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“Cheers to first place!” X shouted.

Everyone looked at him.

French’s sister stood beside him, pretty and healthy, despite the trauma she’d gone through.

French patted X on the shoulder. “We came in last, buddy.”

“That’s just first at the other end!”

Lynx grinned. “You know what? We had a hell of a year. So much so, this end-of-season celebration could almost double as a preseason celebration. But even though we’re months late, I appreciate you all coming down here to do what we should have done months ago. And that’s celebrating all of you. The fact we even made it to the end of last season at all is a miracle. So yeah. Cheers to first at the other end!”

Even the players chuckled at that.

They were all good sports.

Lynx cleared his throat though. “We know our personal stuff got in the way this year. And that wasn’t fair to any of you. You were lumped with an inexperienced coach, one who wanted to play more than I ever wanted to coach, and an owner who didn’t even know one end of a hockey stick from the other.”

Luca grumbled something about that, but we all knew it was true.

“Things will be different next season. We’ll be making changes, but what won’t change is all of you. You are what made this team great this season, even if that wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard. You were the guys who showed up every practice and trained yourselves, even when Luca and I couldn’t.” He shifted James on his hip. His little black, white, and purple Vipers jersey hugged his chubby baby belly, and Lynx stroked a hand over James’s hair. “You guys had our backs, even when we didn’t have yours, and we’re grateful for it. So raise your glasses again, to the players, to their families, and to coming back better and stronger than ever.”

“Cheers to actually scoring some points next season,” French said with a laugh.

“I’ll toast to that because I’d love to not have French cussing us out every game,” one of the other guys said, his tone full of affection. “I don’t think anyone has ever cared about winning as much as you do, French.”

He made no apologies for it. “I want to be a champion. So sue me.”

Lynx nodded at him. “We’ll do more of that next season. I don’t know how, or what that’ll look like yet, but we’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen.”

That was met with more cheers.

Lynx waved his hand. “We do have one award to give out. One that the League only told us about a couple of weeks ago, but we wanted to wait until today when we were all together to let him know.”

The guys all turned to French. He was by far their best player. He stood out instantly, with the way he could weave around his teammates and opponents. He was faster, had more control, and if anyone was going to get an award, the entire room knew it would be him.

He dropped his gaze to the floor, his cheeks going pink with the attention.

Lynx cleared his throat, drawing the focus back to him. “So, everyone, give it up for X, taking out the award for the League’s Mascot of the Year.”

I hid my laughter as X’s mouth dropped open and his screech of excitement ripped through the room. “It was the backflip that got their attention, wasn’t it?”

Lynx handed over the little trophy with X’s legal name printed in small letters. “If that’s what you want to call it, sure.” But he hugged X and told him he’d done a good job.

And he was right. X had been the highlight of the season, and he deserved every award for making people smile. It was a superpower I wasn’t even sure he knew he had, but everyone around him did.

Violet smiled proudly at him, leaning in to kiss his cheek when he returned to where he’d been standing, now with his trophy clutched proudly in his hands.

He was so cute. He was just an overgrown puppy most of the time.

With the formal speech and presentation part of the evening over, a party kicked off. Luca had spared no expense, and food and drinks and music flowed.

All while I kept a little secret I wasn’t sure how the guys were going to take.

I’d tried to herd the three of them together earlier in the day, but with party preparation, and me busy at Virginia’s Place, it had been impossible. And it was really important to me that they were all there.

I found Lynx in the center of the dance floor and dragged him off it. Dax was at the food table, and he grabbed a sushi roll before I herded him along with us. I caught Luca’s eye from across the room, which wasn’t difficult because it was never long before he looked in my direction. He held James on his lap while he talked to French, but at my head jerk, indicating he should meet us outside, he stood to follow.

We burst out into the night air. Summer was in full swing, and the warm air danced across my bare arms and legs, the breeze at my back, pushing me along like it wanted this secret revealed as much as I did.