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.