He winces again. “It’s really only because I don’t know them, angel.”
“Lex.” I take his hand and wait for him to look at me. “I really understand.”
His green eyes soften, then brighten with an idea.
“What if you come down with me later? When we go to the arena?”
“Another thing I didn’t know we were doing,” I say, but this time teasingly. “I think it could be a great way to gauge their reaction to me. I’m gonna put bright red glitter on my eyes tonight.”
“I ordereddrinks and food so we can eat dinner here,” Dad says as he surveys the suite he got for... the whole season apparently.
I love him for that, for how instant and unshakable his support of Lex is.
“Is there anything green?” Lyla asks, clearly only acting exasperated.
“There are jalapeños on the nachos, Lyla,” Ruko points out.
I hide my snort well, Lex does not.
“I should actually eat something healthy too, since I’m not training.” Lex looks around at the buffet of typical arena foods—nachos, hot dogs, burgers, and fries.
Ruko waves that off. “It’ll do you good to fatten up for the playoffs.”
Lex smiles indulgently at his dad, and this time I’m not lost, because since my deep dive into all things hockey I understand what no one is saying but everyone is thinking—it’s very unlikely that the Demons will make it to the playoffs.
They’re ranked in the lower end of their division, and are definitely not in contention for a wild card at the moment. If Lex does come back to play at the start of February, he’d have to put on a legendary, record-breaking two months to get them there...
But he shouldn’t have that on his shoulders, so I’ll never say it. The other guys on the team are also professional hockey players, they should be able to pull their weight.
Though clearly they need some different type of motivation or... training, maybe.
If the universe is on their side, then a few teams in their division could start sucking majorly too... that would help for sure.
“When is Ally flying in again?” Lex asks Ruko. He told us earlier she’s coming to appear on a late night show on Friday.
“Thursday, mid-morning.” And damn if Ruko doesn’t smile like a schoolboy with a crush. I never thought I’d want to coo at him, but thankfully Lyla does it for me—I don’t know how any of us would react to me doing it.
“And she’s staying for the weekend, right? So, you too?”
As far as I know, Ruko doesn’t have a specific date for flying back to LA, but with the way Lex is biting his bottom lip nervously, his eyes jumping from his dad to the wall then back again, it’s obvious he wants him to stay longer.
“Yeah.” Ruko claps him on the shoulder. “I’m staying until someone kicks me out, and she has to fly back Saturday to get back to set.”
“Okay, awesome, so?—”
Lex stops when a knock sounds behind us and we all turn in unison to find a sheepish Tucker.
“Hey,” he says and waves awkwardly.
“Tucker, so nice to see you,” Lyla says and walks right over to hug him. Then we all follow her lead and pointedly ignore how hard Tucker tries not to fanboy over Ruko.
That more than anything seems to put Lex at ease.
Tuck is just another hockey-loving guy, and yeah, they haven’t really seen each other since they were sixteen, but they did play together for two years.
“Wanna head down?” he asks Lex after he’s done telling Ruko what a big fan he is. I’m actually pretty sure Tuck has met Ruko multiple times before today, but maybe he’s trying to be extra nice now that Lex is playing for the Demons?
“Sure, can Eli come too?”
