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“Thanks,” Jude says then, but I don’t look at him as I cut up my steak and drench it in mustard. “So I have to ask, Baylor, where did you learn to play the way you do?”
I look up, ignoring Jayden to look at his brother. “My dad taught me. He played for the Bruins, won the Cup, and then when I was born, he quit.”
“Why?” Jace asks incredulously.
“Because he loved me more than the game.”
“Wow,” he says with his face scrunched up. “I’m not quitting for anyone.”
“You say that now,” Jude says with a shake of his head.
“No, I mean that. Hockey is everything.”
“Agreed,” I say with a shrug.
When Jayden scoffs, I look over at him and I say, “What?”
“You don’t mean that.”
Everyone goes silent as my eyes cut to slits. “How do you know?”
“Because there is no way that you can feel that when your dad made the ultimate sacrifice,” he says so matter-of-factly.
“Sure I can, because I want to repay him by being the best I can,” I say back, but he shakes his head.
“How is thinking hockey is everything, and not quitting if needed for love, going to repay him?”
Leaning on my elbow, I glare at him. “Because when I go into the NHL and I bring home the Cup, my dad will know his sacrifice was worth it,” I say more sharply than needed, but I don’t like that he thinks he knows me.
When Jude and Jace start laughing, I fully expect Jayden to join in—this is the reaction I always get—but his gaze is locked on mine.
“The NHL? The National Hockey League that only men play for? Don’t you mean the wo
men’s league?” Jace asks, but I shake my head as I look over at him.
“No, I will be the first woman in the NHL,” I said confidently.
I watch as Delanie covers her face while Mandie rolls her eyes. Even they don’t believe that I can do it. Jude and Jace obviously think it is the funniest thing they’ve ever heard.
“What!?” Jace laughs. “Really? You think so?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Jude asks but then stops laughing when I look down. But I refuse to allow myself to be embarrassed. I know I can do it. “You’re not kidding.”
“No, I’m not,” I say simply.
“And why should she think differently?” Jayden says then, bringing all the attention to him. I look up, but he isn’t looking at me, but at Jace. “She’s the only girl I’ve ever seen who could actually pull it off.”
No one says anything, and when his gaze falls to mine, he nods. “I don’t doubt a bit that you’ll make it.”
Before I can say anything, Jace laughs. “Dude, I’ve never seen you work this hard to get laid.”
“Shut up, Jace,” Jude and Jayden say then, and I can’t believe I almost believed him. That I almost thought he was being true.
“You don’t have to mock me, I don’t need your approval,” I say then, and Delanie lets her head fall back, groaning.
Looking over at me from where he was glaring at Jace, he says, “I wasn’t mocking you, and I apologize that my brother is a fucking idiot. I am speaking the truth. Believe me or don’t, but I believe in you.”
No one says anything as the air thickens with tension. For some reason, I want to believe him, but it’s so hard.
