Page 41 of Icing on Top

I pursed my lips, my thumb picking at the rubber of my phone case. “Maybe. I mean… she’ll be busy with morning practice and the game, so it’d just be a short meet up, right?”

We both knew I wasn’t really asking her. I was just trying to logic it out with myself and find a way to lessen the guilt of dropping one of my closest friends while also protecting my own mental health. I’d never recover completely from my accident, but I didn’t need to purposefully cause myself to regress. A shiver slid down my spine at the mere idea of falling back into that darkness.

My phone buzzed again, and my heart rate spiked as I glanced down to read the new text.

And then there it was; a small, but strong light guiding me away from the dark shadows creeping around my ankles.

“Jeremiah?” Jada guessed.

I didn’t even look at her. The corner of my lips curving up just a touch was more than enough of an answer for her.

She wrapped her arm around me and gave me a small, affectionate squeeze. “He looks good on you, Zo,” she murmured. My cheeks flushed. “Keep him.”

Excusing myself, I went to the office for some privacy while Jada returned to the cookies.

The dial tone made me feel like I was back in middle school calling my crush on the landline. Now I was a thirty-two-year-old woman calling her crush and still feeling just as ridiculously giddy about it. Thankfully, it only rang a handful of times before Miah answered, and then his warm, deep voice had me melting back against Jada’s desk.

“Hey.” The smile was clear in his voice, and I could perfectly picture that crooked grin of his.

“Hi.”

“So what’s this solution of yours? I’d really like to stop getting side eyes from my daughter if at all possible.”

“How would she feel about going to the Minnesota Vortex game when they play here in Denver next month?”

Going by myself to the game was unfathomable. It’d be an absolute miracle if I even made it into the arena. However, the arduous task of facing my demons head-on seemed a bit more manageable with Miah and Charlie by my side.

“She would lose her mind. It’s her dream to see a PWHL game in person, but we’ve never been able to make it to one.”

This was definitely happening, then. I would never allow myself to disappoint Charlie, even if it meant making a sacrifice of my own. Hopefully her excitement would be a distraction from my feelings of grief and jealousy.

“I’ll ask for three tickets, then.”

“She already loves you so much. After this you’re going to be a goddamn superhero to her.”

My cheeks flushed, and I was glad he wasn’t there to see how pink I’d turned.

I tried to laugh off the compliment. “It’s just a game.”

He could have easily argued, but instead he simply responded with, “If you say so.”

He was right, though. It wasn’t just a game. Not for Charlie. And especially not for me.

Chapter 17

Zoe

I blinked repeatedly as if that would change what I was seeing on Miah’s laptop screen. There was no way those numbers could be correct. There had to be a glitch in the form. Somehow, we’d had twenty-eight women sign up for the women’s rec league in just the one week we’d had the form up on the rink’s website.

“Damn. I knew there were female hockey players in the area, but I didn’t realize there were that many.”

Miah shook his head, just as shocked as I was. “I’ve gotten countless emails personally thanking us for starting the league.”

It was impossible to feel anything but proud. We had done this. We had provided female athletes with an opportunity to play with and compete against other wo-men. No gender rules, just good ol’ hockey, as it should be. What we had done probably wouldn’t fully hit me until I saw them all out on the ice.

“Okay, so what’s next then?” I asked, even more eager to get to work.

League logistics was where I was out of my element, though. That was all Miah.