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We were going to the Western Conference Final.

My arms went up almost without conscious thought, and whatever came out of my mouth was lost beneath twenty thousand people screaming at once.

“ASH THORNE!” Dave shouted. “ASH THORNE HAS WON GAME SEVEN FOR COLORADO!”

Jack was yelling something too, but I never heard what because the Colorado bench emptied.

Dante might have reached me first, although Baelor would argue about that later, and within seconds I was buried beneath enough bodies that I couldn’t tell which direction the net was anymore. Someone grabbed my helmet, somebody else wrapped both arms around my waist, and Taz arrived from the bench at a speed no goalie wearing that much equipment had any business achieving.

“You fucking did it!”

I laughed as he nearly knocked me off my skates. “I noticed.”

“You’re welcome.”

“For what?”

“For saving your ass four minutes into overtime.”

“You’re claiming my goal now?”

“I kept you in the game long enough to score it.”

“Get off me.”

He was still laughing when somebody caught the back of my jersey and pulled me out of the chaos.

I knew who it was before I turned around.

Max’s helmet was gone, and I had no idea when I’d lost mine, but suddenly none of that mattered because he was standing in front of me with an expression I didn’t think I’d ever seen on his face before.

There was pride in it.

Relief.

Love.

So much love that it hurt to look at him.

“You trusted me,” I said, although the words barely made it past my throat.

His hands closed around my arms.

“Always.”

That one word nearly finished me.

There were cameras everywhere, and I knew exactly what they were recording. The Jumbotron was above us, the arena was full, and millions of people had just watched me take the biggest shot of my career.

Once, that knowledge would have terrified me.

Max looked at me for half a second longer, giving me more than enough time to understand what he was about to do.

Then he kissed me.

His mouth came down on mine while the crowd somehow found another level of noise, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t have a single instinct telling me to pull away.

I caught him around the back of the neck and kissed him back.