She’s clever with words like that. Anyway, Asswipf is Canadian, which means we’ve played against her a bunch of times internationally. She’s whiny, entitled, a dirty player out for her own glory and not what’s best for the team or the sport. Gabi had a chance for some payback tonight and she grabbed it with both hands.”
“I just hope she didn’t spill blood because of me,” Dani said quietly.
Mariah leaned across me. “Girl, that high stick you took from her at the Olympic games was some serious bullshit since the goddamned refs didn’t throw her sneaky ass in the sin bin for it.”
Ah. So Gabi was still looking out for her little sister.
“Gabi always has my back, even to her own detriment sometimes,” Dani said. She paused. “What’d you think of the interview?”
Christ. Gabi hadn’t told her sister about tomorrow’s interview, had she?
“Gabs was fucking eloquent. As always,” Mariah said.
“Wait. What interview?”
“The one Gabi did for Channel 9 Sports today,” Amy piped in. “It aired during the six o’clock broadcast. It’ll be interesting to see if they try and re-interview her since she ended up in a fight and what she’ll say about it.”
Dani laughed softly. “It’ll just be one long bleep.”
Now I was anxious to see that interview. “Ladies, if you’ll excuse me, I need to check on something.”
Both Lucy and my mother arched questioning brows at me as I exited the box again. I scrolled to the Channel 9 News website on my phone and pulled up the interview.
Holy hell. Gabi had nailed it. If her interview tomorrow went anything like this, she’d be golden.
Unless . . . they took the brawl on national TV into consideration. Then she might be screwed.
After I returned to the box, I had a restlessness the scotch hadn’t tamed. The last thing I wanted to do was sit through a hockey game. So I took Mimi off her mother’s hands and we shed our excess energy by running sprints down a deserted hallway. I didn’t do half-bad for wearing my office clothes and competing against a nine-year-old.
My niece kept me occupied through the break between periods one and two. The second period had just started when the players from Jax’s Western Conference team poured into the skybox.
My tongue nearly did a cartoonish flop out of my mouth upon seeing Gabi in the classy, sexy outfit she’d worn for the Channel 9 interview. She looked hot as hell.
But more importantly, the manic look I’d witnessed in the locker room had calmed.
Good.
After she’d filled a plate with food, she turned, and her gaze connected with mine.
Locked on mine.
Neither of us looked away.
The woman was something.
I stood and started toward her.
Then some handsy hockey player slithered up beside her and put his arm around her, leading her to a table in the corner. A cozy table for two.
She didn’t look back at me.
Because she didn’t care?
Or because she thought I didn’t?
Fuck. My head was spinning, and I’d only had two goddamned shots.
Let it go, Nolan.
But I couldn’t. I wondered if I’d gotten to her first, if she’d be sitting with me at that cozy table instead of him. If she’d be laughing with me rather than him. If I could coax her to eat something because all she was doing was pushing her food around on her plate. She finally took a bite and winced. That asshole was too busy trying to fucking charm her that he’d missed it.
“Why so glum, chum?” Margene asked and then saw where my focus was. “Our Gabi looks amazing tonight, doesn’t she?”
“She should be icing her mouth. She’s clearly in pain. And chucklehead there clearly hasn’t noticed.”
“Thanks for the ice earlier,” Margene said. “Gabi kept it on until she left for the first photo op and autograph signing.”
“There’s more than one?”
“Yep. The second one is the break between the second and third period. The players can leave after that.”
Which I had no doubt Gabi would, since she had the interview tomorrow morning.
So if I wanted to talk to her, I had to do it now.
Before I’d taken a single step, Dani and Tyson stopped at their table. Gabi popped up to give Dani a hug. Their conversation was a series of whispers and squeezes of their joined hands while both men looked on awkwardly.
Then Gabi set her hand on hockey douche’s shoulder and introduced him to Tyson, angling her body closer as if she and the puckhead were a couple.