“Ugh.” Amber made a face.
“I resemble that remark,” Lovey said. “A puck bunny is a girl whose interest in hockey is motivated by desire to fuck or marry a hockey player. Oh wait—that is me!”
Amber laughed reluctantly, but this made her uncomfortable.
“I’m kidding,” Lovey said, looking at Amber. “I’m only interested in one hockey player. And I know that’s true of you too. And it’s not because they’re hockey players. It’s in spite of them being hockey players.”
Amber relaxed and smiled back at Lovey. “Yeah.” That was exactly right.
“You never texted pictures of your boobs to every player on the team,” Dior said.
Lovey collapsed into laughter. “Oh my God! Can you imagine Duncan if I’d done that?” She giggled again.
“And you never went to games and held up a sign that said, ‘Put it in my five hole, Marc!’?”
“Or ‘I want my headboard to give you a concussion, Marc!’?”
As they all laughed, Amber remembered her headboard banging against the wall.
“Um, actually,” Lovey said, “I did hold up a sign that said ‘I love you, Marc Dupuis.’?”
Amber bugged her eyes out at Duncan’s sister.
“It wasn’t skeevy, it was romantic,” Leigh defended Lovey. She looked at Amber and explained, “That’s how she told him she loved him.”
Amber shook her head, lips twitching. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” Lovey gave a toothy smile. “I wanted him to know I really meant it. And it worked.”
Amber had to admire that. Telling a guy you loved him for the first time in front of thousands of people—that took guts.
The evening ended on an upbeat thanks to the Aces pulling off a win in overtime.
“They played pretty good.” Lovey pulled on gloves as they left the bar. “I think they’ve been pulling together more since the news about Max and Ariana.”
Amber nodded. “You know her, don’t you?”
Lovey nodded, eyes clouding. “Yeah. She’s so sweet and beautiful. Like everyone else, I can’t believe it’s happening to them.”
“Duncan was afraid this was going to hurt the team even more, but maybe it will bring them together.”
The other girls all hugged her goodbye before climbing into taxis going separate directions. On her way home, Amber sat in the dark taxi listening to the driver’s radio buzzing with static chatter, watching city lights go by. She’d had fun. She liked those women. She really liked Duncan’s sister.
But this was a whole new world.
—
Duncan and Marc drove home from the airport at one-thirty in the morning. Duncan was sore and tired and wanted his bed. He just wished Amber was in it.
It would be nice to come home to her.
Christ. He still wasn’t sure she should be having anything to do with him. But he wanted her.
“So, listen, man,” Duper said from the passenger seat. “I’ve been looking at condos and I found one. I made an offer and they accepted it.”
Duncan jerked his head around to look at Duper, then focused back on the dark freeway. “No shit?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve been looking? And you didn’t even tell me?”
“Uh…”
“Why am I the last to hear this?”
“You’re not, I haven’t—”
“You’re leaving me.”
Duper snorted, then said, “Yeah. But it’s not you, it’s me.”
Duncan bit back a grin. “That’s what they all say. I know that actually means it’s me.”
“No, really. It’s me. I need time to find myself.”
Duncan started to shake with laughter. “Right.”
“For the record, this is hard for me too.”
Duncan choked on a laugh now. They were both nearly dying.
“You’ll find someone else,” Duper added, and then he lost it.
Duncan nearly had to pull off the road, he was laughing so hard. “I can’t believe this.”
“We can still be friends,” Duper said, and they both cracked up all over again.
“Oh man.” Duncan was still grinning. “I knew this was coming.”
“Lovey’s place is so fucking small I can’t turn around without knocking something over.”
“Is she moving in with you?” Duncan demanded, his smile vanishing.
“No.” Duper paused. “Not yet.”
“But you want her to.”
Duper shrugged. “Yeah.”
“Fuck. My baby sister.”
“I thought we got past the part about me fucking your baby sister.”
Duncan winced, though his lips twitched again. “Don’t ever say that again.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“No you’re not.”
Duper grinned.
Duncan sucked in a big breath and let it out. “Okay. Well, like I said, it’s no surprise. Gonna be weird living on my own again.”
“You won’t be alone. I know Amber’s been staying over a lot.”
“Yeah.” Again he sighed. He wanted to tell Duper his misgivings about what was happening with him and Amber, but that would entail telling him about Amber’s dad and that was a no go. “So where’s this new place?”
“Not far. On LaSalle.”
“Nice.”