I tried to be the bigger person here. “It’s Stephanie, right? Did uhh…you and Benny make up?”
“I guess,” she snapped.
Okkayyy.
“Stephanie,” Brianna warned.
Stephanie cut her eyes to me. “Is your marriage even real?”
I arched an eyebrow at her. “Excuse me?”
“You know what I mean. Riley’s the biggest whore on the team. Do you honestly expect him to not cheat when he’s on the road?”
It was something I had been wondering about, but I wasn’t about to admit that to this woman who clearly was taking her issues with her own relationship out on me. Riley might sleep around a lot, and that was totally fine, but I knew how he felt about cheating after what happened with his own parents. We never discussed if this marriage meant we would only sleep with each other. Did he assume I was okay with him hooking up with other women? Fuck, we should have talked about that the day after the wedding when I asked him to divorce me.
I dug my nails into the palm of my skin in a fist and tried to bite my tongue. I didn’t need to be that woman who caused issues.
“Stephanie, that’s enough,” Brianna snapped. She gave me a small, sympathetic smile.
I took that as my leave. “I’m going to get a beer. Anyone want anything?”
“I’ll come with you,” offered the young Black girl with long braids who was sitting on my other side. I thought her name was Lacey. We walked to the concessions. “Sorry about Stephanie; she really doesn’t like Riley,” she told me.
“Right.”
She gave me a small smile. “Riley’s a great guy. I think the other girls slut-shame him because he’s kind of into casual hookups. Not that—shit, am I making it worse?”
I laughed as I took my beer from the cashier and handed him my money. “Slightly, but I know all of Riley’s history. We’re best friends. I had him first, so suck it bitches!”
She laughed. “Really? And now you’re married! That’s so cute. You must have been the one that got away.”
I shrugged.
Was I?
We walked back to our seats as the puck was about to drop. Stephanie was now talking to another one of the younger blonde girls; Mia, I think her name was. She seemed nice, so I think she was just trying to let the other woman vent.
We watched Girard take the first face-off at center ice and groaned together when the puck got turned over to the other team. But the Bulldogs goaltender Metzy showed them the leather and issued the stoppage of play.
Lacey cheered. “Yeah, baby, that’s how you do it!”
I smiled at her and sipped my beer. “Yours?” I asked.
She nodded. “How could you tell?”
“Just a feeling.”
We watched Noah Kennedy take the face-off with TJ and Hallsy on his wings. Riley was on the ice with his defensive partner Jonesy lined up next to him. A smile formed across my lips because I knew Riley was sizing up his opponent and trash-talking him. He could be a bit of a chirper, but I thought it was all a part of his strategy to make the other d-man mess up.
“Seamus was born for this job,” Lacey said next to me. “He’s homegrown, practically grew up in this arena too. I was so stoked when they called him up from the farm team.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked, genuinely curious.
I was a Tundra fan because, duh, Minnesota. But I loved hockey, so I was always interested in how the Philly team was doing. Now that I was married to one of their defensemen, I was more invested. Seamus Metz was the latest goaltender to be between the pipes for the team this season. Make that the eighth in rotation. It was not a good look for the team. It hadn’t been a great season, but this young kid was good.
She beamed. “He’s a hometown boy, so the fans love him.”
“I bet.”
The next question died on my lips because I watched Noah dive onto the ice to cover the crease and then get hit in the face with the puck. What was the big center doing blocking shots? That was Riley and Jonesy’s jobs!
“Fuck! He better not have a concussion!” I yelled.
“That was bad!” Lacey agreed.
We shared a look of concern.
“Dinah’s gotta be going out of her mind,” she muttered.
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“Oh, Noah’s new girlfriend. I heard you’re a writer, so you might know her. Dinah Lace.”
“Oh! I think we have the same publisher. Petite, dark-hair?”
Lacey nodded. “Yup, that’s D.”
I chewed on my lip until the recognition dawned on me. She wrote cute YA romances about hockey. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’ve met before. Noah’s a bit younger than her, huh?”
Lacey nodded. “Even before those two got together, she always worried about Noah. I’m not sure why she’s not here today.” The younger girl had a guilty look on her face. “I may have actually scared her off.”
“How so?” I asked.
She grimaced. “I don’t think she knew that Noah was already in love with her, and I might have spilled the beans on that.”
I cringed but squeezed her hand in support. I hadn’t met Noah yet, but Riley had kind of mentioned something similar to me. He even told me he had goaded the kid into asking her out by telling him if Noah didn’t, he would. Riley was just trying to push him, though; he wasn’t interested in Dinah.
The play was still stopped on the ice, so I turned my attention back to what was going on in front of us. It was scary when a player got injured. Especially when they weren’t getting up off the ice. You never wanted to see a guy get hurt, even if you hated his guts.
TJ Desjardins and the team doctor were trying to get the kid up. Eventually, his six-foot-two frame lifted off the ice, and the doctor held a towel
