“Holy shit, nice finish!” Noah calls from somewhere behind me, and when I loop around and glance over my shoulder, I find him grinning at me like we’ve been teammates for years. Dunaway gives me a quick nod, and even Theo is giving me an impressed once-over as I bite back a beaming smile.

It feels fucking amazing to be here with the ice-chilled air whipping through my hair, my heart pumping in my chest, and these actual hockey champions seeing what I’ve got. It makes me feel alive. Like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to have been all along. Like everything I had to do to get here was worth it.

The rest of practice whips by, and while it’s obvious most of the other guys are starting to wear down, I could keep going for at least another couple hours.

“What’s the matter? Your joints hurting you?” I taunt with a challenging smirk as we start to pile off the ice.

“Oh, we’re good, we just don’t want to keep you out past your bedtime, rookie,” Theo fires back with a smirk, eliciting a laugh from the others.

Sawyer claps me on the shoulder and smiles, and maybe it’s too early since I literally just met them all today, but I feel like I’m already fitting in with everyone. If they didn’t like me, they wouldn’t be bantering around like this with me. Hockey players are a lot of things, but subtle isn’t one of them. If there’s a problem, they’ll let you know.

We hit the showers to get cleaned up, and I’m getting dressed when Dunaway files in with the assistant coaches.

“Alright, listen up!” he shouts over the commotion, and everyone snaps to attention. “I know I already gave you a little motivational speech, but I want to make sure it sinks in. So here’s the plan,” he starts, but a knock on the locker room door behind him interrupts him.

He turns as the door cracks open and a young woman with a full head of dark hair peeks inside, probably to make sure everyone’s decent first. But Dunaway’s blocking most of the view so I can’t see anything other than the top of her head. He talks to her in hushed tones for a few seconds, then turns back to the room.

“Sorry for the interruption. This is my daughter, Hannah, for anyone who doesn’t already know,” he says and ushers her into the room with a hand on her lower back. “Hannah, you know most of the team, but this is our new rookie, Declan Murray.”

Smiling, the woman steps forward and waves uncomfortably, and my heart surges into my throat as I get a good look at her.