is Cora standing right behind you. She’s Blaine’s girlfriend. She’s one of us.” My unlikely new friend leans over Rachel and gets right in her face. “Get out of here, you gold-digging whore. We’re sick and tired of you floozies trying to get with our men!”
For once Rachel looks like she might cry as she stands up. Her plump lower lip even trembles. I will the tears to fall in front of everyone, but she blinks them away with her false eyelashes before I get the satisfaction. But as she hurries back to whatever rock she crawled out from under, she flips Jacklyn the bird over her shoulder and yells, “You’re an ugly bitch! And your husband can’t play for shit.”
To my complete shock, Jacklyn ignores Rachel and wraps an arm around my shoulders. “Are you okay, Cora?”
I hug her back, finally feeling like I belong. Like I’ve been invited inside the circle and Blaine will no longer be flying solo when he has my back. “I’m okay now. Thanks for… that. She’s been bothering me for months.”
Jacklyn gives me a final squeeze. “She’ll never bother you again. We’ll see to it. Girls like her are a dime a dozen and they’re nothing but tramps. They’re not worth getting worked up over. We WAGs stick together.”
As my upset fades away and the dust settles, I finally slip into my seat. Laura gives me a wave and a thumbs up. As I’ve gotten to know Jason’s wife, I’ve really enjoyed our chats. She’s from a small town in Wisconsin and she’s good people. Since our men are linemates and friends, it just makes sense to develop a friendship with her as we’ll be seeing a lot of each other at games and other Caribou events.
With my new friends around me, I finally feel like I’ve come full circle. And as my man is honored for the NHL superstar he is, I can’t help but think that everything in my life is just as it should be.
*****
After a well-earned Caribou win, we’re all sitting around a table at Spud’s celebrating Max and Blaine when Dylan stands to raise a toast. I have to chuckle at the bandages on his nose. He took a stick to the face during the first period and after he passed concussion protocol, he returned to the ice and played the rest of the game with a longer face shield. His nose isn’t broken, but it looks bad right now and he’s going to have two matching shiners along with the swelling and redness unless Gwen’s some kind of miracle worker.
And according to Blaine, my Nana, and the zoning commission, she is.
Max lets loose that cheeky grin of his. “Um, D? Maybe you better sit down for the toast. I don’t think you can afford a face plant messing up your pretty mug.”
Blaine chuckles, piling on. “Yeah, I’ve never known you to be so clumsy. It was like you tripped over your own skates or something.”
Dylan rolls his eyes, but then winces. “Hardly. It was a stick to my face. And I’m just fine, you numbnuts.” He raises his beer. “When you two got drafted and Coach told me to take you both under my wing, I thought you were going to be the most talentless, densest rookies I’ve ever worked with. But now, that honor belongs to Kane.”
“Yahoo!” Kane screams, twisting in his seat and throwing his hands up in the air in a vee. “Winning!”
Dylan bops him on the head. “Pipe down in the peanut gallery. I’m toasting here.” He clears his throat. “But now that I have you trained just the right way, you’re both an asset to our team and I couldn’t even imagine playing without you. To Monroe and Rice and their three-hundred game milestone. Here’s to five hundred more! And a Stanley Cup!”
After a few more rounds of roasting and toasting, the revelry dies down a few decibels. Gwen rises from her chair to visit the restroom, and Dylan leans in toward me and Blaine.
“Do you think she likes me?” he whispers, giving Kane the side-eye to make sure that he’s not eavesdropping but the young rookie is munching on wings and talking to Jason. I get it. Kane has an uncanny ability to shove his nose where it doesn’t belong.
But I guess if it wasn’t for Kane sending the pic of Blaine’s goodies to BOB instead of Bob, we wouldn’t be here now teetering on the edge of the happily ever