She rolled her eyes. “Of course they do. Can’t hurt their precious little champ egos.”

The announcer asked the spectators to stand for the national anthem, and a little girl no more than eight years old belted outThe Star Spangled Bannerlike she’d been born to sing it. When she’d finished, someone dressed as the giant raccoon from the team’s logo riled up the crowd, and Austin’s leg bounced as the clock ticked down to the opening face-off.

Claudia patted his thigh. “You know this is pre-season, sí? Not game seven of the Stanley Cup finals.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “I do not know what has gotten into me. I am not normally nervous before a game.”

She snickered. “If you are, you hide it well.” She blushed at his side eye. “What can I say? I follow the game. You don’t look so tall on TV though.”

He laughed again, some of the knotted tension in his muscles dissolving. He caressed the soft velvet in his pocket, knowing precisely why he was so nervous, he simply did not want to share with a stranger.

“I think the best we can hope for is a clean game.”

She wasn’t wrong. Austin had seen those looks on the Snow Pirate’s faces before. Determined. Ambitious. Resolved. He wondered if Linc and the others had told the rest of the team about the wager, or if he was just going to let them do their thing and see where the chips fell.

Claudia sucked in an audible breath as the referee skated between the two centers staring each other down on the ice. She blessed herself and muttered something in Spanish he didn’t quite catch before leaning forward, resting her elbows on her thighs, and throwing him a wink. “Here we go!”