I still can’t believe the way they stood up for me.
“Sure thing, dude. We’ve always got your back,” Nick says. Leo and Travis nod along.
They head off to the diner. Briar and I walk into the house together. She leads me by the hand to the kitchen, where I see a giant take-out bag.
“What’s that?” I ask.
She beams. “Steak ranchero burritos. Your favorite.”
She dumps out the bag. My eyes go wide at the mountain of burritos that fall out.
“I ordered ten of them,” she says. “I wanted to surprise you with something you love in case the meeting with your coach didn’t go well.”
I grin so hard my cheeks ache.
I step over to her, grab her by the waist, and pull her against me. I kiss her, teasing her sweet little mouth open and lapping at her tongue.
She lets out a soft moan and tugs her fingers through my hair. A low groan rips from my throat.
“You’re the thing that I love, Briar.”
Her green eyes sparkle.
“The burritos are a nice bonus though, not gonna lie.”
I grab her and set her on the counter. Then I grab one of the burritos, open it, and take a bite.
“You should call your parents and tell them the good news,” she says.
“Later. I wanna have lunch with my girlfriend first.”
That heart-stopping smile flashes across her beautiful face. I offer her the burrito.
“I can’t wait to watch you play at your next game,” she says around a mouthful of steak.
“I can’t either. Especially now that I get to play our game too.”
It takes a second before the recognition flashes in her eyes. She bites her lip. “You want to keep playing that?”
“Yeah. Knowing that I get to come home and give you an orgasm for each goal I score makes me work ten times harder on the ice. Best motivation ever.”
Her head falls back as she laughs.
Then she grabs my face and kisses me. “You’re too much.”
“Yeah, but you love me.”
Her eyes sparkle again. “I really, really do.”
* * *
I stretch out on the ice during warmups, right before our game.
I smile to myself when I see a few people in the crowd wearing scary masks—like the one I wear on my secret social media account.
It’s been a week since the news about that broke on sports news. Coach Tremblay was right. The news cycle moves fast, and the excitement around my secret account has died down a lot.
I haven’t addressed the issue publicly, and I don’t plan to. I don’t want to make a spectacle of things. I want my main focus to be hockey, and I still want to post on that account. My plan is to keep those two things separate, like I always have. Fine if people want to speculate about it, but I’m not going to be the one to bring it up.
