottle already open, and yells “RILEY BROOKS,” and I don’t know how he knows my last name, but I don't have time to ask because he's already gone.

Kai claps me on the shoulder as he goes past.

Theo grins. “Thanks for showing up for us. And for entertaining Emma. She’s officially obsessed with you, by the way. She even got you a gift.” He laughs and walks past.

Then Easton.

Hair wet from a shower. Suit jacket over his shoulder. Loose tie.

He doesn’t touch me for exactly one second because he's looking at me.

Then he does. He wraps his arms around me and lifts me from the floor to spin me around. I giggle.