Page 82 of Mac Meyers Needs Me

She holds her fingers apart a fraction of an inch. “Just a little. See you in a few.”

I head down the hall to the locker room. As promised, my gear is waiting. I suit up and try not to get up in my head. I’m about to practice with the most legendary goalie the league has seen, plus two awesome enforcers from the Terror. The only thing that could beat the high of this is scoring a contract once I’ve graduated.

After I suit up, I return to the ice. Fee is sitting on the player bench with Lexi and Ariel.

I skate over to say hi. “It’s nice to see you again, Lexi.” I wave at Ariel, who is dressed in a frilly blue tutu, hot pink leggings and yellow sweater. She seems to be a big fan of bright colors. “How you doing, little princess?”

Ariel ducks her head against Lexi’s neck but smiles.

“I’ll join on the ice in a bit,” Lexi says.

“That sounds great. I super appreciate you being here.”

“Of course, coaching is my happy place, and I get to spend some quality time with my sister.” She side-hugs Fee.

The family resemblance is obvious when they’re next to each other, despite Lexi’s dark hair and slightly sharper features. It must have been so hard when they lost their mother and suddenly Lexi had to step into that role. As an only child, if something happened to my parents, I’d be on my own. At least they have each other to rely on.

I lean over the bench to kiss Fee’s cheek, then pull my helmet on and join the guys, who have set up ice drills. We spend the next two hours practicing. Lexi and Roman confer with each other regularly and switch out a few times so Lexi can give me pointers, too. It’s cool to see them work together, and the way they talk through things with Quinn and Connor makes me aware of the importance of team cohesion. They work through my problem areas, give me pointers on stick handling, and how to angle my body differently when I’m skating in the crease and passing.

Roman is incredible in net and rarely lets anything by. But I sneak a goal in the last fifteen minutes on the ice, and Quinn and Connor converge on me with back pats and praise.

“That was a kick-ass goal!” Quinn says.

“Forrest-Hammer will be pissed at himself for days for that one.” Connor winks.

“Beautiful shot, Meyers. You keep it up and you’ll be signing with a team once you graduate,” Roman calls out.

I’m in freaking heaven by the time we leave the ice. I try not to fanboy when we strip out of our gear in the locker room, but this is a bucket list dream. It’s a glimpse of what my future could look like if I keep my stats up this season.

Lexi and Fee are waiting for us in the lobby when we emerge. Ariel squirms out of Lexi’s arms and runs straight to Roman, who snatches her up and showers her with kisses.

“You guys up for dinner?” Roman asks.

“I can always eat,” Quinn says.

“Same,” Connor agrees.

“Me, three.”

Roman consults his phone. “Pancake House? Hollis, Peggy, and Callie can join us.”

“I love the Pancake House.” Fee hugs my arm. “They have the best all-day breakfasts.”

With the venue settled, we hop into our respective vehicles.

“Did you have fun out there?” Fee asks once we’re alone in the car.

“That was incredible, and I seriously want to kiss you, but I don’t want to end up in a body bag if Roman sees me trying to suck your soul out through your mouth.”

“You can suck my soul out through my clit when we get home,” she offers cheekily.

I groan and grip the steering wheel. “You can’t say shit like that, my dick can hear you and my mouth is already watering.”

Her smile grows impish and she whispers, “So’s my pussy.”

“You’re the devil.” I curve my hand around the back of her neck and pull her mouth to mine. After a few strokes of tongue, I pull back. “Best surprise ever, Ophelia.”

“Yeah?”