RIGBY
I skatedonto the ice as they called my name, the crowd going wild, and I couldn’t help my grin. Out there in the sea of faces was Nova, and I was determined to find her. Devan hated the family box, so they’d be out in the crowd, but still in good seats.
I lifted my hand and waved at the crowd, until I found her. Right on the glass, dressed in my jersey. I’d gotten it for her this morning, as well as two tiny onesies that looked like little jerseys for Huey, one with my number and one with River’s. They were cute as hell. I hadn’t been clucky before, but holding those tiny little jerseys did something to me.
Beside her, Devan had one of those baby carriers strapped to his chest, which looked kind of ridiculous but judging by the eyes of all the women around him, was just one step above being naked when it came to seduction.
I skated to the space in front of them and put my gloved hand on the glass. Nova looked at me with wide eyes until she leaned forward and covered her hand with mine. I winked and skated away, leaving her staring after me. I probably shouldn’t have called attention to her like that, but I was excited she was here.
Ludo skated up to me, nudging me with his shoulder. “New girlfriend, Engman?”
I gave him an intense look, but didn’t answer as I continued warming up.
“Just saying, at least it’ll be easier for everyone else to get laid if you’re off the market. There's a lot of disappointed faces on the females out there tonight. They put you on the jumbotron.”
Ah hell, she was definitely going to kill me.
“We’re just friends,” I grunted, and he raised his eyebrows at me but didn’t say anything more.
Coach yelled across the ice at us, and we made our way back to the bench for one more spiel before showtime. I dragged my mind away from Nova, compartmentalized how she’d felt in my arms the other night, how hard it had been not to kiss her. Instead, I focused on the ugly mug of Coach Toons. I had a game to win, because there was no fucking way I was going to lose in front of Nova.
Considering we shared a state, we should’ve gotten along with Detroit. But we didn’t. We had a bitter rivalry, like if we trounced each other enough times, one of us would reign supreme in Michigan. There were always fights and blood, and the crowd went bananas for it. Maybe I should’ve gotten Nova to come to a more gentle game.
I rammed a guy into the boards as we fought for the puck, but I didn’t see his teammate until he rammed me with his shoulder, jumping into it and wiping me out. I grunted as my body hit the ice hard, and then River was there, his gloves landing near my head as he punched the guy who’d illegally hit me.
Winded, I gasped for air as the trainer came over, and I shooed him back off the ice because I just knew this shit was about to get insane. “I’m fine. Get off the ice.”
The refs blew their whistles, but they knew the score. That was dirty, and it had to be settled.
Muss skated over and pulled me to my feet. “You good? Get your head?”
“I’m good,” I yelled. My shoulder hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t have a concussion.
River was pounding into the fucker that hit me, and when one of Detroit’s guys came up behind him, I didn’t think, just launched myself into the fray, grabbing him up in my arms. If you couldn’t hear the heavy thud of fists meeting flesh, it would almost look like we were hugging.
“You dirty fuckers,” I grunted.
“Break it the fuck up!” the ref yelled, ramming his hands down between us.
I grinned down at the Detroit player I was hitting, his jersey gripped tight in my hands. Laurens. Not a bad guy, considering the whole team were fucking dickwads.
“I’m done,” Laurens huffed.
“Yeah, me too. I still have all my fucking teeth, and I’d like to keep it that way.” I looked at the ref. “We’re good.”
Bless his heart, he took my words at face value, but I didn’t get up off Laurens for a bit. “Sorry for the dirty hit,” Laurens told me, though he wasn’t the one who’d hit me. “Just how he plays.”
Yeah, Rusket was one of the best defensemen in the league, but he played fucking old school. Dirty.
“You guys should work on that.”
Laurens just grunted and threw me off, as River and Rusket got sent to the box.
The game was close, but we scraped through 3-2. After River and Rusket got into it, tensions had remained high, which was tough on the body but made the crowd go crazy with bloodlust.
Yeah, I definitely should’ve had Nova come to one of the more gentle games. But this was the first one of the season, and we’d wanted her here.
As the sports medicine team went through and iced everything that needed to be iced, I steamed my muscles in the shower, then put on my suit to go talk to the press. Everyone wanted to know how we’d fare this season, like we were ever going to say anything other than we were going to go all the way to the playoffs.