Page 9 of Beach Bats

Luka laughed as he walked off to join his partner. “We’ll discuss terms later.”

“Whatcha talking about?” Nix asked while nearly strangled Evan.

“Why are you climbing me?” Evan questioned instead of answering.

“I missed you!” Nix placed a sloppy kiss on Evan’s cheek.

“I’ve literally been by your side the entire time,” Evan reminded him.

“I still missed you.”

“Okay, brat, how about we watch the last minute together?”

“I can’t believe that Aries is going to win the Iron Cup his rookie year,” Nix complained. “He’s going to be impossible to live with.”

Evan snorted, knowing that if it was their team, Nix would be just as much of a pain in the ass.

“One more minute,” Cherry, the triplet’s mom, said clutching her husband’s hand.

Seeing the triplets’ parents there to support their son made Evan’s heart ache for what he’d long been missing from his own life. At least he’d been reconnecting with his cousin. Family. Evan had missed having that. Nix had given him so much more than Evan could have imagined. Not only was Nix his partner, teammate, and boyfriend but also shared his love for life and family. Everything that Evan had convinced himself that he hadn’t wanted. Yet was exactly what he’d needed.

Having Nix join his team this season had changed Evan’s entire life.

Evan wouldn’t have it any other way.

With Nix’s arms and legs around Evan, where he was basically wearing him like a backpack, they all gathered close for the final puck drop. By this point Dallas knew that they had lost and the pushing and shoving on ice was taking center stage.

“Come on,” Gem murmured. “Get the game started before another fight breaks out.”

Evan agreed as Aries smiled so wide that happiness radiated from him to the point that even up in the suite they could clearly see the pure joy he was feeling. And that was pissing the Dallas players off.

The Dallas captain bumped into Aries as they faced each other.

Aries said something while shaking his head. At least he appeared to be keeping his cool. Aries wasn’t a fighter, yet there had been times during the season that he’d had to fight back. Which always led to Vin and the rest of the guys on the team going ballistic on their opponents.

The ref dropped the puck.

Aries went for it but before Evan could see what had happened, Aries was on his back with the Dallas captain over him.

Vin roared knocking the captain off Aries then jumped on top of the Dallas player.

The crowd went fucking wild.

Evan had to grab Nix’s waist when his boy nearly threw himself over the railing of their suite. Shit! Nix was actually trying to get down to the ice while he cursed and fumed.

Luka was holding Gem from behind as Gem gripped the railing with white knuckles and yelled.

“Stop! Stop!” Evan shouted in Nix’s ear as his boy fought against his hold.

“Why isn’t he getting up?” Nix screamed.

Evan knew what was happening. While the bigger teammates were fighting with Dallas, Aries was still on the ice protecting his head in case the fighting got closer to him. It was smart of the little shifter and probably something that Vin had demanded of the boy.

Once the players on the ice were separated and penalties assessed, it left Vin in the sin bin for Vegas and two players for Dallas, including the captain who’d targeted Aries.

The teams were once again facing off on center ice.

Robbs skated by and smacked Aries with his stick, probably letting the smaller shifter know that he had Aries’s back. Everyone knew that Vin wasn’t on the ice with Aries, it fell to Robbs to step up and protect the rookie.