She grabs my jersey and shoves me out of the door with a stern look, but her laugh betrays her sternness. “Getoutof here.”
Her giggle carries me to the locker room, but when I disappear inside, I’m ready to go back to war and kill Montreal. My best friends are all staring at me, waiting with bated breath for me to address what just happened, but I shake my head and plop down on the seat in front of my cubby.
JD blows a raspberry. “Sooo …”
Flipping them off, I scoff. “Nope.”
Costy whines, “Big Mac, come on, dude. Give us something. We’re dying here.”
Their interest in my personal life is invasive, but I can’t help but chuckle at the amount of times I was in their shoes during their dating lives, before they were all basically paired off and married.
I glance around the locker room. No one else seems to be paying attention, and staff are likely in a different room, so I suppose I can give them a tiny crumb, maybe even let them in on the plan I have after the game.
“What do you want to know?” I sigh, leaning back and taking a drink of water from JD’s bottle beside me.
JD yanks it from my hand. “I get two questions for that, thief.” But then he hands it back to me and rubs his hands together like a cartoon villain. “How long have you two been … close?”
“Since she started.”
“You didn’t know her before?” Burnsy buts in. “You two just seem like you have history.”
Shaking my head, I respond, “Nope. We just clicked.”
“Trust me, I get it. Sometimes, you meet someone and you just know.” Costy grins, clearly reminiscing about his own relationship when he met Morgan—well, I guess she went by Nikki at the time since she was running from her psychotic ex.
“Yeah, shit, man.” I kick my foot out. “I didn’t see this coming.”
“You usually don’t,” Kos chimes in, handing me a water bottle of my own, and I nod my thanks. “So, what are you going to do? Can we help?”
Larinski ignores Kos, asking a question of his own. “Is she all right? She was pretty freaked out.”
I nod, the fear in her eyes flashing in my mind. “She’s good. Just needed a moment.”
It’s not my place to give details, and they know it, so I know they’re not going to push more about it.
“It’s probably fucking terrifying after what she’s been through. God, I can’t even imagine it.” Kos sighs in thought. “She’s a fucking beast, being back in an arena at all.”
“I know,” I murmur, my heart full of pride for her. “I, uhh …”
“What?” Burnsy gasps, hanging on to every word like a gossiping teenage girl.
Side-eyeing him, I can’t help but to giggle as I lean toward them and lower my voice. “I have a plan for tonight, after the game.”
Burnsy sucks in a breath, and I want to keel over from his reaction.
“I rented out her favorite restaurant in town. I found a few posts about it on her Instagram and thought I’d surprise her.”
“And she agreed to go?” JD smirks. “Hot and secretive. You dirty dogs.”
“I’m regretting telling you guys any of this,” I groan.
JD bumps my shoulder with his. “Nah, you love us.”
Unfortunately, they’re not wrong, and as annoying as they can be sometimes, they’re my goddamn family.
“She hasn’t agreed.”
“But you asked her?” Kos pushes, clearly sniffing out that I’m leaving certain details out of this.
