Page 79 of Broken As Puck

“Ignore what that reporter Rebecca Jansen claimed in the paper. You’ve done amazing work with the team this season,” Jane said from where she sat beside me in the stands at the Chaos’s first home playoff game. “Just look at this turnout.”

I gazed around the stadium. It was packed from floor to ceiling with hockey fans, many of them clad in the royal blue of the Chaos. “I can’t take credit for all this. A lot of it is the players, and they would have had a reasonable amount of support regardless, considering how far they’ve come.”

“But you’ve been an important part of it,” Jane insisted, watching the uniformed figure of her fiancé pass the puck to Jesse during a training drill. The game would begin soon, and I was eager for it to get started.

“Jansen was right in that there are still weak links,” I admitted, scowling at Delacrue, who was making a show of stretching in a very explicit way. Ever since his confrontation with Gadot, he’d been relegated to the edge of the team. Few people engaged with him unless they had to. I was pretty sure that even if management didn’t proactively trade him, he’d be requesting a change. No one wanted to be kept on the outskirts like that.

Fortunately, though, he had kept his mouth shut. Another thing I had to give Matt credit for. If we’d taken my approach to handling Delacrue’s potential PR disaster, I couldn’t imagine he would’ve reacted anywhere near as calmly. After all, public condemnation was a bitter pill to swallow.

“There’s this sense of anticipation in the air.” Jane opened her handbag and pulled out a packet of Oreos. “For the first time in ages, the players and the fans believe there’s a chance the team might do well. You weren’t around for the Coach Daniels and Captain Taggert era, so you can’t understand how oppressive it was. The whole vibe of the place is different.”

“I’m glad.”

Matt had told me a bit about how things were before Joseph Trent bought the team, and I was so relieved he was out of that toxic environment. As someone who’d badly wanted to befriend everyone at college, I couldn’t imagine how difficult it must have been for him to be part of a divided team.

I watched him get between Fox and the goal and smiled when he stole the puck and sent it zinging away. My heart filled. Things hadn’t been quite right between us since I’d asked him to wait until the end of the season before going public with our relationship, but we were still good together, and I knew that in a matter of weeks, any work-related problems would fall away.

Unless the Chaos renewed my contract.

No one had mentioned the possibility, but it was lingering in the back of my mind. If they thought I’d achieved as much as I could, they’d let me go, but if they were interested in making further progress—which might be necessary if the commissioner didn’t lift probation—it was possible they’d keep me on for longer.

But would I agree? Them offering didn’t mean I had to say yes. The problem was that this was exactly the type of job I wanted, and if Matt weren’t on the team, then there wouldn’t even be a question of turning them down if they asked me to stay.

On the ice, Austin skated over to the barrier and blew a kiss to Jane. She lifted up Frankie the fox, who was on her lap, and used the fox’s paw to wave.

My heart pitter-pattered. They were so easy and open with their affection for each other that I couldn’t help envying them. It was ridiculous, when I could have the same thing with Matt if I just said the word, but there were reasons I was holding back. Good ones. Like my career and my professional reputation, and maybe, a little bit, the need to protect my heart.

But then, Jane had had reasons not to date Austin too. He’d been her boss. Surely, that wasn’t appropriate, yet it had worked for them anyway, and no one seemed to mind. Well, other than the fans who’d hoped to secure Heartless Harris and his fantastic ass for themselves.

Maribel squished into the seat on my other side, wrestling her bag under the chair and trying to corral her children, who were busy demolishing a packet of M&M’s.

“I saw that,” she said, motioning at Jane. “You two are so cute.”

Her daughter threw an M&M and clapped gleefully.

“No, we don’t throw things,” Maribel said, taking the bag of M&M’s from her and handing it to her son, who was old enough to know better. She turned to me. “Matthews is cute too, with the way he follows you around like a puppy. When are you going to put that poor boy out of his misery and go out with him?”

I grimaced, my insides twisting with anxiety at the thought that we’d been so obvious that even someone who only saw us together rarely could pick up on the tension between us. “Maybe after the season ends.”

I could hardly say that we were already secretly dating. I felt bad for lying to her, but there was no avoiding it, and it wasn’t as if she was the first person we’d hidden our relationship from.

She stroked her daughter’s hair to soothe her as she stuck out her hand to ask for more M&M’s. “You should. A man who looks at you like that will treat you well. Trust me.” She waved to Taylor, who put his hand over his heart and then extended it toward her. “Schmoopy men are the best.”

I couldn’t disagree.

The game started and the Chaos were in amazing form. Both Harris and Kelly scored in the first period. Matt and Gauthier were an almost impenetrable barrier, and the other defensemen worked tightly together too.

As Matt tackled one of the opposing forwards, snagged the puck from him, and passed it to Gadot, my heart filled. God, he was incredible. Back in college, I used to get butterflies every time I watched him play, and now, in the stands, I felt like that young girl all over again.

That gorgeous, talented man was mine, if only I’d allow him to say so.

And maybe I would.

Maybe it was worth any difficulties with my job because I’d have him to come home to at the end of the day, whatever I was doing. He’d be there for me when things weren’t going so well or when I wanted to get up at 4 a.m. to hike to a waterfall at sunrise.

Jane offered me her packet of Oreos between the first and second period, and I took one and ate it without taking my eyes off the ice. The second started, and almost immediately, Young and Harris took off with the puck. Young passed to Harris, who passed back, and Young slipped it neatly between the goalie’s feet and over the line.

I jumped up and clapped. Holy crap, they were three up in a playoff game.