darkness. No matter how clichéd and silly that sounded, it was the truth. All he needed was Kacey by his side, and he could conquer anything.
“Okay,” he whispered, his lips brushing against hers. “Then, thank you.”
She smiled as she nodded. “That’s better, and anytime, Jordie. I love you. The thing is, I never thought when I met you that you’d be this important to me, but you are. And I can guarantee you, you aren’t going anywhere without a fight. You’re in this for life.”
His grin spread across his face as his hand slid up her thigh and onto her stomach. “I think this is proof of that,” he teased and she smiled. “But Kacey, really, when I met you all those years ago back in Karson’s dorm, I didn’t know you’d be the best thing that ever happened to me.”
His life had completely altered because of her, and he wouldn’t change that for anything. He loved the man he was now—yeah, he felt down right now, but looking into her eyes, he knew that she’d help lift him back up. When her mouth turned up, his hands wrapped around her, pulling her even closer as their mouths met. As he kissed his woman, he realized that when he got his second chance with her, all he’d wanted was her love, but what he got was so much more.
A life worth living.
Leaning against the boards, Jordie watched as the puck sailed across the ice from Shea to Jayden before he threw it up to a waiting Baylor. The defense was on her though, blocking her pass, but they didn’t get far before Shea was blasting it past them all to the goalie. The Canucks’ goalie batted it away though, their defense grabbing it as the Assassins did a line change. Jordie should have been paying attention, but it was hard.
Because the seat across the rink that was for his mom was empty.
Phil sat there, in his whole Assassins getup, but his mom wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Not that he was looking for her, per se, but the little boy in him thought she’d still come to see him play. He figured he was getting what he asked for and he should be happy, yet it hurt. Why did he care? She didn’t add to his life, so she needed to be out of it, like Benji had said. He needed to let this go.
Especially when Coach smacked his back to go.
Going over the boards, he hauled ass across the ice to catch the puck from Karson after he skated around the net. Carrying the puck up the ice, he watched as his forwards got into position, and when he sent the puck up to Phillip, he waited at the blue line for a shot as the boys kept shooting at the goalie. He wasn’t letting anything in though. Glancing up at the clock, Jordie saw they only had two minutes before the game was over, and they were down by one.
Erik sent the puck back to Karson, and he sailed it over to Jordie without even looking at him, which he expected. Taking it, he shot, hard, but it went wide, coming around to Karson. Instead of shooting it though, he sent it back and Jordie shot again, and this time it went right over the goalie’s leg pad. Throwing his arms up, he pumped them in the air as Karson rushed to him, hugging him tightly.
“That’s fucking right!” Karson yelled as the other guys came up, hugging him too.
“Let’s win this!” Erik yelled, and everyone agreed as they skated toward the bench to smack hands with the rest of the team. As Jordie sat down, reaching for his Gatorade, he squirted it in his mouth, the adrenaline of scoring rushing through his body. He knew Kacey had to have seen it, but she was up in the boxes and it was hard to see up there sometimes. He still looked though, and as he expected, she was hopping up and down. He wanted to holler at her to sit down, but she looked so happy, her arms wrapped around Karl, whose face was bright too.
They were his family.
Squirting more in his mouth, he willed his eyes not to cut across the ice, but they did, and to his surprise, his mom was sitting there. On her phone as Phil stood, still clapping along with the rest of the fans. Looking away, he swallowed hard and shook his head.