The camera shifts left and zooms in on the next seat, and my phone slips out of my hand and hits Mom’s desk with a thud.
Right next to the hockey wives sits a girl in a blue-and-silver Watonka hoodie, one hand holding a Nikon, the other tucking a fuzzy wolf-eared headband into a sleek, unmistakable fountain of corkscrew curls.
Chapter Nineteen
Desolation Angels
Chilled angel food cupcakes topped with white cream cheese icing and shaved white chocolate, dusted with silver and white granulated sugar
I smell like bacon. Again. I smell and my face is shiny and my arms feel like Trick’s spinach fettuccine when he leaves it in the water too long. I missed all but the last twenty minutes of the game, which they won, and now I’m standing on the sidelines behind all the other Wolves groupies, staring at Kara’s glittery poster board and the back of Dani’s wolf ears.
She doesn’t notice me. I take a step closer and poke her shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
She turns around, completely unruffled. “Celebrating the win. Hello.”
“You don’t even like hockey. Hello.”
“Not true.” She raises an index finger. “I don’t like getting blown off for hockey. I never said I didn’t like the sport itself.”
“So now you’re all BFF with the wives?”
Dani pulls me aside and shakes her head, but not in a no-why-would-I-be-friends-with-them way. More like an I’m-disappointed-and-saddened-by-your-very-existence-I-wish-we-never-met way. My stomach hurts. Fighting with Dani is one thing. But losing my best friend to a new clique? One that includes my ex–best friend?
This can’t be happening.
“Not that it’s any of your business,” she says, brushing a crumb of glitter from her shirt, “but they waved me over when they saw me sitting alone. And then we started talking, and they passed me some wolf ears and invited me to sit with them. Which I did. And now we’re down here, cheering for the team. Okay?”
“No! Not okay! Why didn’t you just … I don’t know. Ignore them, or something?”
Dani rolls her eyes.
“I don’t get why you’d come here alone in the first place,” I say, my voice low. “Don’t you—”
“Danielle! Pink! Hey, we tore it up out there, mamacitas!”
Dani’s entire face changes when Frankie says her name, eyes lighting up even more than they do for corned beef hash. She brushes past me, the sweet scent of her coconut lotion lingering in the air as lucky thirteen pulls her into a hug.
It’s clearly not the first time.
My best friend is hooking up with—or seriously en route to hooking up with—one of my hockey boys, and I’ve been totally blind to it.
It’s official. I live under a giant iceberg. And now, watching Dani smile and flirt, Ellie and Kara cooing behind her, all I want to do is crawl back beneath it.
“Hudson!” Josh waves from across the crowd, and my heart lifts. He climbs over the ledge that separates the ice from the stands, pushes his way through the tangle of bodies, and wraps me in a full-body hug.
“Sorry if I’m gross right now,” he says, “but Will’s in the back with Dodd and this might be my only chance to sneak in a decent celebration hug.”
A spark runs through me as Josh pulls me closer, starting in my chest and pulsing outward like a bright, warm sun.
“Three more wins,” he says, “and we’re in the semis. Believe that?”
“I’m … um … I’m really proud of you.” My voice is shaky despite the truth of the words. My knees turn wiggly and I know we should let go, untwist before any more mixed signals zap my brain. This superpublic display is so unlike him, so much more than just a hug. My heart speeds up as if it can feel that invisible line, that one we just crossed, and Josh must sense it, too, because he moans softly into my hair, almost a whisper. As the cheers of the crowd fade into an indiscernible din, I rest my head on his chest, his heart beating against the wolf on his jersey as furiously as mine, and for the briefest second, I think this might be …
“Yo!” Brad hip-checks Josh and yanks me into a side hug.
“Um … hi,” I manage. While I’ve come to appreciate inappropriate aggressiveness as one of sixty’s endearing little charms, in this particular moment, I might kinda cut him with an ice skate. “Nice game.”
He smiles, big and bright. “Nice doesn’t even come close, Pink. I think we can finally shake you.”
“I’d like to shake you.” I give him my most intimidating stare-down, but that just encourages him.
“Time and place, baby.” He turns his head, spits, and then winks at me. Sexy and classy. “You name it, I’ll be there. On the ice or off.”
“Off,” Rowan says, skating closer. “Will promised we could ax the princess as soon as we got our winning streak on.” He breaks into this spazzy little dance number, arms flailing.
“Why are you trying to get rid of me?” I ask. “You know I’m your good luck charm.”
“I can’t speak for these thugs, but I’m not letting you go.” Josh smiles, eyes fixed on mine, unblinking and intense. When he looks at me like that, the heat of his celebration hug radiates through my entire body again, every nerve reaching out for him.
I close my eyes. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Focus. Will. What’s taking him so long?
“What’s the plan?” Gettysburg asks, breaking into our circle. A few more Wolves crowd around me, some with their girlfriends, some without, everyone knocking into each other and laughing. Behind us, Amir is making out with Ellie like they’re in a competition, and from the corner of my eye, I spot Dani and Frankie, way too up close and personal for a couple whose first date was actually ladies’ night.
“Showers, then Papallo’s,” Luke says. “You coming with us, Hud?”
“To the showers?”
“Ooh, I want in on that. You can do my back, and I’ll do your front.” Brad makes a rather complicated gesture with his hands. I’m not even sure how to translate it, but apparently Josh knows what it means, because he smacks him on the back of the head.
I hold up my hands. “That’s a no on the shower invite, yes on Papallo’s.”
“Stick with me,” Josh says. “I have that mix in the car. Wait until you hear—”
“Hud’s mine tonight, boys. Sorry.” Will appears out of nowhere and puts his arm across my shoulders, settling the debate. He’s freshly showered and dressed, wet blond hair curling at his ears. I turn toward him and lean in, letting his rich, familiar scent envelop me. Slowly, the warmth of his body mixes with the feeling of Josh still lingering on my skin, still radiating from my insides.
But when Will kisses my lips, soft and quick, the radiating stops, and I relax. Maybe I just read into it, got all worked up over nothing. Josh is just a good friend, caught up in the moment. It really was just a hug. A slightly-longer-than-usual-yet-totally-platonic celebratory hug.
Will pulls away but I grab him for another kiss.
The guys whistle and laugh and Josh shakes his head and looks at the ice while Will leads us away from the group, and it’s just like that nature show again, the males of the species showing their prowess with a bunch of grunts and gestures to officially mark their territory.
Boys. At least I didn’t get peed on.
“You okay?” I ask when we get to Will’s car. “You seem a little tense.”
He tries to smile, but I see right through it, and when I open my mouth to say so, his jaw tightens. “Mind if we skip the group thing tonight? Go for a ride somewhere? I just … I need to talk to you about some stuff.”
I nod and tack on a smile, hoping it’s enough to mask my disappointment at leaving the group. “Was Dodd pissed about the news?”