“Benji, shut up and watch the game,” she demanded and he laughed, leaning back as she shook her head.
Her mother, though, was looking from her to Benji over and over again. Finally, she leaned to Lucy and whispered, “You guys would make beautiful children.”
“Mother, please, just stop,” she begged as Angie lined up for the drop of the puck. Lucy saw her look up, and she waved her hands in the air, yelling Angie’s name. When everyone joined in, Angie beamed before looking back down at the puck. Lucy prayed Angie didn’t notice Rick wasn’t there, but once the puck was dropped, Lucy was sure she didn’t care about anything else but kicking some ass.
“Why are we all the way up here?” Benji asked, but she ignored him, watching Angie.
“I don’t know. I hate sitting so far away,” Jayden complained.
“Come on, let’s go down,” Benji decided, and together they made their way down. Lucy did not watch Benji’s ass that was clad in those damn sweat pants. Nope. She watched her daughter as Benji and Jayden went to stand behind the goal. She wanted to go down there with them, well, Benji. But she knew that her mother would know right away.
If she didn’t already.
Which she probably did.
Damn it.
But soon, she wasn’t worried about that, only about Angie playing. She was one of the fastest, on the line with the Adler sisters, and Shea loved playing them together. They stayed out there a lot. And when Shelli scored, the place lost it like it had been Shea Adler himself scoring. Standing up, Lucy cheered along with everyone else as Shelli and the rest of the girls hugged tightly before heading back to the bench. Two more shifts happened before Angie was back out, skating deep like she had been told by all the NHL’ers she was surrounded by.
“Angie! Sunshine! Look, left, cut left, there you go! Shoot!” Benji yelled, and Angie did, but the goalie blocked her and he clapped loudly. “That’s all right, keep going! Attagirl! Yeah!”
Jayden was right next to him, hollering just as loud, and she thought it was really cute. That is until Jude asked from the iPad, “Who are the gorillas that are yelling for Angie?”
“Your brother and Lucy’s boyfriend,” Autumn said simply, jerking back and forth with the play.
“What? Boyfriend?” Jude asked. “Like someone she likes when she doesn’t have to?”
“Like a real boy? Man? Manboy? Wait, what happened?” Jace asked, also from the iPad, and Baylor snickered.
“Mom, Benji is not my boyfriend!” Lucy complained, but it was like no one was listening because just then, Angie scored.
“That’s my niece!”
Benji high-fived Jayden as they both hollered for Angie, who had just scored one sick-ass wrister.
“I taught her that!” Jayden yelled up at his family but they all rolled their eyes, and he was pretty sure he heard one of the Sinclairs on the iPad call him an idiot.
But in all reality, he was pretty sure he taught Angie that last week.
Not that he was going to say that.
“That’s right, babe! Good job!” he said, pumping his fist when Angie looked back at them.
“Amazing! Good work,” Benji urged as Angie grinned, skating back to the bench. As the play started back up, they stood in silence as they watched. Shea was loud, animated, and the girls loved him.
But that Elli Adler, she was the loudest one out there.
“That’s my baby! Hit ’em! Get it, girl!” she yelled in her thick, country accent that had them laughing.
“Our boss is nuts.”
“She sure is,” Benji agreed as they looked back on the ice just as Angie got on. When she went behind the goal, getting the puck to send it back out, she grinned at them before heading to where she needed to be.
“She likes you,” Jayden said, folding his arms over his chest as the whistle blew for offsides. “A lot.”
“She’s a cool kid.”
“No, I meant Lucy,” he said, chuckling. “I guess I never really paid attention but, dude, she’s smiling up there.”
He looked up to where Lucy was sitting, doing her damnedest not to look at him, and she was smiling. Did he do that? Chuckling, he shook his head at her bare lips. He hadn’t even noticed her lipstick was smeared when she was walking away. He was too busy trying to get his desire under control. That girl drove him mad, and he sure as hell didn’t feel the lipstick on himself. It was embarrassing, and he was really starting to believe Lucy when she said she had only bad luck.
It was kind of funny.
But he was pretty sure he was the only one laughing.
Bringing his gaze from hers, he looked at Jayden. “Yeah, that’s my goal, at least.”
Jayden nodded. “Good. She needs that, and so does Angie.”
Benji looked out on the ice where Angie was lined up for the puck. She was breathing hard, her eyes on the puck. She was ready to go. He felt like a proud father, but he wasn’t her father, he couldn’t forget that. No, her dad was douche dude from doucheville.